Saturday, March 17, 2018

Forget the CPI, Inflation is Here. And the Markets Know It / Stock-Markets / Inflation

By: Graham_Summers

The attempts to mask inflation are reaching truly ludicrous proportions.

Bloomberg reports that the “guts of the US CPI show key inflation weakest in years.”

What are the “guts?”

Housing rents… which the CPI claims are falling.

Saturday, March 17, 2018

The Bank of Japan bought 75% of JGBs in FY17… and Yields Are Still Up / Interest-Rates / Japanese Interest Rates

By: Graham_Summers

The insanity of Central Bankers knows no bounds.

The latest indication of just how far “down the rabbit hole” the financial world has gone comes from Japan where it was announced that the Bank of Japan bought 75% of Japanese Government Debt issuance in FY17.

That is not a typo. Japan’s Central Bank bought $3 out of every $4 in debt Japan issued in fiscal year 2017. And it now owns 40% of Japan’s total debt outstanding.

Friday, March 16, 2018

GDX Gold Mining Stocks Fundamentals / Commodities / Gold and Silver Stocks 2018

By: Zeal_LLC

The gold miners’ stocks remain deeply out of favor, trading at prices seen when gold was half or even a quarter of current levels.  So many traders assume this small contrarian sector must be really struggling fundamentally.  But nothing could be farther from the truth!  The major gold miners’ recently-released Q4’17 results prove they are thriving.  Their languishing stock prices are the result of irrational herd sentiment.

Four times a year publicly-traded companies release treasure troves of valuable information in the form of quarterly reports.  Required by securities regulators, these quarterly results are exceedingly important for investors and speculators.  They dispel all the sentimental distortions surrounding prevailing stock-price levels, revealing the underlying hard fundamental realities.  They serve to re-anchor perceptions.

Friday, March 16, 2018

Nationalism, Not the Russians, got Trump Elected / Politics / US Politics

By: Richard_Mills

As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information
Nationalism. Populism. Nativism. All of these words have been used to describe the reason for Donald Trump's unlikely rise to power, and while each is defined a bit differently, they all share the same over-arching principle: that Trump tapped into an undercurrent of dissatisfaction with status quo politics, of excessive liberalism, of pandering to minorities, of Washington insiders doing the bidding of high-paid lobbyists, and most importantly, a sense that Americans were losing their country to elites who no longer represented the majority.

In early February, 13 Russians and three Russian companies were charged with interfering in the 2016 presidential election, adding fodder to the theory, often espoused by the left, that Russian intelligence agencies conspired to change the outcome of the election because they favored Trump over Hillary Clinton. The indictment said that Russians created bogus Internet postings, posed as American political activists, and bought advertisements, all with the intent to “sow discord in the US political system.”

Friday, March 16, 2018

Has Bitcoin Bought It? / Currencies / Bitcoin

By: Mike_McAra

Punch-drunk from a series of crunching blows, dazed and confused, staggering for the ropes. It’s hard not to get the image of Bitcoin being pummeled by the market, getting the wind knock out of it. But is this picture true? Instead of focusing on what swirls around in the media, a cautious investor would instead reach out for what might drive their profits.

Google has moved to ban Bitcoin-related adds. This shouldn’t be particularly surprising, given the fact that there’s been precedent in the form of Facebook pursuing similar actions. In an article on CNBC, we read:

Bitcoin prices briefly fell below $8,000 on Wednesday following news that Google, the world's largest online ad provider, plans to ban cryptocurrency advertising.

Facebook, the second largest online ad provider, took similar action in January.

Friday, March 16, 2018

Crude Oil Price – Who Wants the Triangle? / Commodities / Crude Oil

By: Nadia_Simmons

On Thursday crude oil wavered between small gains and losses, but finished the day only 23 cents above Wednesday closing price. Such small daily changes that we observe recently don’t look too encouraging for oil bulls or for the bears. However, to dispel boredom, we rummaged deeper in the charts and we found something that may interest both sides of the market’s battle. Curious?

Nevertheless, before we get to our little surprise, we would like to draw your attention to news from the IEA. Yesterday, the International Energy Agency said that global oil supply increased by 700,000 barrels per day from a year ago in the previous month. Additionally, we find out that supplies from producers outside of the OPEC will grow by 1.8 million bpd this year versus an increase of 760,000 bpd last year (mainly due to the rapidly growing production in the U.S.).

Friday, March 16, 2018

PayPal Cease Trading Crypto Currency Bitcoin Warning Email Sophisticated Fake Scam? / Currencies / Bitcoin

By: Nadeem_Walayat

A warning popped into my email in box from PayPal a few hours ago, warning of dire consequences if I did not " Cease any activity that results in the trading or transfer of crypto currency". the full text of which follows below:

Friday, March 16, 2018

EUR/USD – Something Old, Something New and… Something Blue / Currencies / Euro

By: Nadia_Simmons

Since the beginning of the month all battles between bulls and bears run in a fairly narrow area, which unfortunately doesn’t create good investment opportunities. In today's alert, we looked at the broader perspective of EUR/USD and the USD Index itself, and we already have our own types where we will likely open next positions. If you do not want to miss the levels that we think about, take a look at our analysis today.

Friday, March 16, 2018

South Africa To Copy Zimbabwe Model To Hyperinflation‘Prosperity’ / Economics / HyperInflation

By: Jeff_Berwick

Doesn’t South Africa have the internet yet?  Or, even books?

The new South African finance minister, Nhlanhla Nene, has just come out with an amazing plan to help the people!  He will devalue their money into worthlessness! This always works out well. 

Friday, March 16, 2018

Is Barrick Gold Bottoming? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2018

By: Avi_Gilburt

We have seen downgrade after downgrade on Barrick Gold (ABX) for years. Many keep looking lower and lower, with some even considering that this stalwart in the miners’ complex may even go out of business due to its debt load.

However, back in 2015, it was one of the first miners to bottom. In fact, when we saw the potential bottoming of ABX in 2015, we actually opened our EWT Miners Portfolio in September of 2015, and the ABX was one of our first buys.

Friday, March 16, 2018

Hunting for Packets of Doritos Crisps in Super Markets, Instant Win Promo / ConsumerWatch / Freebies and Comps

By: Anika_Walayat

Doritos latest instant win promotion currently has a 100% success rate, i.e. you have a 100% chance of WINNING a prize that ranges from free packets of crisps to £500 per day! However there appears to be a fly in the ointment, and that is when one tries to capitalise on the free pack vouchers that apparently expire in 30days! So we want hunting in Tesco, Asda and Morrisons for Doritos 55g packs with our bunch of vouchers and this is our experience.

Thursday, March 15, 2018

Are We Going to $1,120 or $1,510? No Matter What, Own Some Gold! / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2018

By: Arkadiusz_Sieron

Who will win: bulls or bears? The LBMA published its annual forecast survey for precious metals prices in 2018. Gold prices range from $1,120 to $1,510. Where is the price of the yellow metal headed?

Summary of the Survey
The views of about 30 analysts in the 2018 forecasts are strongly divergent. The average price of gold is projected to be $1,318, so it is expected to be around the current level, but almost 5 percent higher than the last year’s average of $1,257.12. However, the average gold prices range from $1,215 to $1,381, while the trading range is even broader: $1,120-$1,510.

Thursday, March 15, 2018

Gold - Keep Your Eye on the Prize / / Gold and Silver 2018

By: Michael_J_Kosares

Gold is trading lower this morning and most media reports attribute the weakness to next week’s Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting. At that meeting, as we have heard endlessly, the Fed is scheduled to raise interest rates by a quarter of a point, and rising interest rates are bad for gold.

But are they?  Paul Farrugia of First Macro Capital put together a fairly detailed analysis of the relationship between interest rates and the price of gold in an article published at ValueWalk and came to an interesting conclusion:

Thursday, March 15, 2018

DasCoin: A 5-Minute Guide to How It Works / Currencies / BlockChain

By: Anwar_Hossain

Thursday, March 15, 2018

Stock Market Downward Pressure Mounting / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018

By: Paul_Rejczak

Stocks extended their short-term losses on Wednesday, as they retraced most of last week's Friday's rally. The broad stock market failed to continue its rebound from February 9 low despite technology stocks reaching new record highs. Investors' sentiment worsened again following economic news, trade war fears. There are still two possible future scenarios. Or maybe three, but the third one is the worst.

The main U.S. stock market indexes extended their Tuesday's losses, as they closed 0.2-1.0% lower yesterday. The S&P 500 index lost 0.6% following Tuesday's bounce off resistance level at 2,800. However, it remained at the support level of last Friday's daily gap up. It currently trades 4.6% below January 26 record high of 2,872.87. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was relatively weaker than the broad stock market, as it lost 1.0% and the technology Nasdaq Composite lost just 0.2%.

Thursday, March 15, 2018

The Stock Market Trend is Your Friend ’til the Very End / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018

By: Rambus_Chartology

If you’ve been following me for any length of time you know I’ve been a major bull when it comes to the stock markets. The last two years were some of the best years to be a bull in one of the greatest bull markets of all time and I don’t say that lightly.

A little over a month ago we got our first correction of 12% in over two years on the SPX. Everyday the SPX would be up four or five points on the open, nothing major, and then move slowly higher in a non threatening way which made it fairly easy to stay on trend. Impulse moves like that are the easiest part to trade as the corrections, when they came, were very small of only 3% to 5%.

That all changed a little over a month ago when it was time for the stock markets to correct that two year impulse leg up. When it’s time to correct the markets don’t need an excuse they just do it and it usually comes out of nowhere. The initial leg down is usually the hardest followed by counter trend moves that eventually build out some type of pattern.

Thursday, March 15, 2018

6 Easy Ways to Get What Women Want, for Less! / Personal_Finance / Shopping

By: Anwar_Hossain

Making your way into the world today costs time, effort and... money. That said, with a healthy application of discounts everything will be easier and more convenient. In other words, if you want to make your budget go further, you need to take advantage of our top tips for getting price reductions and discounts on everything from airline tickets to spa treatments. So strap in and get ready to save more and spend less.

Thursday, March 15, 2018

This Isn’t Your Grandfather’s (1960s) Inflation Scare / Economics / Inflation

By: F_F_Wiley

“This reminds me of the late 1960s when we experimented with low rates and fiscal stimulus to keep the economy at full employment and fund the Vietnam War. Today we don’t have a recession, let alone a war. We are setting the stage for accelerating inflation, just as we did in the late ‘60s.”—Paul Tudor Jones

As soon as the GOP followed its long-promised tax cuts with damn-the-deficit spending increases (who cares about the kids, right?), you knew to be ready for the Lyndon B. Johnson reminders.

And it’s worth remembering that LBJ pushed federal spending higher, pushed his central bank chairman against the wall (figuratively and, by several accounts, also literally) and eventually pushed inflation to post–Korean War highs.

Thursday, March 15, 2018

Eye Opening Stock Market Index, Volatility, Charts and Predictions / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018

By: Chris_Vermeulen

Volatility setting up like 2014/2015, Get ready for some interesting range rotation and price swings.

Our recent research shows that the current US markets are setting up for what could become a very interesting price range rotation as well as increased volatility.  Our team of researchers at Technical Traders Ltd. have identified a number of key elements that appear to be in place similar to 2014/2015 where the market setup an initial deep price rotation, followed by a deeper price rotation only to end with an advanced price rally on the news that the US Fed would continue buying US debt.

Thursday, March 15, 2018

BOOM: Wyoming Ends ALL TAXATION of Gold & Silver / Commodities / Gold and Silver Stocks 2018

By: MoneyMetals

Breakthrough Sound Money Bill Becomes Law Today with Wide Support

Cheyenne, Wyoming (March 14, 2018) – Sound money activists rejoiced as the Wyoming Legal Tender Act became law today. The bill restores constitutional, sound money in Wyoming.

Backed by the Sound Money Defense League, Campaign for Liberty, Money Metals Exchange, and in-state grassroots activists, HB 103 removes all forms of state taxation on gold and silver coins and bullion and reaffirms their status as money in Wyoming, in keeping with Article 1, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution.