Wednesday, January 31, 2018
USD/CHF – C Is for Consolidation / Currencies / Forex Trading
By: Nadia_Simmons
Looking at the daily chart of USD/CHF we can summarize the recent days in one word: boredom. But behind the current consolidation there may be something more than we think at first glance. Read today's alert and you'll find out what we mean.
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Wednesday, January 31, 2018
Land Rover Discovery Sport ECO Mode Real MPG Fuel Economy Test / ConsumerWatch / Motoring
By: N_Walayat
In this video I answer the question of just how closely Land Rover Discovery Sports fuel economy compares against Land Rovers 53.3 MPG sales pitch, as knowing what a car will actually do under real driving conditions is a very important consideration when buying any new car. This test is of real world driving done wholly in ECO Mode so as to maximise fuel economy of what to expect from a 15 month old Land Rover Discovery Sport that has done about 13,000 miles from new.
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
US Treasury Bonds: Fuse to Light the Bonfire / Interest-Rates / US Bonds
By: Jim_Willie_CB
Many are the metaphors used to describe the agent that initiates a major crisis. Light the fuse, or pull the trigger, pull the rug out from under the room, or pull on the string for unraveling the sweater, these are commonly heard. What comes soon is the Bonfire of the Vanities, a term the Jackass prefers since irony is thick. Hardly the burning of objects deemed as tempting toward occasions of sin as in the 15th Century. In the present-day case, the burning would be of the massive piles of paper assets the US Federal Reserve has been illicitly supporting for the past several years. The bonfire would be of falsely valued heaps of paper. If truth be known, the Quantitative Easing was put in place in 2012 when the big US banks were all in danger of failures. They required amplified liquidity infusions in order to prevent these giant silos of insolvency from entering financial failure. Their huge bond holdings were supported. Generally, when insolvency meets illiquidity, big failures occur. The USGovt and USFed colluded to prevent the entire set of Wall Street banks from failing like Lehman Brothers did. They all had the same ugly insolvent traits. Few tell the story correctly, but Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan suffocated Lehman to death. Lehman did not fail without help. Like Chief Justice Scalia, Lehman was suffocated in a bed of unpaid bond sales. What comes next is a nasty corrosive dangerous sequence of financial market crises, where pumped paper assets suffer notable declines. It will include the stock, bond, and currency markets. The last times all three suffered simultaneous declines was 1979 and 1987. Add soon 2018.
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
Illinois’ Debt Crisis Foreshadows America’s Financial Future / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: MoneyMetals
Those wanting a glimpse into the future of our federal government’s finances should have a gander at Illinois. The state recently “resolved” a high-profile battle over its budget. Taxpayers were clubbed with a 32% hike in income taxes in an effort to shore up massive underfunding in public employee pensions, among other deficiencies.
But, predictably, it isn’t working. People are leaving the state in droves.
In fact, Illinois now leads the nation in population collapse. Statistics show people leaving the state at the rate of 1 every 4.3 minutes and the state dropped from 5th place to 6th in terms of overall population.
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Tuesday, January 30, 2018
Why Is The Shale Oil Industry Still Not Profitable? / Commodities / Crude Oil
By: OilPrice_Com
Echoing the criticism of too much hype surrounding U.S. shale from the Saudi oil minister last week, a new report finds that shale drilling is still largely not profitable. Not only that, but costs are on the rise and drillers are pursuing “irrational production.”
Riyadh-based Al Rajhi Capital dug into the financials of a long list of U.S. shale companies, and found that “despite rising prices most firms under our study are still in losses with no signs of improvement.” The average return on asset for U.S. shale companies “is still a measly 0.8 percent,” the financial services company wrote in its report.
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Tuesday, January 30, 2018
Stock Market Sell Signal Confirmed / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018
By: Anthony_Cherniawski
SPX has a substantial gap down this morning. It is likely that there will be an attempt to fill the gap. However, should this be the beginning of Super Cycle Wave (C), the gap may not be filled. Find the best level you can to place your short positions, but don’t try to outguess what happens next. You are likely to beat the crowd by being early and let the market do the rest.
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
Gold Sits in the Central Banks’ Claws / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2018
By: Arkadiusz_Sieron
Central banks remain powerful creatures. Will gold escape from their grip?
Bank of Japan
It’s a hot period in central banking. On Tuesday, the Bank of Japan kept its monetary policy on hold. Kuroda tried to convince the markets that the BoJ won’t follow the Fed towards an exit from easy monetary policy soon. “We haven’t reached the stage of thinking about how to handle an exit [from monetary easing]”, he said. The BoJ Governor also insisted that the bank is fully committed to easy monetary policy and is not about to scale back its stimulus.
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Tuesday, January 30, 2018
London Housing Market Tumbles As Glut of Luxury Apartments Grows To 3,000 / Housing-Market / UK Housing
By: GoldCore
– London property market tumbles as glut of luxury apartments grows to 3,000
– Property crisis in London as over half of 1,900 luxury apartments built 2017 fail to sell
– London’s still high priced property causes companies to locate offices elsewhere
– At current rates, glut of London properties will take three years to sell
– Leading London-based estate agents Foxtons’ sees 42% drop in earnings, yoy
– UK’s largest estate agent issues second profit warning in three months
– Number of homes sold in December fell to 99,100, lowest level since Nov 2016
– The ‘Shard disaster’ – Ten apartments at top of London’s largest skyscraper, all priced over £50m and in five years not a single one has sold
– Property gold? Diversify and own the physical property of real gold
Editor: Mark O’Byrne
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Tuesday, January 30, 2018
Stock Market Trendlines are Violated. SPX Sell is On / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018
By: Anthony_Cherniawski
Good Morning!
USD futures are sown this morning as the index probes toward a new low. Yesterday it back-tested its Cycle Bottom resistance prior to the resumption of its decline. As mentioned, USD is likely to overshoot its target before the main reversal. The Cycles Model implies that the turn may come on Monday February 5. If so, I suggest taking downside profits on Friday.
ZeroHedge reports, “The global selloff that started on Monday as traders were spooked by the double whammy of surging interest rates and fears about iPhone X demand, and resulting in the biggest drop in US stocks since September, accelerated overnight and as seen below world stocks and US equity futures are a sea of red this morning:”
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Tuesday, January 30, 2018
Savers Expected to Rejoice as Funding for Lending Scheme Finally Closes / Personal_Finance / Savings Accounts
By: MoneyFacts
Savers may be getting ready to celebrate the end of the Government’s Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) tomorrow, as its effects on the market have been felt for over five years. When it arrived, savings rates plummeted to alarming levels as many banks and building societies took advantage of the scheme, and stopped working hard to entice savers’ deposits.
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Tuesday, January 30, 2018
Has Gold Bottomed? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2018
By: The_Gold_Report
Technical analyst Jack Chan charts the latest movements in the gold and silver markets.
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Tuesday, January 30, 2018
How to Surpass the Middle-Income Trap / Politics / Social Issues
By: Dan_Steinbock
China will surpass the middle-income trap by continuing to implement structural reforms and focusing on economic development. The lesson to other emerging economies is to distinguish good growth policies from self-serving agendas in the advanced West. According to the World Bank, high-income economies ($12,236 or more) include the US, Western Europe and Japan, while upper middle-income economies ($3,956 -$12,235) feature Turkey, Russia, Brazil and China, among others.
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Tuesday, January 30, 2018
Adblue and Engine Oil Change Indicator Reliability - Land Rover Discovery Sport / ConsumerWatch / Motoring
By: N_Walayat
Every owner of newer diesel cars such as the Land Rover Discovery Sport should be aware that they have a separate Adblue tank that needs topping up every x thousand miles, and that the car needs an oil change every x thousand miles, 21,000 in the Discovery Sports case, where to aid drivers there are countdowns for both of these displayed on the dashboard. However, just how reliable are these indicators when compared against the manufactures sales pitch. For instance adblue is supposed to be consumed at the rate of 1 litre per 1000 miles driven. Whilst the oil service indicator should be counting down to 21,000 for the LR Discovery Sport.
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Monday, January 29, 2018
Are Bond Yields About to Slap Stocks Out of Their Euphoria? / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018
By: Graham_Summers
Rates continue to rise, though stocks remain oblivious.
The yield on the 10-Year US Treasury continues to soar, with a confirmed breakout from its 10-year downtrend.
Now, cynics would ask, “why does this matter? The yield is at the same level as it was in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, and 2014.”
It matters because throughout this time period, corporates and governments were adding debt.
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Monday, January 29, 2018
Gold - You Must Own a Monster Box; North Korea Close to Being Able to Destroy U.S. / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2018
By: MoneyMetals
Mike Gleason: Jim, you're a very well-traveled individual who has his finger on the pulse of what's going on, not just here in the states, but around the world. I know you were just in Europe. Is complacency an issue all over the globe or is it just a Western World thing or an American thing? What are people thinking and doing in other parts of the world? I know that's a pretty broad question, but just speak to complacency and what others are doing here to protect themselves for what may be coming.
Monday, January 29, 2018
Don’t Fight the Fed! Or the Rest of the World’s Central Banks / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2018
By: Michael_Pento
On March 9, 2009, The Wall Street Journal’s Money and Investing section posed this ominous question: "How low can stocks go?" The stench of economic malaise was suffocating as the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) rounded off its fourth straight week of losses, and the S&P 500 touched below 700 for the first time in 13 years. Goldman Sachs cautioned the S&P could fall to 400, while CNBC’s Jim Cramer was busily calculating the stock valuations of the DJIA components based on balance sheet cash levels.
Monday, January 29, 2018
Stocks are Down, VIX is Higher, But No Signal This Morning / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018
By: Anthony_Cherniawski
Good Morning!
TNX futures are higher this morning as to blows out prior resistance levels into a clear Wave (5) rally that is still in its early stages. It is approaching its Weekly Cycle Top resistance at 27.80, but is likely to blow through it. The Head I Shoulders pattern usually indicates the terminus of Wave 3. The Monthly Cycle Top is near 35.00 and may be the ultimate target of this final Primary Wave [1] off its all-time low.
ZeroHedge reports, “The recent frantic moves in Treasurys and the dollar continued on Monday as we enter what is set to be a juggernaut of a "rollercoaster week", and while the dollar collapse seems to have slowed for now, this is as a result of an acceleration in the Treasury selloff, with 10Y yields blowing out to 2.72% for the first time since early 2014, and now deep into what Jeff Gundlach called the "danger zone" for equities.”
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Monday, January 29, 2018
THE Week. THE Record. THE Extreme Sign for Gold / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2018
By: P_Radomski_CFA
To say that gold’s weekly volume was big is like to say that snails are not the fastest animal. You can't say that it’s a lie, but it doesn't really convey the entire truth, either. Gold’s weekly volume was highest EVER. Yes, ever. There was not a single week – not ever during the 2011 top or when gold declined in 2008 – when gold moved on volume that was higher than what we saw last week.
Is this significant? You bet! The chart below provides details (charts courtesy of http://stockcharts.com).
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Monday, January 29, 2018
More New Record Highs, But Stocks Bull Market May Die On That Euphoria / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018
By: Paul_Rejczak
The U.S. stock market indexes gained between 0.9% and 1.3% on Friday, extending their uptrend despite worse-than-expected advance GDP number release, as investors' sentiment remained very bullish.
The S&P 500 index has reached new record high at the level of 2,872.87. It broke above its Wednesday's high of 2,852.97. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has also reached new record high at the level of 26,616.71. It was relatively weaker than the broad stock market, as it gained 0.9%. The technology Nasdaq Composite reached new record high of 7,505.77, as it gained 1.3% on Friday.
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Monday, January 29, 2018
Analysis and Market Setups - Stocks Rising, GDP Rising but things Not Straightforward / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2018
By: Abalgorithm
US GDP rose at a 2.6% annual rate in the fourth quarter. Output grew 2.5% in 2017 as a whole, the most in three years, and the Federal Reserve predicts 2.5% growth again in 2018. Business executives have reported solid quarterly earnings in recent weeks and pointed optimistically to investment and hiring plans for 2018, supported in part by federal tax cuts. Stock prices keep churning higher. And on Friday the Commerce Department reported that U.S. economic output remained on an above-trend path in the final three months of last year.