Friday, January 05, 2018
Three Key Takeaways from December 2017 FOMC Minutes for Gold / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2018
By: Arkadiusz_Sieron
Yesterday, the minutes of the FOMC December meeting were released. What do they say about the Fed’s stance and what do they mean for the gold market?
The Fed Is Divided over Number of Hikes in 2018
At the December meeting, the U.S. central bank increased the federal funds rate by a quarter percentage point to a range 1.25-1.50 percent. The move was widely expected by investors, but there was no unanimity at the meeting as two FOMC members dissented. The Fed officials were also divided over the forecast of three rate hikes in 2018. The hawks noted that more hikes would be appropriate as financial conditions had not tightened since the Fed started raising rates at the end of 2015. On the other hand, the doves pointed out that too aggressive hiking might prevent a sustained return of inflation:
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Friday, January 05, 2018
Don’t Look Now, but Gold Just Finished Its Best Year Since 2011 / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2018
By: MoneyMetals
Metals investors may have missed it given the gloomy sentiment that plagued markets for much of 2017, but gold just finished its best year since 2011.
Perhaps in a year like the one just passed, 13% gains are simply not inspiring. U.S. stocks finished about 25% higher for the year, and crypto-currencies including Bitcoin left all other asset classes in the dust. Bitcoin gained roughly 1,400%.
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Friday, January 05, 2018
How Arboriculturalists Shredded Their Reputation at Sheffield Tree Felling's 2017 / Local / Environmental Issues
By: N_Walayat
Many Arboriculturalists' fantasise that their 'profession' is all about looking after the well being of Trees, perhaps even dreaming of themselves as being real life LORAX's. However, the Arb rampage across the city of Sheffield during 2017 revealed the reality that Arboriculturalists are Once-ler's NOT LORAX. For 2017 clearly illustrated that it the ordinary people of Sheffield ARE the REAL LORAX, who with everything stacked against them from Judges in their robes, council evidence gatherers, to recruiting bouncer platoons from the north, had ordinary people in vane try to protect Sheffield's remaining street trees from the Arb Army Once-ler onslaught, that likely claimed near 1000 more big tree's bringing the total felled to date to approx 6,000, MOST of which were HEALTHY TREES!
Friday, January 05, 2018
European Bonds Are 2018’s Number One Risk / Interest-Rates / International Bond Market
By: John_Mauldin
BY JARED DILLIAN : No shortage of stupid things these days:
- Bitcoin
- Litecoin
- Pizzacoin
- Canadian real estate
- Swedish real estate
- Australian real estate
- FANG
- Venture capital
Friday, January 05, 2018
Financial Markets Outlook 2018 / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2018
By: WMA
Williams Market Analytics write:
Contents
I. Review 2017
II. Macroeconomic Outlook
III. Bonds & Yield
IV. Currency Markets
V. Commodities
VI. Equity Markets
VII. Final Thoughts for 2018
Thursday, January 04, 2018
The GOLD OIL Ratio / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2018
By: Gary_Savage
The gold:oil ratio has been trending in favor of oil for a number of months. I look for this trend to reverse soon in favor of gold.
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Thursday, January 04, 2018
Palladium Price Surge To New All Time High Over $1,100/oz On Supply Crunch Concerns / Commodities / Palladium
By: GoldCore
– Palladium prices surge to new record high over $1,100/oz today
– Palladium surges past record nominal price seen in 2001 after 55% surge in 2017
– Best-performing precious metal and commodity of 2017 is palladium
– Palladium prices top platinum prices for first time in 16 years
– Strong Chinese car demand and switch from diesel to petrol cars sees demand surge
– Supply crunch as six year supply deficit & 2017 deficit expected to hit 83,000 ounces
– Palladium supply crunch to intensify if world’s leading producer Russia restricts supply and investors diversify into tiny palladium bullion market
Thursday, January 04, 2018
Chartology of the Canadian Venture Composite Index $CDNX / Commodities / Metals & Mining
By: Rambus_Chartology
Tonight I would like to start out by looking at the $CDNX, Canadian Venture Composite Index, which blasted higher last week and is following through this week. The reason this index is so important is because it not only has many junior precious metals stocks, but also many small cap energy related stocks as well as other speculative venture capital stocks from other sectors. This is a very good sign for the overall stock markets and commodities in general, as it shows risk capital is finding a home in which to park. This is another important clue that there is no top in the stock markets yet, because the risk on trade is still healthy.
Thursday, January 04, 2018
2018 US Stock Market Rally Is Just Starting / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018
By: Chris_Vermeulen
Last week, we posted our research showing that the US markets were setting up for a 2018 Q1 rally based on our research using our advanced predictive analysis modeling tools – the Adaptive Dynamic Learning model. This model attempts to find unique price, technical and indicator patterns in past price bars and then attempts to find similar patterns in newer price bars. When multiple price bars with similar pattern structures are found, it maps these as “unique genomic structures” and attempt to learn from the future price activities. This unique modeling system was created by our team of skilled market researchers in an attempt to provide accurate insight into the markets future price swings.
Thursday, January 04, 2018
Cryptocurrencies Hit New All-Time High To Ring In 2018! / Currencies / BlockChain
By: Jeff_Berwick
Cryptocurrencies have blasted off to new all-time highs at the start of 2018.
Cryptocurrencies have just rocketed through $700 billion easily surpassing the last all-time high near $640 billion in mid-December before the last “crash”.
Most cryptocurrencies have been soaring with the exception of bitcoin which continues to wallow near $15,000 as its transaction speeds and fees render it nearly unusable.
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Thursday, January 04, 2018
Stock Market Insanity and Narcissus / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018
By: Enda_Glynn
Hello everyone,
I do hope you had a great day.
I have been on the road all day,
so I will endeavor to keep tonight's post concise and to the point,
before my eyes drop and I fall out of my chair!
Thursday, January 04, 2018
Bitcoin Price Forecast 2018 - Will 2017 Crypto Bubble Mania Repeat? / Currencies / Bitcoin
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The crypto coin gamblers had a wild ride during during 2017 which saw early year bets on Bitcoin at sub $2000 for the first 4 months of the year converted into a $20k Mid December bubble peak! Buying interest increased all year, with many asking me how to buy, hold and trade bitcoins, and then came the mania phase as bitcoin lifted off beyond $5k, where with each $1k rise I would be repeatedly asked when bit coin would peak.
Thursday, January 04, 2018
“Strength” in the Gold Miners? / Commodities / Gold and Silver Stocks 2018
By: P_Radomski_CFA
Gold moved visibly higher during the first session of the year and this time mining stocks accompanied it. In fact, it seems that they are back on the track after a short pause. What’s the likely reason behind this year’s rally and what does it imply going forward?
Let’s jump right into the mining stock charts (chart courtesy of http://stockcharts.com).
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Thursday, January 04, 2018
Sheffield Street Trees 2018, Lorax Prepare for Once-ler Arb Army's Imminent Return / Local / Sheffield
By: N_Walayat
2017 witnessed the continuation of the felling of thousands of Sheffield's biggest and best street trees, an estimated 6,000 were felled by the time the arb army's chainsaws fell silent just prior to Christmas day as the Once-ler Arb and their supporting Bouncers retreated Southwards and Northwards, giving the people of Sheffield peace for at least a couple of weeks, but not before butchering several of Abbeydale Park Rise's Christmas light Cherry tree's, leaving behind a bitter Christmas present for the little children to cry over.
Thursday, January 04, 2018
War, Peace and Recession 2018 / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: EconMatters
December and January are usually two busy months for researchers as they release prediction/forecast of the New Year. We are going to briefly discuss two such forecasts here.
Top 5 World War III Crises
The first one is a geopolitical forecast, 5 Places World War III Could Start in 2018, published last month. Now let’s take a quick look at the top five crises that could lead to the greatest conflict in 2018:
Thursday, January 04, 2018
Stock Market 2018 If You Don’t Cash In, You’ll Lose Lots of High-Yield Opportunities / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018
By: John_Mauldin
My long-time Thoughts from the Frontline readers know that I’ve long criticized economists for treating their profession as a “hard science” like physics or chemistry.
The global economy is far too complex and far too dependent on irrational human behavior for that ambition to be realized. However, there are some occasional similarities.
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Wednesday, January 03, 2018
Gold Price Best Year Since 2010, Up 14%, 2018: Year of the Phoenix? / Commodities / Gold and Silver Stocks 2018
By: GoldCore
Gold Bullion Prices Have Best Year Since 2010 With Near 14% Gain In 2017
– Gold posted second straight annual gain in USD in 2017
– Gold in 2017: up 13.6% USD, up 2.7% GBP, down 1.4% EUR
– 2017 is gold’s best year since 29.5% gain in 2010
– Strong performance despite rate hikes and stock bubble
– India’s gold imports surged 67% in 2017, Turkish, Chinese demand strong
– Gold finished 2017 with longest rally since June 2016
– 2018: Currency War and The Year of the Phoenix?
Wednesday, January 03, 2018
Stock Market S&P 500, IWM and XLF 2018 / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018
By: Avi_Gilburt
As Ecclesiastes notes, “There is nothing new under the sun.” This, too, applies to the stock market.
The average investor trap is the same throughout whatever period you wish to review. Markets become overexuberant, see a correction, sentiment resets, and markets rally on to their next phase of overexuberance. It is really that simple. Yet, we overcomplicate matters by relying on economics and fundamentals, which have proven to be relatively useless at major market turning points.
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Wednesday, January 03, 2018
There is a Tyranny in the Womb of Every Utopia / Politics / Social Issues
By: BATR
The Millennial Utopian Society - In order to understand the millennial phenomena that has influenced the beginning years of the 21st century, acknowledgement that the under thirty sect is quite different from their parents generation is crucial. Back some fifty plus years the popular saying coined by Jack Weinberg was "Don't trust anyone over 30". The crowning irony is that this mindset was expressed during the "Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley which was a struggle by students over the right to engage in political speech on campus, which helped to catalyze broader political activism on campuses around the country over student rights, civil rights and the Vietnam War".
Wednesday, January 03, 2018
Changes Coming to the Financial Markets in 2018 / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2018
By: Rodney_Johnson
It’s the first week of January, which makes it time for football playoffs and New Year predictions.Since I’m not likely to grace the gridiron anytime soon, I land in the forecast camp. But playing Nostradamus is fraught with its own danger, and reminds me of an old quote by Darrell Royal, the longtime University of Texas football coach, that explained why he favored running the ball. He believed that when you threw the football, three things could happen, and two of them were bad.
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