Wednesday, December 09, 2015
Bank of Canada Announces Negative Interest Rates; Loonie Sinks to 2004 Low / Interest-Rates / Canadian $
By: Mike_Shedlock
The Canadian dollar, affectionately known as the loonie because of a loon on the one dollar coin, has crashed vs. the US dollar.
Wednesday, December 09, 2015
Plunging Commodities Interfere With The New World Order / Commodities / Commodities Trading
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Anglo American, a British company, and one of the world’s biggest miners, and a ‘producer’ (actually just a miner, how did those two terms ever get mixed up?!) of platinum (world no. 1), diamonds, copper, nickel, iron ore and coal, said today it would scrap dividends AND fire 85,000 of it 135,000 global workforce (that’s 63%!).
Anglo is just the first in a long litany line we’ll see going forward. Commodities ‘producers’ are being completely wiped out, hammered, killed, murdered. They’ve been able to hedge their downside risks so far, but now find they can’t even afford the price of the hedges (insurance) anymore. And then there’s all the banks and funds that financed them.
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Tuesday, December 08, 2015
UK Climate Change Floods House Prices Crash Could Hit 20% of Properties / Housing-Market / UK Housing
By: Nadeem_Walayat
What were supposed to be once in century floods are now occurring every 5 years or so as the North of England has been witnessing this past week, as the consequences of climate change is starting to make it's real extreme weather effects become manifest with costly consequences for home owners and not just in terms of costly repairs and replacements but the negative hit on house prices right across the UK as the escalating future consequences of climate change will increasingly be factored into home buying decisions.
Tuesday, December 08, 2015
How Much Longer Will Rising US Dollar Crush Commodities and Mining Stocks? / Commodities / Gold and Silver Stocks 2015
By: Jeb_Handwerger
-For over four years, capital has been flowing from Europe into the US Currency and Economy to get better returns.
-The rising dollar and S&P 500 crushed commodities and emerging economies over the past several years.
-Geopolitical uncertainty throughout the world is rising especially in the Middle East where now Russia and the West are taking on ISIS.
-Rapidly rising US dollar caused horrible bear market in mining equities.
-High US dollar is slowing down economic growth domestically which could be exacerbated by higher rates. Meanwhile, Europe and emerging economies may be bottoming and improving with the negative rates.
Tuesday, December 08, 2015
Misleading The American Public: Social Security & The National Debt / Politics / US Debt
By: Dan_Amerman
We are told that many economics experts don't worry about the total national debt because $5 trillion of that debt doesn't really exist; it is rather just a theoretical bookkeeping transaction for money that the federal government owes to itself. Netting out this bookkeeping entry then allows some authorities assert that while the debt is a bit on the high side relative to the size of the economy, it is far from historically unprecedented, and certainly no cause for despair or rash talk about insolvency.
Tuesday, December 08, 2015
Fed's Rocket Ship Turns Hoverboard / Interest-Rates / US Interest Rates
By: Peter_Schiff
Over the past year, while the U.S. economy has continually missed expectations, Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen has assured all who could stay awake during her press conferences that it was strong enough to withstand tighter monetary policy. In delivering months of mildly tough talk (with nothing in the way of action), Yellen began stressing that WHEN the Fed would finally raise rates (for the first time in almost a decade) was not nearly as important as how fast and how high the increases would be once they started. Not only did this blunt the criticism of those who felt that the delays were unnecessary, and in fact dangerous, but it also began laying the groundwork for the Fed to do nothing over a much longer time period. To the delight of investors, the Fed has telegraphed that it will adopt a "low and slow" trajectory for the foreseeable future and move, in the words of Larry Kudlow, like "an injured snail."
Tuesday, December 08, 2015
Downsizing the News Staff; Downsizing Quality and Credibility - Part 2 / Politics / Mainstream Media
By: Walter_Brasch
For more than a decade, advertising, circulation, and news quality in both print and electronic media have been in a downward spiral. That spiral has twin intertwining roots.
The first root is the rise of social media. The complacent and stodgy print media were slow to catch onto the concept and rise of social media and its influence upon a generation that conducts its life by a fusion of smart phones to ears. When owners figured out they needed to have a digital presence, they first gave away content in a desperate bid to keep readers, and then began to charge for it to those who didn’t have subscriptions.
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Tuesday, December 08, 2015
Sitting Uncomfortably on Your SVR Mortgate Interest Rate? / Housing-Market / Mortgages
By: MoneyFacts
Back in 2013 the Funding for Lending Scheme had a major impact on the mortgage market, leading to the introduction of what were at the time the lowest rates we had ever seen, particularly for two-year fixed deals. However, consumers who snapped up these deals are now coming to the end of their fixed terms, which means that many will soon start paying their providers’ revert rate. But data from Moneyfacts.co.uk shows that by sitting on the revert rate, borrowers could potentially see their repayment costs shoot up by almost £3,500 a year.
Tuesday, December 08, 2015
Unwinding Carry Trades and Unintended Consequences / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2015
By: Michael_Pento
The European Central Bank under the auspices of Mario Draghi has created a market destabilizing condition known as the euro carry trade. Mr. Draghi recently telegraphed to the markets a more aggressive attack on the value of the currency heading into the ECB meeting held on December 3rd. In fact, he went on record saying the ECB’s imperative is to, “Do what we must to create inflation as quickly as possible.” Because Draghi promised to destroy the euro at an even quicker pace than it was already falling, financial institutions front ran the ECB’s increased bid for bonds and equities, sending these prices soaring in the weeks prior to the meeting.
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Tuesday, December 08, 2015
Stock Market Investor Sentiment / Stock-Markets / Stock Market Sentiment
By: Ed_Carlson
Technicians typically look for signs of excess bullishness or bearishness in sentiment polls to conclude markets have swung too far in one direction or the other. An extreme in bullishness is often followed by a decline in equities and an extreme in bearishness is often followed by a rally.
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Tuesday, December 08, 2015
The U.S. Housing Market Needs to Watch Out For China! / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Harry_Dent
The New York Times ran an article on Sunday talking about how the Chinese invasion of U.S. real estate is only expanding.They aren’t just buying condos in Manhattan or McMansions in Silicon Valley – they’re buying properties in new developments in places like Plano, TX, just north of Dallas.
In the market for homes over $1 million, the Chinese make up one out of every 14 buyers – which is huge. In the top tier markets in San Francisco, Orange County or Manhattan, they can be 50% or more!
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Tuesday, December 08, 2015
Do You Follow The Hype Surrounding Economic Reporting? / Economics / Economic Statistics
By: Rodney_Johnson
When my children were young, one of the books we read to them was: “When You Give a Mouse a Cookie.” The point of the book is to follow a chain reaction stemming from providing a treat to a rodent. He will want a glass of milk, a napkin, have to sweep up crumbs, etc. It was odd, but entertaining.I’m often reminded of this book when I see economic reports. It’s not that the numbers are frivolous, but taken as individual data points they can’t mean very much.
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Tuesday, December 08, 2015
SPX challenging the 200-day Moving Average / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2015
By: Anthony_Cherniawski
The SPX Premarket is down approximately 1% and appears to be resting just above the 200-day Moving Average at 2064.60.
The catalyst may be China. ZeroHedge reports, “Over the weekend, in its latest quarterly presentation, the Bank of International Settlements made what may have been a very premature assessment that China is now contained. To wit:
In October, equity markets staged a remarkable recovery, recording their strongest one-month gain in recent years. Market nerves were partly calmed by receding fears over tail risk in China. The improvement was broad-based. European and American stocks recouped nearly all losses experienced in the third quarter, while China’s stocks also made up some lost ground
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Tuesday, December 08, 2015
Gold Buying Surges At U.S. Mint In November – China Buys 21 Tonnes In November Alone / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015
By: GoldCore
Despite gold at near 6 year lows, global demand for physical bullion remains very high. This is clearly seen in the recent demand data from the U.S. Mint and other mints. It is also seen in demand data from GFMS and the World Gold Council which shows very robust demand from Germany, India and of course, China.
Tuesday, December 08, 2015
A Peek Behind the Fed Policy Curtain / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Gary_Tanashian
This article was originally and simply titled ‘Market Management’ as the opening segment from this week’s NFTRH 372. We then covered US and global stock markets and precious metals in detail, along with brief but ongoing negativity about commodities (but also what to look for regarding signs of change), a currency update and extensive market sentiment and indicator updates.
Tuesday, December 08, 2015
Draghi Leaves Financial Markets Hungry For More QE / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2015
By: Sam_Kirtley
The most significant event for the markets last week was Draghi disappointing markets that were eager for an increase in ECB QE. Instead, the ECB President cut the deposit rate by 10 basis points to -0.30% and extended the current easing measures to March 2017, and beyond if necessary. Markets saw this action as insufficient with expectations across the board being that the ECB would sizeably increase their current easing measures, rather than just extend them. This was shown be clear declines in both stocks and bond prices, as well as a significant rally in the Euro.
Tuesday, December 08, 2015
Stock Market Reversing Lower....Range Bound....2020 and 2116 Is The Game / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2015
By: Jack_Steiman
Just when it felt as if all was good with Friday's big upside stick things turned right around today and headed lower with force. Not as bad as Friday was good, but a nasty reversal. More importantly, it stopped the big move up dead in its tracks. No follow-through, which is what you get in an ending bull market. But again, that still doesn't mean we won't try higher again and again for weeks or months to come. It's just that this is the type of action you see near long-term tops. Lots of head fakes both ways. No one thought we wouldn't follow through today, or at worst, pull back gently to work off some overbought, sixty-minute, index-stochastic readings. The mood wasn't one that was about getting smoked after such perfect candle sticks on Friday, but the bulls were dealt a technical blow today with the gap down and run.
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Tuesday, December 08, 2015
Extreme Leverage in a Gold Futures Market Nearing the Breaking Point / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015
By: MoneyMetals
The metals markets rallied strongly on Friday – action which came as a surprise to many. The gains snapped a 6-week losing streak for gold, silver, and platinum. Prices rose despite a stronger-than-expected November jobs report raising the odds the Fed will hike interest rates later this month.
Perhaps silver and gold futures finally caught a safe-haven bid on news of the terrorism-linked shooting in Southern California.
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Tuesday, December 08, 2015
Crude Oil Price Under $40! / Commodities / Crude Oil
By: Nadia_Simmons
Trading position (short-term; our opinion): Short positions with a stop-loss order at $54.12 and initial (!) target price at $35.72 are justified from the risk/reward perspective.
On Friday, crude oil reversed and declined sharply after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' decision to keep production high weighed on investors' sentiment. Thanks to these circumstances, light crude lost 2.74% and slipped under the barrier of $40 once again. What's next?
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Tuesday, December 08, 2015
Keynes on the Menace of Printing Money / Currencies / Fiat Currency
By: Michael_J_Kosares
How the celebrated economist might have structured his investment portfolio today
Read full article... Read full article...“I find myself more and more relying for a solution of our problems on the invisible hand which I tried to eject from economic thinking twenty years ago.” – John Maynard Keynes, 1946
John Maynard Keynes made that admission to Henry Clay, a member of the Bank of England's Advisory Committee, in 1946. Ten days later he passed away. Keynes had come full circle – from economic interventionist extraordinaire to proponent of Adam Smith's laissez faire. Twenty-five years after that, Richard Nixon would suspend dollar convertibility, scrap the Bretton Woods fixed exchange rate regime system of which Keynes was the principal architect and allow currencies and gold to float freely in international markets. The fiat money system of the late 20th and early 21st centuries was born. Though a radically different system from the one Keynes created in the aftermath of World War II, Richard Nixon declared upon its launch that "we are all Keynsians now."