Tuesday, August 04, 2020
The Dimensions of Covid-19: The Hong Kong Flu Redux / Politics / Pandemic
By: Stephen_Merrill
Is the Covid-19 global breakout a deadly pandemic calling for the most extreme measures to avoid a far greater catastrophe?
Or is the dimension of Covid-19 far, far less than stated by the Western media and officialdom?
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Tuesday, August 04, 2020
High Yield Junk Bonds Are Hot Again -- Despite Warning Signs / Interest-Rates / Corporate Bonds
By: EWI
Default rates of low-grade corporate debt are risingThe demand for junk bonds is running high among global investors -- again.
As the Wall Street Journal noted on June 9:
Europe's riskiest corporate debt has rallied to pre-crisis levels.
Elliott Wave International's July Global Market Perspective, a monthly publication which covers 40-plus market worldwide, showed this chart and said:
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Tuesday, August 04, 2020
Gold Stocks Autumn Rally / Commodities / Gold and Silver Stocks 2020
By: Zeal_LLC
The gold miners’ stocks have rocketed higher this summer, smashing out of their usual summer-doldrums sideways grind. That atypical strength has been driven by gold steadily marching to major new secular highs, fueled by strong investment demand. This has carried gold stocks and the metal they mine back to their traditional strong season, which begins with robust autumn rallies usually accelerating in late summers.
Seasonality is the tendency for prices to exhibit recurring patterns at certain times during the calendar year. While seasonality doesn’t drive price action, it quantifies annually-repeating behavior driven by sentiment, technicals, and fundamentals. We humans are creatures of habit and herd, which naturally colors our trading decisions. The calendar year’s passage affects the timing and intensity of buying and selling.
Gold stocks exhibit strong seasonality because their price action mirrors that of their dominant primary driver, gold. Gold’s seasonality generally isn’t driven by supply fluctuations like grown commodities see, as its mined supply remains relatively steady year-round. Instead gold’s major seasonality is demand-driven, with global investment demand varying considerably depending on the time in the calendar year.
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Tuesday, August 04, 2020
“Government Sachs” Is Worried About the Federal Reserve Note / Currencies / Fiat Currency
By: MoneyMetals
As July comes to a close, gold is up better than 9% for the month and has advanced nearly 30% for the year.
Gold’s record-setting rise has been driven by Federal Reserve stimulus, dollar weakness, and strong safe-haven investment demand. Even the Wall Street-centric financial media is taking note:
Financial News Anchor #1: Gold is shining once again, this morning. The spot price is touching all-time highs, as the dollar index sits around a two-year low.
Financial News Anchor #2: Those gold prices have hit an all-time high. The spot price of gold reaching a record.
Gold traditionally surges in times of turmoil. In this case, the economic impact of the pandemic, and those US/China tensions. They are sending investors to this safe haven. But the Federal Reserve's monetary easing measures, they also have a part to play in the price of gold.
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Tuesday, August 04, 2020
Gold Miners Still Pushing That Cart of Rocks Up Hill / Commodities / Gold and Silver Stocks 2020
By: Gary_Tanashian
Our hard working miner here (we’ll call him Huey) has been pushing his cart of rocks, first gently downhill from 2016 to 2018 and then uphill to a bull market since May 2019.
As tracked in NFTRH, in 2019 the macro backdrop became positive for the gold stock sector as gold entered a bull market by taking out the 1378 level and its ratios to stock markets began to rise. Gold/SPX is among the most important macro indicators to a bullish gold mining case as a gold price rising in terms of stocks is the key factor in drawing larger investment (e.g. institutions) to the sector.
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Tuesday, August 04, 2020
UK Government to Cancel Christmas - Crazy Covid Eid 2020! / Politics / Pandemic
By: Anika_Walayat
Apparenrtly for many British muslims Eid was cancelled due to the governments incompetent handling of the chinese virus that has seen over 65,000 deaths instead of less than 500 as there should have been if the UK had followed the South Korea model.
So ee are living in crazy times when a government minister can shut down whole areas of the nation by tweet, as was the case ahead of the Eid festivities across the Manchester area of the UK totaling some 4 million people which is a population about the size of Scotland!
So what does one do during crazy times for Eid? Have a crazy Eid slime party!
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Tuesday, August 04, 2020
Covid-19 Exposes NHS Institutional Racism Against Black and Asian Staff and Patients / Politics / NHS
By: N_Walayat
Why are black and asians more than twice as likely to die from covid-19 than white patients?
Answer the NHS like much of British society is institutionally racist. This IS the routine experience of staff and patients.
Therefore blacks and asians are warned to avoid NHS Hospitals due to institutional racism, where white staff are more likely to call the police on patients than to treat them as this report by Channel 4 news illustrates where staff call the police to drag an asian father away from his dying 6 year old daughters death bed.
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Monday, August 03, 2020
How Sony Is Fueling the Computer Vision Boom / Companies / Tech Stocks
By: Stephen_McBride
He didn’t know it at the time, but in 1990 Eric Fossum started a revolution. In the early ‘90s, NASA was firing rockets into orbit every other month. And to take images of outer space, each spacecraft was equipped with cameras.
The problem was, these cameras were absolutely huge—roughly as big as a double-door fridge. Cameras used on spacecraft are similar to digital cameras, except they have to be a lot tougher. And they required tons of heavy wiring to work.
So NASA hired hotshot engineer Eric Fossum straight from Yale, and tasked him with miniaturizing NASA’s cameras. Within two years, Fossum created a “camera-on-a-chip”—a new type of image sensor that was smaller and consumed 100X less power.
Image sensors are tiny computer chips that essentially give cameras a set of “eyes.” They process light from the outside world and transform it into a bunch of 1s and 0s, allowing cameras to render images. Fossum’s “camera-on-a-chip” helped NASA slash the size of its cameras. But more important, his invention laid the groundwork for digital cameras and camera phones.
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Monday, August 03, 2020
Computer Gaming System Rig Top Tips For 6 Years Future Proofing Build Spec / Personal_Finance / Computing
By: HGR
Thinking of specking a new system for gaming and productivity work in 2020, well here are my real world experience top tips of what you should do to ensure your PC is future proof for the next 6 years. As we take a loot at my system that cost £2,500 and see how it has fared over time with valuable lessons for our next build this year i.e. what CPU cores, memory and graphics card capability to go for in terms of addressing bottlenecks.
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Monday, August 03, 2020
Cornwwall Bude Caravan Park Holidays 2020 - Look Inside Holiday Resort Caravan / Personal_Finance / Travel & Holidays
By: Anika_Walayat
It's not too late to book a short-break holiday at a UK caravan resort for summer 2019. Here we take look at what to expect from typical caravan at a Cornwall holiday caravan park resort. Where this caravan is on the North coast of Cornwall at the Bude Holiday Resort situated 1 mile north of Bude Town. This is a 2 bedroom caravan, and as you will see it's literally like a tardis, how do they cram so much into such a small space? Find out what to expect in terms of facilities and sleeping arrangements.
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Monday, August 03, 2020
UK Caravan Park Holidays 2020 Review - Hoseasons Cayton Bay North East England / Personal_Finance / Travel & Holidays
By: Anika_Walayat
Thinking of booking a caravan park holiday for summer 2020? Then look no further than our series of videos of what it's like to holiday at a UK caravan park. This is at the Hoseasons Caravan Park at Cayton Bay, North East England, not 10 miles from Scarborough. We cover everything from checking in to use of the various facilities as well as nearby attractions.
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Monday, August 03, 2020
Best Travel Bags for 2020 Summer Holidays , Back Sling packs, water proof, money belt and tactical / Personal_Finance / Holidays
By: HGR
Here's a real world review of what are the best most useful bags for travel holidays 2019. We tested a wide range of bags from tactical bag packs sling shots, camera / gadget pouches, waterproof dry bags , money belts, document holders and more that conclude in what we found to be the most useful and what are not so useful to save you both time and money when considering which bags to to get for your next trip abroad.
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Sunday, August 02, 2020
Corona Crisis Will Have Lasting Impact on Gold Market / Commodities / Gold & Silver 2020
By: Arkadiusz_Sieron
No matter what shape the recovery is, the epidemic will likely have lasting, positive effects on the gold market.During the most acute phase of the pandemic and the following economic crisis, there was no time to analyze various WGC’s reports on the gold market. Let’s make up for it!
I’ll start with the report “Recovery paths and impact on performance” about the gold mid-year outlook 2020. The World Gold Council notes that gold had a really excellent performance in the first half of 2020, rising almost by 17 percent (see the chart below), much higher than other major asset classes.
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Sunday, August 02, 2020
Precious Metals Warn Of Increased Volatility Ahead / Commodities / Gold & Silver 2020
By: Chris_Vermeulen
Our trading team witnessed a big drop in Platinum and Palladium prices early this morning while Gold and Silver continued to push moderately higher. We began to question this move and investigate any historical relevance to previous patterns. Our research team pointed out that both Platinum and Palladium rolled lower just 3 to 4 days before the breakdown in the US stock markets on February 24, 2020, while Gold and Silver were reaching recent price peaks. Could the patterns in precious metals be a warning of another potential volatility spike and price decline in the near future?
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Sunday, August 02, 2020
The Key USDX Sign for Gold and Silver / Commodities / Gold & Silver 2020
By: P_Radomski_CFA
Yesterday’s session was indeed volatile around the FOMC, just like we warned, and gold even moved to its previous high, likely forming a double-top pattern. Even though gold moved higher on an intraday basis, it didn’t invalidate its previous breakdown, which was a bearish sign. Gold was likely to decline, and it is declining so far in today’s pre-market trading.
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Saturday, August 01, 2020
Gold & Silver: Two Pictures / Commodities / Gold & Silver 2020
By: Jim_Willie_CB
It is said that a picture is worth 1000 words, and thus two pictures are worth 2000 words. The entire financial system is fracturing and imploding, no exaggeration. The entire monetary system is being undermined in a true Weimar sense, in reality. Such a situation almost never has come about without a world war. Since 2001 in the Jackass opinion, the world financial war has been in progress with the imposition of anti-terrorism statutes, with a seminal event in 2008 for the bond implosion. A certain signpost was flashing in 2012 with the installation of Quantitative Easing, better described as hyper-monetary inflation of the unsterilized type. When the REPO market exploded on the scene in September 2019, the death of the USDollar’s foundation was evident to all with vision. When the sequence of CARES stimulus bills was enacted, the assurance for Infinite QE Forever was clear. The time before total sunset on the global reserve currency was declared as near. The Global Financial RESET is officially in progress. A new age is soon to dawn. The role of the USDollar is unclear in future months, probably for black market activity and possibly a transition currency.
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Saturday, August 01, 2020
The Bullish Case for Stocks Isn't Over Yet / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2020
By: Paul_Rejczak
The bulls didn't seize upon Monday's stock upswing, and prices declined in what might look as a good-bye kiss to the horizontal line connecting the early June highs. Are stocks about to roll over to the downside? Despite yesterday's deterioration in the credit markets, I think it's too early to jump to such a conclusion.
Technology is holding up, semiconductors aren't weakening relatively to the sector, and the rotation into healthcare, materials, and industrials is very much on. The defensives (utilities and consumer staples) are also improving their posture. Consumer discretionaries are firm, and financials are getting better relative to the index.
Yes, going into today's Fed and especially into Thursday's aftermarket with earnings from selected tech behemoths, the market is likely to move higher if yesterday's AMD results are any indication.
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Saturday, August 01, 2020
Is Gold Price Action Warning Of Imminent Monetary Collapse - Part 2? / Commodities / Gold & Silver 2020
By: Hubert_Moolman
The following is an update of a previous article: During the 2008 financial crisis the Fed significantly increased the US monetary base to keep the system from collapse. They are currently in a similar situation, and have done (is doing) the exact same thing.
Here is a chart of the US monetary base to illustrate the similarity:
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Saturday, August 01, 2020
Will America Accept the World's Worst Pandemic Response Government? / Politics / Pandemic
By: Patrick_Watson
Even in normal times, the news describes murders, accidents, wars, natural disasters, and the passing of once-famous celebrities.Those deaths are usually just headlines. We don’t know the people, and we don’t expect to share their fate anytime soon. We note them and move on.
Ignoring the death news isn’t so easy in a pandemic that could sicken and possibly kill any of us, at any time. Yet people manage to do it. Some think it’s all exaggerated or fake. But even those who see the threat often tune out the news. They’d rather not think about it—and understandably so.
The virus doesn’t care what people think. It will, if given opportunity, try to infect them. A small percentage of those infected will die. Will others care?
Saturday, August 01, 2020
Stock Market Technical Patterns, Future Expectations and More – Part II / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2020
By: Chris_Vermeulen
Continuing this multi-part research article, today we are going to explore some more immediate (shorter-term) technical setups. If you missed the first part of this research article, please take a minute to review it before continuing because there is quite a bit of information and related article links that are very important for you to understand this next article. You can view it here.
In the first part of this article, we discussed how our team evaluates a proper market perspective and how we build a consolidated narrative for our subscribers. Some times, it is not easy for us to build a suitable narrative or decide on risk factors as our team may not completely agree with one another. At times like this, we’ll often decide that no action is better than taking any action at all. Generally, though, our team is able to adopt a consensus narrative related to portfolio allocation levels, general market trends and specific target trade setups for the next 5 to 10+ trading days.
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