Saturday, April 22, 2017
Gold Market Fractal Event / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
By: Michael_J_Kosares
“In the absence of a credible monetary standard, we expect no escape from the treadmill of rising debt, both US and globally, that outpaces economic growth. Income inequality, wage stagnation, overvaluation of financial assets, and speculation instead of productive investment are likely to be prolonged under the current monetary regime. Whether or not policy makers take a proactive approach to address monetary reform, the fact remains that gold is massively underpriced in all paper currencies. It would be preferable if the necessary adjustments could occur without a repeat of a 2008-like financial crisis. We give this possibility a chance, albeit slim. In any event, we expect a significant repricing of gold higher during the current administration, either by design or because of market events. Whenever a repricing happens, we expect broad grassroots support for that outcome.” – John Hathaway, Tocqueville Funds
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Saturday, April 22, 2017
Le Pen vs Melenchon Election Doomsday for France and EU - Hard Left vs Hard Right / Politics / France
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The last French poll ahead of Sunday's first round in the French presidential election is resulting in a three horse race from which the 2 front runners will go through to the second round. Centrist Macron leads far right Le Pen by 1% on 23.5% against 22.5% with far left Melenchon snapping at her heels on 21.5%, all within the margins of polling error of 3%! Which means there could easily be a doomsday scenario outcome for France and the European Union, one of the two disruptive anti-EU candidates, Hard Left vs Hard Right going into the second round. Where Le Pen would seek to immediately take France out of the Euro-zone and Anti-German pro Putin Melenchon would seek to impose a 100% tax rate on those earning above e360,000 triggering a French recession, and where his policies of stimulus through printing hundreds of billions of euro debt would also inevitably mean France leaving the Euro-zone, as the ECB controls the printing of Euro's and not the central banks of Eurozone members.
Saturday, April 22, 2017
Gold IRAs: How to Lessen or Avoid That Pesky Capital Gains Tax / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
By: HAA
Since we just finished tax season, many first-time gold investors might wonder what to do about their precious metals holdings. How are they taxed, and are there any legal ways to lessen those taxes?
Precious metals like gold, silver, and platinum are considered capital assets, so you will have to pay capital gains taxes when you sell them for a profit.
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Saturday, April 22, 2017
Gold Price Upleg Momentum Building / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
By: Zeal_LLC
Gold’s young upleg just enjoyed a major upside breakout, bolstering strong technicals and heralding a coming Golden Cross buy signal. Investors have started aggressively buying gold again after record-high stock markets distracted them. This gold upleg’s upside momentum is really building, portending accelerating gains in coming months. Yet sentiment remains poor, with traders still quite bearish on gold.
Virtually no one is excited about gold these days. Mainstream investors continue to ignore it like usual, while contrarians largely expect a lackluster sideways grind at best. This apathy is the natural result of gold’s recent consolidation between late February and mid-April. With 6+ weeks seeing no net progress, there was little to spark any enthusiasm. Thus gold gradually faded from speculators’ and investors’ radars.
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Saturday, April 22, 2017
Why Now Gold and Silver Precious Metals? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
By: Richard_Mills
John Exter was an American economist and a member of the Board of Governors of the United States Federal Reserve System.
Exter is known for creating Exter's Pyramid - useful for visualizing the organization of asset classes in terms of risk and size.
When the credit system is expanding most money flows to the top of the pyramid - the increasingly speculative and illiquid investments. When the credit system comes under pressure and debt cannot be repaid, the items at the top of the pyramid get sold and money flows towards the bottom.
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Saturday, April 22, 2017
4 Maps That Signal Central Asia Is at Risk of War / Politics / WW3
By: John_Mauldin
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN : Central Asia is crumbling. The speed and extent of this leans in part on political and economic shifts in Russia, China, Afghanistan, and more. Geography is the main reason outside forces are shaping the growth of Central Asia.
Always trapped between major powers such as Russia and China, Central Asia is at risk of war.
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Saturday, April 22, 2017
5 Key Steps For A Comfortable Retirement From Former Wall Street Trader / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_Mauldin
BY JARED DILLIAN : “Are you good with money?” You hear that question a lot. But, what does it mean?
It means:
- Paying your bills on time
- Being able to put something aside
- Maybe investing it
- Fully funding your retirement accounts
- Retiring comfortably
It doesn’t matter what you do for a living or how much you make. I know people who have never made more than a five-figure income and are millionaires (true story—more on this later).
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Friday, April 21, 2017
Can Marine Le Pen Win? French Presidential Election Forecast 2017 / Politics / France
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Britain's anti-establishment Brexit contagion could once more be on the march by spreading from its heavy influence on the US Presidential election, that allowed an alt-reality TV star to con his way into the White House, and thus could similarly allow France's far right Marine Le Pen funded by Putin's regime to squeak her way into the Elysee Palace.
Whilst it is beyond the scope of this video to consider all of the ramifications of a potential Le Pen victory for the French people, one thing is for certain that it would greatly destabilise the European Union as a Le Pen regime would be pro-Brexit and soon announce Frances own FrExit EU Referendum which would amount to the death of the European Union.
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Friday, April 21, 2017
Why Stock Market Investors May Soon Be In For A Rude Awakening / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: John_Mauldin
BY PATRICK WATSON : It seems that a lot of people have missed the distinction between wishful thinking and reality lately—and I fear it’s going to hurt them badly.
After Donald Trump won in November, some Americans didn’t just hope for the best; they thought it was here.
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Friday, April 21, 2017
Median US Household’s Wealth Has Declined by 40% Since 2007 / Economics / Demographics
By: John_Mauldin
Nominal US household wealth is at an all-time high. But my friend Marc Faber (publisher of the Gloom Boom & Doom Report) says that's mostly an illusion.
Below, Marc looks at the relationship between asset prices and US household wealth, and the effect of that relationship on the economy.
It seems the wealth of the top 0.1% has vastly improved in recent decades (and the top 10% haven’t done at all badly). But “the median household’s or asset owner’s wealth has declined by close to 40% in real terms (adjusted by the CPI) from its peak in 2007.”
Median household increases in wealth are also illusory because the main component of household wealth is pension fund assets (approximately US$22 trillion).
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Friday, April 21, 2017
US War on Whistleblowers / Politics / US Politics
By: Stephen_Lendman
Truth-telling in America is endangered. Free and open expression is our most fundamental right, all others threatened without it.
Exposing government wrongdoing is courageous and essential. Obama waged war on press freedom and whistleblowing. Trump continues his outrageous agenda.
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Friday, April 21, 2017
No Such Thing as a Stock Market Quadruple Top / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: Gary_Savage
When a resistance zone gets tested multiple times it usually breaks. It shouldn’t be long before the Nasdaq breaks through this resistance. After it does it will pull the rest of the market up with it.
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Friday, April 21, 2017
Silver, Platinum and Palladium as Investments – Research Shows Diversification Benefit / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
By: GoldCore
– Silver, platinum and palladium see increased role as investment vehicles
– Increase in academic output on the white precious metals is in line with this
– Silver and particularly gold are safe haven assets
– Silver was a safe haven at times during which gold failed to be
– Platinum and palladium less so but have diversification benefits
– Silver manipulation is possible and indications of, if not legal proof
– Benefits platinum and palladium could provide as money not been fully addressed
– Main focus in investment drivers is price – not on drivers of physical demand
– Platinum, palladium and silver have different relationships with other assets and divergent abilities in hedging risk
– White precious metal investors should employ a buy-and-hold strategy
– Silver markets have become more efficient since 1977
– White precious metals are increasing in investment importance
– Research shows hedging role and diversification benefits of precious metals
Friday, April 21, 2017
U.S. Stock Market and Gold, Post Tomahawks and MOAB / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: Gary_Tanashian
It happens when inflammatory events (usually political, terror or war related, but also including things like Ebola, Bird Flu and the like) crop up; stocks go down and hysteria starts to build. The mainstream media jump aboard and next thing you know you've got people heading for the exits… right into the next bottom. In the case of the current corrective consolidation, a disappointment in the Trump administration's Healthcare follies rolled right into the war-like events in Syria and Afghanistan. Presto! A much needed correction of the over-bullishness was on.
Friday, April 21, 2017
French Elections and Gold Price / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
By: Arkadiusz_Sieron
In the previous edition of the Market Overview, we analyzed the potential impact of the European elections on the gold market. As the Dutch elections are behind us, let's see how the Wilders' defeat affected the markets and the political outlook for France, where people will vote for the president on April 23.
Investors reacted positively to the outcome of the Dutch election, relieved that populists did not win. European stocks and the euro rose, while the France-Germany 10-year bond yield spread declined after the elections. This is because Wilders' failure is considered to indicate that “the wrong kind of populism” is losing momentum.
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Friday, April 21, 2017
Volatile Week for Financial ETFs / Stock-Markets / Exchange Traded Funds
By: Nicholas_Kitonyi
Earnings season is around, and it tends to add some volatility back into the market. Now, major banks and financial firms have already reported their earnings, most beat expectations. However, there were also mixed results with financials. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) were some notable earnings that surprised the Street. Consequently, this added some volatility to exchange-traded funds (ETFs), such as the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA: XLF) and Vanguard Financials ETF (NYSEARCA: VFH).Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, April 20, 2017
Gold Miners Intermediate Cycle Top? / Commodities / Gold & Silver Stocks 2017
By: Gary_Savage
The large volume surge in DUST a few days ago was the warning bell that the miners may have topped.
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Thursday, April 20, 2017
Stock Market More Uncertainty As Investors Await Quarterly Earnings Releases / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: Paul_Rejczak
Briefly: In our opinion, speculative short positions are favored (with stop-loss at 2,410, and profit target at 2,200, S&P 500 index).
Our intraday outlook is bearish, and our short-term outlook is bearish. Our medium-term outlook remains neutral, following S&P 500 index breakout above last year's all-time high:
Intraday outlook (next 24 hours): bearish
Short-term outlook (next 1-2 weeks): bearish
Medium-term outlook (next 1-3 months): neutral
Long-term outlook (next year): neutral
Thursday, April 20, 2017
An In Depth Look at the Precious Metals Complex / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
By: Rambus_Chartology
Before we look at todays charts I would like to thank Sir Plunger for putting on the short oil trade this week while I was recovering from surgery. You won't find a more through and in depth look at oil than what Sir Plunger offered. And wouldn't you know it his timing as usual was impeccable. Oil dropped almost 4% today.
Now lets turn our attention to the sector which many members have a love hate relationship with.
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Thursday, April 20, 2017
The Real Story of China’s Strong First-Quarter Growth / Economics / China Economy
By: Dan_Steinbock
After the solid first quarter performance, the central government may be in the unique position to achieve its growth target - even while tightening.In the first quarter, China’s economy grew 6.9 percent; slightly faster than expected and led by strong expansion at factories. What the first quarter data reflects is solid growth in several fronts.
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