Tuesday, April 11, 2017
Politicians Say Social Security Is Sustainable, but Numbers Show Otherwise / Politics / Social Issues
By: John_Mauldin
We may be the envy of the world in some ways, but the US also has no shortage of stress. Today, we’ll look at some data on growing financial anxiety that is plaguing an increasingly large part of the nation.
Last week, I ran across a survey from NerdWallet on this very issue. They asked 2,000 Americans of all ages about their biggest financial concerns. It turns out the biggest worries are healthcare expenses, lack of emergency savings, and lack of retirement savings.
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Tuesday, April 11, 2017
Negative Interest Rates are Becoming a Reality for Savers / Personal_Finance / Negative Interest Rates
By: MoneyFacts
Data from Moneyfacts.co.uk can reveal that the savings market is showing encouraging signs of improvement. The number of rate rises now outweighs the number of reductions for the third month running.
In the month of March, Moneyfacts recorded 163 savings rate rises, with some rates increased by as much as 1.20%. This dwarfs the 65 rate reductions that took place in the same period. As a result, the average five-year fixed rate has now risen to levels not seen since August 2016, reaching 1.81%.
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Tuesday, April 11, 2017
The Trump-Xi Summit Paves the Way to New Realism in US-Chinese Trade / Politics / US Politics
By: Dan_Steinbock
Despite preliminary pessimism, the Trump-Xi Summit showed greater trade pragmatism than initially expected, even though it was overshadowed by a raw display of US military power.President Donald Trump says he developed a "friendship" with President Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago. However, U.S. missile attacks against Bashar al-Assad's forces in Syria overshadowed the meeting. Apparently, the White House hoped to kill two birds with one stone: to show to al-Assad who was in control and to Xi what might happen to North Korea if China would not intervene more decisively.
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Tuesday, April 11, 2017
Origin And Danger Of Fractional-Reserve Banking / Currencies / Fiat Currency
By: Kelsey_Williams
If there is any one thing in particular that threatens the collapse of our banking system and financial structures worldwide, it is the practice of fractional-reserve banking. The subject is rarely mentioned in the financial press. When it is mentioned, a clear explanation is usually not available.
Tuesday, April 11, 2017
Who’s Liking the US Interest Rate Hike Most? / Interest-Rates / US Interest Rates
By: Nicholas_Kitonyi
As investors prepare for what looks like a potentially second rate hike within the first half of 2017, there are those who are still questioning the overall impact of increased interest rates on the economy.By trade, stock market investors gain more when interest rates are higher. This is simply because capital risk assets will reflect the interest rate hike. However, as per the most recent rate hike, things seem to be a little different.
The stock market rallied from late January when a rate hike during the first quarter of the calendar year became more feasible with every Federal Reserve minutes pointing towards an increment.
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Tuesday, April 11, 2017
Trumpism is the First Casualty of the War Party / Politics / US Politics
By: BATR
Are you starting to feel that you have been here previously and have gone through this same drill before? Wagging the kosher tail in front of the controlled media is a rerun that the gullible public never gets tired of. Those who question the orthodox narrative are condemned as disloyal or agents of a foreign power. However, for those who are "stuck on stupid", that alien country is never allowed to identify the Zionist cabal as the real force behind the imposition of the war party's continuous conflict in avoidable bloodshed. The Pavlovian trained domestic wieners that contest any suggestion of a false flag formula, refuse to face facts. The drum beat for Armageddon always works to divert from the true defiler that operates as a fifth column against the genuine national interests of America.
Tuesday, April 11, 2017
Latest Developments in the Gold and Silver Markets / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
By: The_Gold_Report
Technical analyst Jack Chan charts the latest developments in the gold and silver markets, including an all-time high in speculation in silver.
Monday, April 10, 2017
Trump's Biggest Enemy is the Fed / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Michael_Pento
Right on the heels of Donald Trump's stunning election victory, Democrats began to diligently work on undermining his presidency. That should surprise no one. It's just par for the course in partisan D.C.
However, what appears to be downright striking is that the Keynesian elites may have found a new ally in their plan to derail the new President...the U.S. Federal Reserve.
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Monday, April 10, 2017
After Trump's Syria Attack, What Comes Next? / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Thursday's US missile attack on Syria must represent the quickest foreign policy U-turn in history. Less than a week after the White House gave Assad permission to stay on as president of his own country, President Trump decided that the US had to attack Syria and demand Assad's ouster after a chemical attack earlier in the week. Trump blamed Assad for the attack, stated that "something's going to happen" in retaliation, and less than two days later he launched a volley of 59 Tomahawk missiles (at a cost of $1.5 million each) onto a military airfield near where the chemical attack took place.
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Monday, April 10, 2017
Stock Market Still No Clear Short-Term Direction - Will Uptrend Continue? / 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
Monday, April 10, 2017
UK Help to Buy Vacuum Contributes to Mortgage Interest Rates Rise / Housing-Market / Mortgages
By: MoneyFacts
Moneyfacts UK Mortgage Trends Treasury Report data, not yet published, highlights that the average two-year fixed rate at 95% loan-to-value has increased by 0.25% since January 2017, bringing the figure back to around the same rate it was a year ago.
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Monday, April 10, 2017
A Brave New World for the Kremlin / Politics / Russia
By: STRATFOR
Every country faces generational change. Evolutions in technology, culture, social mores and global affairs can leave a gulf between young and old that neither can easily bridge. In Russia, that gulf is especially vast. As of this year, 27 percent of Russians were born after the fall of the Soviet Union, and that number will jump to nearly 40 percent within the next decade. The rising generation was never Sovietized. Most of them, moreover, are too young to remember the tumultuous 1990s, a decade of war, financial crisis and political disarray. Unlike the older generations, they don't recall President Vladimir Putin's promises to save Russia or the measures he took to stabilize the country after its post-Soviet tailspin. In fact, they've never really known life without him. For Putin, the situation poses an unfamiliar challenge.
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Monday, April 10, 2017
US Dollar and Chinese Renminbi: Mysteries Revealed / Currencies / China Currency Yuan
By: Dan_Steinbock
The Trump administration’s exchange-rate hawks contend that the US should designate China as a “currency manipulator.” In reality, the problem is the strengthening dollar, despite massive debt US owes to foreign countries.
Before the Trump-Xi Summit, the White House has often warned about “currency manipulators” while targeting US trade deficits.
Monday, April 10, 2017
Stock Market Cycle Lows Still Ahead / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: Andre_Gratian
Current Position of the Market
SPX Long-term trend: Uptrend continues.
SPX Intermediate trend: The correction from 2400 continues,
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 discuss longer market trends.
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Sunday, April 09, 2017
Russia and Iran Threaten Retaliation Against Further US Syria Aggression / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Stephen_Lendman
Russia and Iran accused Washington of crossing unacceptable red lines in attacking Syria - jointly saying they’ll respond to further US aggression, according to Reuters.
A joint statement published by the Ilam al Harbi media outlet said “(w)hat America waged in an aggression on Syria is a crossing of red lines.”
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Sunday, April 09, 2017
Trump is the New Hillary - Attacking Syria Could Start World War III / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
Donald Trump Warns That Attacking Syria Could Start World War III
Yes, you read the headline right. Donald Trump has warned that attacking Syria could lead the US into World War III!
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Sunday, April 09, 2017
What Will Finally Break the Market's Lethargy? / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: Clif_Droke
To most individual traders, there is no bigger buzz kill than a narrow trading range. It takes the wind out of the sails of breakout and momentum traders, and even expert stock pickers have a tough time finding the stocks which are bucking the sideways trend.
Wall Street would much rather see a lively bull market when stocks are roaring and participation is widespread among all classes of investors. But sometimes even a trading range-type market is good enough for the Street , provided stock prices are near all-time highs. For even when prices are making no headway, the aggregate yield on stocks pays enough in dividends to make the lack of action worthwhile.
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Sunday, April 09, 2017
Forex Currencies Trading Around the World Chartology / Currencies / Forex Trading
By: Rambus_Chartology
As there seems to be a lot of interest in some of the currencies I would like to show you some charts we’ve been following for a very long time. Most of the charts will be long term in nature which won’t do us much good in the short term, but they will keep us in tune to the direction these currencies are most likely to take
Knowing what to expect in the Longer term is important not only to currency and commodity traders but to the very Countries who’s currencies are impacted and to their exporters and importers as well.
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Saturday, April 08, 2017
SPX Corrective Pattern Continues / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: Tony_Caldaro
The market started the week at SPX 2363. On Monday the market opened higher but dropped down to SPX 2345. Before the day ended the market had turned around, and then rallied to SPX 2378 by Wednesday. Then after a decline to SPX 2349 by early Thursday, the market hit 2364 late, and then again on Friday, before ending the week at 2356. For the week the SPX/DOW lost 0.15%, and the NDX/NAZ lost 0.45%. Economic reports for the week were slightly positive. On the downtick: ISM manufacturing/services, auto sales, monthly payrolls, the WLEI and the Q1 GDP estimate. On the uptick: construction spending, factory orders, the ADP, wholesale inventories, consumer credit; plus the unemployment rate, trade deficit and weekly jobless claims all improved. Next week’s reports will be highlighted by the CPI/PPI and retail sales.
Saturday, April 08, 2017
Gold Price and Gaps / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
By: SurfCity
irst, let me say that a new high by Gold in week 16 of this current Intermediate Cycle is an extremely positive development as we now have a setup that should ensure that Gold has a Right Translated cycle that makes a higher Intermediate Low than the December 2016 YCL. Should this play out to Cycle norms, the next Intermediate Low will be an excellent buying opportunity regardless if you are adding to positions or restocking the shelf. My current expectation is that the next IC Low will be in the May/June timeframe with May being a strong possibility.
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