Monday, December 18, 2017
Gold and CPI and Retail Sales in November 2017 / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
By: Arkadiusz_Sieron
Last week, the reports on U.S. consumer inflation and retail sales were released. What do they imply for the gold market?
Consumer prices jumped 0.4 percent in November, following a 0.1 percent rise in October. However, the move was driven mainly by higher costs of gasoline and fuel oil. The energy index increased 3.9 percent last month. Hence, the core CPI, which excludes food and energy, increased merely 0.1 percent. On an annual basis, the core CPI was 1.7 percent, which means a drop from 1.8 percent in October. The overall index soared 2.2 percent, rising from 2.0 percent in October and exceeding the Fed’s target again. Therefore, there was a slight shift up in the overall index, but a minimal slowdown in core inflation, as one can see in the chart below.
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Monday, December 18, 2017
Bitcoin to Hashgraph: The Crypto Revolution (Hidden Secrets of Money) - Video / Currencies / Bitcoin
By: Submissions
Today, mankind stands at a crossroads, and the path that humanity chooses may have a greater impact on our freedom and prosperity than any event in history. In 2008 a new technology was introduced that is so important that its destiny and the destiny of mankind are inextricably linked. It is so powerful that if captured and controlled, it could enslave all of humanity.
But if allowed to remain free and flourish - it could foster unimaginable levels of peace and prosperity. It has the potential to replace many functions of Wall Street and even of government, as a tool to empower individuals. In the latest episode In the latest episode of Hidden Secrets of Money, Mike Maloney examines this technology and its incredible potential.
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Monday, December 18, 2017
Bitcoin Conspiracy Theory / Currencies / Bitcoin
By: Michael_Pento
If you’re like me you must be wondering why there is so much media obsession around Bitcoin even though its market cap is just $300 billion, which amounts to only about 1/3 the size of Apple Inc.? And, more importantly, why the U.S. Government and Federal Reserve have become so enamored with cryptocurrencies.
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Monday, December 18, 2017
Who Knows What Will Black Gold Do in Coming Week? / Commodities / Crude Oil
By: Nadia_Simmons
On Thursday, crude oil moved a bit higher as oil investors turned their attention to the North Sea supply disruption. Although the price of black gold increased, the technical picture of the commodity doesn’t bode well for oil bulls. Why? We invite you to check our Oil Trading Alert. Have a nice read.
Yesterday, crude oil came back above $57 as oil investors focused on the Forties pipeline, which carries North Sea oil to Britain. Nevertheless, we should keep in mind that the above-mentioned disruptions will physically mostly affect the North Sea region. In other words, we think that the shale drilling and the last week increase in the U.S. production (which approached the output levels of top producers - Russia and Saudi Arabia) are more important for the price of light crude. Therefore, in our opinion, it is worth waiting for today's Baker Hughes report before we get excited about yesterday's increase and its “bullish” implications. Having said that, let’s examine the technical picture of crude oil (charts courtesy of http://stockcharts.com).
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Monday, December 18, 2017
Gold’s Shooting Star and Its Implications / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
By: P_Radomski_CFA
After three weeks of declines, gold finally moved higher last week. Was this move surprising? Not at all, if you read our analysis of the previous week’s huge decline in platinum. The sizable slide in the latter was likely to trigger at least a small rally and that’s what we saw last week. However, gold reversed quite clearly on Friday and shooting star candlesticks, as these sessions are called, are signs of a reversal. Did we see one?
That’s not likely. There are several reasons not to believe the shooting start in gold. Let’s take a look at yellow metal’s chart for details (charts courtesy of http://stockcharts.com).
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Monday, December 18, 2017
Balance Transfer Fees Fall to Lowest Level in Over a Decade / Personal_Finance / Credit Cards & Scoring
By: MoneyFacts
The quarterly Moneyfacts UK Credit Card Trends Treasury Report (recently published), which studies the UK personal finance market, highlights that the average balance transfer fee has fallen to reach the lowest level seen in over a decade.
At a time when the length of interest-free balance transfers faces scrutiny, it appears that providers are finding alternative ways to entice borrowers. As a result, the average balance transfer fee has hit 2.03%, down from 2.11% in September and 2.29% a year ago. The current average is the lowest seen since it hit 1.82% in October 2006.
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Monday, December 18, 2017
UK Used Car Christmas From Dealers Buying Discount Sales Bargains / Personal_Finance / Money Saving
By: Nadeem_Walayat
A google search soon reveals that the consensus view of the best times of year to buy a used car in the UK tend to coalesce around the two plate changes of the year, i.e. 1st of March and 1st September as being the most commonly propagated online advice to buy just before and after the plate changes. Next often repeated are the dealers end of quarter sales targets for bonuses and other perks, namely by the end of March, June, Sept and December. And also often mentioned are expectations that the best used car deals tend to be in the winter months due to less consumer demand.
Monday, December 18, 2017
How To Play The 2018 Cannabis Boom / Companies / Cannabis
By: OilPrice_Com
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Monday, December 18, 2017
Should You Consider Investing/ Buying Gold or Bitcoin? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2018
By: Chris_Vermeulen
Recently, we have been asked by a number of clients about the precious metals and what our advice would be with regards to buying, selling or holding physical or trading positions in the metals. There are really only a few short and simple answers to this question and they are revolve around the concept of providing a hedge against risk, capital preservation and opportunity for returns. Let's explore the details a bit further.
Monday, December 18, 2017
Gold EFPs: Absolute Proof that the Paper Gold Price is a Fraud / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
By: Stewart_Dougherty
In recent months, the issuance of gold Exchange for Physical (EFP) contracts has surged. EFPs convert a physically deliverable Comex gold contract into an LBMA or LME contract supposedly deliverable at a later date ex London and/or Hong Kong. As an incentive for Comex contract holders to accept EFPs, a cash bonus reportedly is paid. EFPs in silver are also being issued in vast quantities, but we will focus on gold for brevity.
Most gold market observers believe that EFPs are a Comex gimmick designed to prevent, or at least forestall a formal Comex delivery failure. We believe the full story behind the EFPs is more complicated and disturbing, and that it involves collusion, conspiracy, and fraud.
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Monday, December 18, 2017
Explaining My Amazement About Those Turning Bullish On The Banking Sector Now / Companies / Banking Stocks
By: Avi_Gilburt
Recent price action
With the Nasdaq continuing higher this past week, it has now reached our minimum target we were looking for before a pullback may be seen. But, I think the XLF may be providing us with certain clues about how 2018 may turn out. And, it may not be as rosy as many believe. Well, at least the first half of the year.
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Monday, December 18, 2017
Gold – Technical Obfuscation, Fundamentals, Predictions / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2018
By: Kelsey_Williams
It is pretty much expected today that any investment analysis with justifiable conclusions will be steeped in technical study that includes lots of charts.
This seems especially true of gold.
Which is all well and good, I suppose; except for the obfuscation:
Obfuscation is the obscuring of the intended meaning of communication by making the message difficult to understand, usually with confusing and ambiguous language. The obfuscation might be either unintentional or intentional (although intent usually is connoted), and is accomplished with circumlocution (talking around the subject), the use of jargon (technical language of a profession), and the use of an argot (ingroup language) of limited communicative value to outsiders.[1]
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Sunday, December 17, 2017
Gold And Silver Futures Swing From Bearish To Bullish In Just Two Weeks / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
By: John_Rubino
After holding onto huge, unprofitable long positions for months, gold and silver futures speculators are finally giving up and bailing out, while commercial traders (who take the opposite side of these trades, since every long requires an offsetting short) are closing out their shorts at a near-record pace.
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Sunday, December 17, 2017
Stock Market Final Thrust is Likely / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: Andre_Gratian
Current Position of the Market
SPX: Long-term trend – The bull market is continuing with no sign of a major top in sight.
Intermediate trend –Final top next week?
Analysis of the short-term trend is done on a daily basis with the help of hourly charts. It is an important adjunct to the analysis of daily and weekly charts which discusses the course of longer market trends.
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Sunday, December 17, 2017
Nader Explains the Ongoing Collapse of the Democratic Party / Politics / US Politics
By: Jesse
"People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage. Intellectual myopia, often called stupidity, is no doubt a reason. But the privileged also feel that their privileges, however egregious they may seem to others, are a solemn, basic, God-given right." John Kenneth Galbraith
The last presidential election was obviously, and by choice of the parties, a contest between the lesser of two evils. The Democratic candidate was the choice of the party insiders, and the Republican of people who had just had enough, and were willing to believe the unabashed nonsense of a conman in their desperation.
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Sunday, December 17, 2017
Bitcoin Smashes Through $18k… and Now $19k As Insane Jim Cramer’s “Kibosh” Threat All Hot Air / Currencies / Bitcoin
By: Jeff_Berwick
Many people thought that once bitcoin futures began trading on the CBOE that it would allow Wall Street to smash the price of bitcoin lower.
Or, as Jim Cramer said, “kibosh” bitcoin.
Of course, if you listen to anything Jim Cramer has to say, well chances are you’ve lost a lot of money.
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Sunday, December 17, 2017
Never Mind Tea Leaves, Here’s a Strong Signal from the Economic Dashboard / Economics / US Economy
By: F_F_Wiley
We’ve been seeing more and more commentaries discussing bad stuff that can happen when the Fed tightens policy and, as a result, the yield curve flattens. (See, for example, this piece from Citi Research and ZeroHedge.) No doubt, the Fed’s rate hikes will lead to mishaps as they usually do—in both markets and the economy. But most forecasters expect the economy to expand through next year, believing that the Fed and the yield curve aren’t yet restrictive enough to trigger a recession.
Sunday, December 17, 2017
As Bitcoin Breaks All-Time Highs Near $18,000 Its Future Has Never Been So Uncertain / Currencies / Bitcoin
By: Jeff_Berwick
Bitcoin has yet again hit another all-time high today of $17,645.89 on the Coindesk Price Index.
Yet, while much of the traditional financial world are piling into bitcoin, the direction of bitcoin has perhaps never been so unsure.
I’ve posited my conspiracy theory of how Blockstream and others may have surreptitiously hijacked bitcoin. But, whether that is the case or not, one thing is absolutely for sure; Bitcoin has changed dramatically in the last year from its initial intention and objectives as outlined by Satoshi’s white paper.
The title of the white paper itself, after all, was “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.”
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Saturday, December 16, 2017
Best Time / Month to Buy a Used Car From a UK Dealer / ConsumerWatch / Motoring
By: Nadeem_Walayat
So far 2017 has not proved to be a productive year in terms of my traditional market analysis i.e. stocks, commodities and derivatives, as I tend to analyse that which grabs my attention rather than following a pre-set schedule, and for this year my attention has been on non traditional markets such as politics, where we had BrExit rammed down our throats to exhaustion point, culminating in the June 8th election disaster and its aftermath. Nevertheless my market analysis has continued this year, unfortunately it's been in non traditional markets such as the local city housing markets rather than national or international, and in this analysis of the UK near new Used car market of 2017 so as determine the best time of year to buy a Used Car of less than 3 years age from a UK dealer.
Saturday, December 16, 2017
Relief Rally in Gold Mining Stocks / Commodities / Gold & Silver Stocks 2017
By: Jordan_Roy_Byrne
In recent days the gold stocks (GDX, GDXJ) traded within 1% of our downside targets of GDX $21.00 and GDXJ $29.50. Last week we wrote: “the miners are getting oversold and a bounce could begin from those levels.” GDXJ troughed first last week at $29.84 while GDX printed a low of $21.27 on Monday. From their September peaks down to those lows, GDX and GDXJ had declined nearly 17% and 21% respectively. They are oversold, nearly touched good support and now the rate hike is behind them. We expect a rally in the sector well into January.