Thursday, August 19, 2021

Fed Between a Rock and a Hard Place / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2021

By: Monica_Kingsley

No, it‘s not about stocks, however well they hang on to recent gains. ATHs hit again amid recovering corporate credit markets, with both tech and value contributing. Value though was looking more vulnerable going into yesterday‘s session, and just one look at financials or energy confirms that – in the world of question marks over high pace of economic growth, it‘s the Fed that‘s between a rock and hard place.

On one hand, they have stubborn and quickening inflation to deal with (or pretend to deal with through the FOMC, the federal open mouth committee) – getting ahead of the curve means serious tightening (okay, first getting less loose monetarily, which is what taper is about). Given China‘s slowdown and corresponding U.S. figures projected, it would be a tall order to turn off the spigot into a weakening (but still growing) economy – that has potential to trigger quite a correction in stocks and risk-on assets. Note copper and oil paring recent gains, and going largely sideways for weeks – not rolling over, but the light is amber, irrespective of the infrastructure bill.

On the other hand, if the central bank does nothing, inflation would grow even more entrenched, sinking the stock market and economy over time, anyway. Don‘t forget about the massive spending – the Fed turning restrictive isn‘t the math favored outcome here.

Thursday, August 19, 2021

Surprising Consumer Activity May Suggest A Deeper Shift In The Markets / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2021

By: Chris_Vermeulen

Recent economic data suggests that US consumers are starting to pull away from the types of buying/spending activities we saw after the COVID virus event that shifted the US economy away from travel/office and towards work-from-home solutions.  The deep decline in the US and global economic indicators, as a result of the COVID-19 shutdown, prompted an incredible recovery rally phase in the markets that had everyone chasing the uptrend in stocks, housing prices, and other assets.  Now that we are beyond 15+ months after the March 2020 COVID lows, a new dynamic may be setting up in the markets.

Thursday, August 19, 2021

Will the U.S. Currency Regime Fall? / Currencies / US Dollar

By: MoneyMetals

Afghanistan has fallen. The U.S. government’s nearly two-decade-long, multi-trillion-dollar “nation building” effort in the troubled, tribal country may now have nothing to show for itself.

“President Joe Biden and other top U.S. officials have been stunned by the pace of the Taliban’s nearly complete takeover of Afghanistan,” reports the Associated Press.

Unsurprisingly, they didn’t see it coming. Central planners almost never do.

They imagine their carefully constructed expert models backed by reams of data points and implemented with overwhelmingly superior resources will ensure victory. But to paraphrase the late former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, there are “unknown unknowns” that make forecasting future events impossible.

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Bitcoin (BTC) Buying Levels - My Crypto Market Investing Strategy / Currencies / Bitcoin

By: Nadeem_Walayat

1. BTC & ETH - My primary focus will be on building positions in BTC and ETH that will target approx 80% of my crypto portfolio, the balance spread between a number of Alt Coins such as Cardano and Pokadot.

2. Hold BUSD and USDC - In advance of buying crypto's I am funding my accounts (mainly Binance) with approx 50% of my target position size to as to capitalise on a high GBP exchange rate, converting into BUSD and USD whilst also correcting my initial error of holding USDT.

3. Place limit orders on approx half of the funds on account across the target crypto's in relatively nearby levels compared to the more distant levels i.e. BTC $21,500 and ETH $1400. Whilst my initial limit orders are far distant from the actual crypto prices as I am anticipating a decline in prices. However over time my orders will gravitate towards being nearer to the actual spot price i.e. over the next 6 months and where I could even be buy crypto at spot rather than with limit orders depending on what transpires over the remainder of this year due to various dynamics such as the Ravencoin halving due in Jan 2022 etc in advance of which I want to have a significant holding of raven coins.

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

The Long Shadow Over Reflation Market Trades / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2021

By: Monica_Kingsley

Consumer confidence undershoot didn‘t bring down stocks as the retreat in yields (away from the reflation trades) didn‘t spook value stocks, and only lifted tech. It‘s true that XLK isn‘t firing on all cylinders, and the semiconductors‘ lag is just as concerning as Russell 2000 underperformance – so much for explaining the risks in stocks.

But as I wrote on Friday:

(…) Inflationary pressures building up aren‘t spooking the markets, there is no forcing the Fed‘s hand through rising yields. The bond vigilantes seem a distant memory as yields are trading well below their historical band, stunningly low given the hot inflation data. I‘m not saying red hot because the monthly CPI figure came in line with expectations, providing relief to the transitory camp. But last week‘s ISM services PMI and yesterday‘s PPI paint a very different story (to come).

My call about summer lull in bonds before these slowly but surely make their way higher (the 10-year to 1.80%), is turning out just as well as the inflation expectations‘ continued rebound. The cheap magic of Fed‘s June jawboning is losing its luster. Stocks steady and making marginally higher ATHs practically daily, uneven credit markets, gold holding up well following Monday‘s hit job, oil and copper trading in narrow ranges while the crypto uptrend goes on – fresh profits harvested across the markets yesterday, and growing today.

Regarding the taper noises many Fed speakers made during the week (it isn‘t just about Dallas), some form of taper looks indeed coming, even though they would have a hard time pulling it off against decelerating economy and massive fresh spending. Mission impossible if you will. Still, they make the appearance of wanting to try – wouldn‘t tanking markets and fresh calls to do something be a perfect excuse to expanding balance sheet solidly again? But they must at least internally in the Eccles building understand that a move against inflation is long overdue, and perhaps a repetition of June FOMC wouldn‘t do the trick this time.

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Tapping Into A Massive $53 Billion Healthcare Market / Companies / Healthcare Sector

By: Submissions

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Stock Market Is About To Crash - Part XXIII (This Time We Mean It) / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2021

By: Avi_Gilburt

As the market began its historic rally off the March 2020 low, many were convinced that we had begun a bear market. In fact, I witnessed many people posting about short trades in which one cannot lose during that rally. The common perspective was that due to the highest Covid death rates being reported during the spring of 2020, economic shutdowns being seen all over the country, and record unemployment being reported, there was no way the market could continue to rally. It was simply impossible in most people’s minds.

Yet, continue to rally we did. Imagine if there was someone who warned you that we were going to 4000+ from the 2200SPX region, and who actually turned strongly bullish as we were hitting the lows. You would think that more and more people would be interested in what caused this person to maintain such a strong bullish bias in the face of utter despair.

It is uncanny. Avi and his team are working their ass off - and they make incredible calls. The constantly tell you to unlearn everything you learned before, and most people struggle with this. I still do. But the more I embrace their trading style the greener my account gets. I mean, when a guy tells you that we will see SPX 3200+ in a few weeks/months in the middle of a crisis like corona, it is very hard to let go of your shorts. I wish I did,.. Well, today, when Avi tells me what he thinks is most probably going to happen and how,... I listen. And it is a pleasure to watch my balance grow.

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Socialist Venezuela to Slash Six Zeros from Its Failed Currency / Currencies / HyperInflation

By: MoneyMetals

After getting off to a rough start to open the week, precious metals markets appear to be stabilizing.

Gold and silver prices got walloped in a futures selling raid ahead of Monday’s market open. Some leveraged speculators who faced margin calls had to sell long positions to raise cash.

This sort of forced selling is indicative of a possible washout bottom. But we will need to see a stronger snapback in the days ahead in order to confirm that.

Metals markets have responded poorly this summer to inflation data that continues to come in hot. Hard assets are taking a back seat to the stock market where rising prices have actually helped large companies post better than expected quarterly profits.

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

When Gold Price Rises, Will Bitcoin Fall? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2021

By: P_Radomski_CFA

What do the portents say? Well, we’ve been looking for connections between gold and bitcoin, and we see a chance to fatten the coffers. Read on.

But first, let’s talk about gold and the miners. Yesterday’s session provided us with a perfect confirmation of the bearish case in the precious metals sector for the short term.

The reason is that what happened was bearish in two ways:

1. Nothing happened in gold
2. Daily declines in mining stocks

Tuesday, August 17, 2021

Ethereum (ETH) Buying Levels - My Crypto Market Investing Strategy / Currencies / cryptocurrency

By: Nadeem_Walayat

1. BTC & ETH - My primary focus will be on building positions in BTC and ETH that will target approx 80% of my crypto portfolio, the balance spread between a number of Alt Coins such as Cardano and Pokadot.

2. Hold BUSD and USDC - In advance of buying crypto's I am funding my accounts (mainly Binance) with approx 50% of my target position size to as to capitalise on a high GBP exchange rate, converting into BUSD and USD whilst also correcting my initial error of holding USDT.

3. Place limit orders on approx half of the funds on account across the target crypto's in relatively nearby levels compared to the more distant levels i.e. BTC $21,500 and ETH $1400. Whilst my initial limit orders are far distant from the actual crypto prices as I am anticipating a decline in prices. However over time my orders will gravitate towards being nearer to the actual spot price i.e. over the next 6 months and where I could even be buy crypto at spot rather than with limit orders depending on what transpires over the remainder of this year due to various dynamics such as the Ravencoin halving due in Jan 2022 etc in advance of which I want to have a significant holding of raven coins.

Tuesday, August 17, 2021

August Stock Market Flash Crashes Historical Analysis / Stock-Markets / Stock Market Crash

By: Chris_Vermeulen

Weakening volume after an extended rally phase is fairly common.  It represents a complacency in the markets where traders/investors are unwilling to chase an extended rally phase at higher prices.  Often traders are waiting for some type of market correction or rotation to happen – which will allow them to deploy capital back into the markets at decreased price levels.  Sometimes, this diminishing volume presents a unique scenario where traders shift their expectations away from traditional “buy the dip” thinking and that can sometimes create what is called a Flash Crash event.

Revisiting the August 2015 Flash Crash Event

In August 2015, a unique Flash Crash took place that prompted a -12.5% collapse in the S&P 500 in just four trading days – after a bout of selling pressure on a Wednesday/Thursday/Friday.  The following Monday, the markets opened with a small lower opening gap, yet traders were unwilling to buy into the ASK and this created a very unique scenario where price exploration created a widening price void.  As algos and computers continued to try to find active buyers in the marketplace, the ASK/BID spreads continued to widen as the liquidity trap had sprung.

Tuesday, August 17, 2021

Fresh Stock Market Highs to Meet Fresh Volatility / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2021

By: Monica_Kingsley

Inflationary pressures building up aren‘t spooking the markets, there is no forcing the Fed‘s hand through rising yields. The bond vigilantes seem a distant memory as yields are trading well below their historical band, stunningly low given the hot inflation data. I‘m not saying red hot because the monthly CPI figure came in line with expectations, providing relief to the transitory camp. But last week‘s ISM services PMI and yesterday‘s PPI paint a very different story (to come).

My call about summer lull in bonds before these slowly but surely make their way higher (the 10-year to 1.80%), is turning out just as well as the inflation expectations‘ continued rebound. The cheap magic of Fed‘s June jawboning is losing its luster. Stocks steady and making marginally higher ATHs practically daily, uneven credit markets, gold holding up well following Monday‘s hit job, oil and copper trading in narrow ranges while the crypto uptrend goes on – fresh profits harvested across the markets yesterday, and new ones growing today.

The countdown to the Jackson Hole is on though, with the Fed practically having to do something – something in all likelihood face saving only as the record deficit spending gives it little to no maneuvering room.

Monday, August 16, 2021

US Bond Market Long-term Trend / Interest-Rates / US Bonds

By: Nadeem_Walayat

The screeching that one hears from the likes of Michael "Big Short" Burry is that the US Bond market is about to collapse. We'll all I can see when looking at the long-term chart is that since the pandemic panic bond market spike of March 2020, bonds have been in a correction against it's primary bull trend, and that correction appears to have ENDED.

Monday, August 16, 2021

Stock Market Strong Intermediate Reversal Warning / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2021

By: Andre_Gratian

Current Position of the Market

SPX Long-term trend:  There is some evidence that we are still in the bull market which started in 2009 and which could continue into 2021 until major cycles take over, and it ends.  A move up to ~4500 is possible before the current bull market makes a final top and SPX corrects into its next major cycle low due in 2023.

SPX Intermediate trend:  SPX should now have reached its next intermediate top.

Analysis of the short-term trend is done daily with the help of hourly charts. They are important adjuncts to the analysis of daily and weekly charts which determine longer market trends.

Monday, August 16, 2021

The Trillion Dollar Health Trend Taking Over Wall Street / Companies / Health and Fitness

By: Submissions

Monday, August 16, 2021

How Options Are Fueling The Markets / Stock-Markets / Options & Warrants

By: Chris_Vermeulen

In the past week, we have seen the Nasdaq and the S&P reach all-time highs.  Since the covid crash, we have seen some massive movement to the upside.  I believe there are several factors driving these markets up.

First, let’s look at the covid crisis and how it played a role. As a result of the shutdowns, the FED took a really aggressive stance with its quantitative easing measures.  Lots of money printing to pay for massive stimulus payouts.  The worse news we hear historically is that the markets will react sharply to the downside. 

Sunday, August 15, 2021

Stock Market Margin Debt Bubble / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2021

By: Nadeem_Walayat

A handful of stocks are driving the indices higher, Apple worth $2.3 trillion, Microsoft $2 trillion, Amazon $1.8 trillion, Google 1.8 trillion, Facebook $1 trillion even that over priced pile of poop Tesla came close to being valued at $1 trillion, we are definitely in a bubble, you only need to go onto youtube and watch the to the moon videos of Cathy Wood, literally everything's going to go to the moon because her barely out of puberty Quants decree it to be so. This is clearly a major warning sign of a unsustainable trend when indices are ruled by such a small clique of tech stocks where the greatest similarity is with the dot come bubble in terms of the valuation of stocks that actually produce revenues unlike the largely worthless dot com's of that time.

Sunday, August 15, 2021

Increasing Risks for Stock Market CRASH 2021 - AI Stocks Portfolio Buying and Selling Levels / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2021

By: Nadeem_Walayat

The US stock market has been content to rally to new highs with many stocks going to the Moon including most of our AI tech giants, a rally that I have been distributing into to the extent that I have now sold 80% of my holdings in the Top 6 AI stocks in my portfolio.

Sunday, August 15, 2021

Financial System Liquidity Alarm / Stock-Markets / Financial Crisis 2021

By: Gary_Tanashian

Market liquidity is draining from different vantage points

On Wednesday I made a post that showed the “metallic credit spread” (as coined by Bob Hoye) known as the Gold/Silver ratio (GSR) flipped on its head (to Silver/Gold) to indicate a dangerous situation for the S&P 500, if past is prologue. Here is that post and here is the Tweet that followed…

Sunday, August 15, 2021

Corsair MP600 NVME M.2 SSD Review, Crystal Disk, Atto Benchmarks, How Hot Does it Get? / Personal_Finance / Computing

By: HGR

Corsair MP600 is a PCIE4.0 SSD drive with advertised read speeds of upto 4950 mb/s and write speeds of upto 4250 mm/s and in this video we benchmark a couple of these drives to see if real world use matches the sales pitch. Furthermore given the high access speeds it's good to know how hot these SSD drives get! As usually the hotter the drive the more likely it is to fail earlier, especially when SSD temps approach and pass 60c! So find out in our latest video of what to expect with MP600 SSD's