Tuesday, November 28, 2017
The Fed Is at the Height of Monetary Policy Lunacy / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank
How often do central bankers, regulators, corporate leaders, lawyers, politicians, and ordinary investors make the same mistakes over and over again? All the time.
If we stopped erasing our memories and for once learned from our mistakes, we might make better progress. But no, we must always step on the same rake.
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Tuesday, November 28, 2017
Tech Breakthrough Could Transform The Oil Sector / Commodities / Crude Oil
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Tuesday, November 28, 2017
Bitcoin $10,000 – Huge Volatility of Cryptocurrencies and Risky Fiat Making Gold Attractive / Currencies / Bitcoin
– Bitcoin tops $10,000, soaring more than 850% since beginning of 2017
– Irrational exuberance arguably main driver of price performance
– Google Trends shows search for ‘Bitcoin Bubble’ hit highest level this morning
– Buyers need to be aware of hacking and security risks
– Other primary risks to widespread adoption is volatility and liquidity risk
– World’s largest online trading platform IG Markets suspends BTC trading
– Volatility of cryptocurrencies and risky world of fiat make gold attractive
Tuesday, November 28, 2017
Retail Industry Index Providing The Next Stocks Long / Companies / Retail Sector
The S&P Retail Industry Index comprises stocks in the S&P Total Market Index that are classified in the GICS retail sub-industry. For this article we’ll be using The SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT) which tracks an equal-weighted index of stocks in the US retail industry and correspond generally to the total return performance of the S&P Retail Select Industry Index.
The performance of XRT is significantly correlated to the prevailing level of consumer confidence in the economy because the ETF represent the companies whose main business is selling retail merchandise to consumers like WalMart , Groupon, American Eagle, ect.
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Tuesday, November 28, 2017
‘Implosive’ Silver Vulnerable To Big Price Drop / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
Admittedly, it must sound encouraging, and even exciting, to hear proclamations that a “silver” lining is now apparent in the metals complex. Or that a silver “blast-off (is) about to happen”.
Expectations abound for the long-expected, vertical leap in silver prices that never seems to come. And we are told it is supported by solid fundamentals that include supply deficits, a return to the 16 to 1 gold/silver ratio, increasing monetary demand for silver, etc.However, an examination of those fundamentals reveals a different picture. And that picture is inconsistent with the call for higher prices.
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Tuesday, November 28, 2017
Sheffield City Council Deploys Private Security Against Street Tree Fellings Protestors / Local / Sheffield
Sheffield City Council's contractor Amey appears to have upped the anti in the council / Amey's long running dispute with thousands of residents opposed to the felling of thousands of 'healthy' street trees, as this week saw the deployment of private security patrols operating more aggressively than has been seen in the past in support of Amey's felling crews as they roam Sheffield's streets attempting to fell large trees before the end of this year.
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Monday, November 27, 2017
How to Know When a Stocks Bull Market Is About to End – Part I / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
Knowing when a bull market is about to end is critical for both traders and investors. Why? Because once a bull market ends the price movement characteristics of stocks and indexes change dramatically and require different strategies to be used in order to profit from falling prices and increased volatility.
Over the next couple of weeks, we will be expanding on this topic to add several more parts because there are some really exciting things you should know as we move towards 2018.
So, let’s kick things off with the first few data points that tell us that the bull market is about to end.
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Monday, November 27, 2017
8 Charts That Show How Insane the Economy Is Today / Economics / US Economy
Since the 2008 financial crisis, there’s been a growing number of ridiculous, inane, and otherwise nonsensical economic interventions from our central bankers that fill the daily economic headlines.
I have gone from the occasional smile to scratching my head now and then to "WTF" moments.
All that said, the economists who designed these interventions had their reasons. They thought lower interest rates and liquidity injections would create jobs, spur investment, and eventually produce inflation.
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Monday, November 27, 2017
S&P 500 At New Record High, Will Uptrend Continue? / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
Briefly:
Intraday trade: Our Wednesday's intraday trading outlook was neutral. It proved accurate because the S&P 500 index lost 0.1%, following neutral opening of the trading session. The market broke above its short-term consolidation last week. We still can see negative technical divergences along with medium-term overbought conditions. However, there have been no confirmed negative signals so far. Therefore, we prefer to be out of the market today, avoiding low risk/reward ratio trades.
Our intraday outlook is neutral today. Our short-term outlook is neutral, and our medium-term outlook is neutral:
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Monday, November 27, 2017
UK Cashback Mortgage Deals Rise by 27% in Just a Year / Housing-Market / Mortgages
Buying a new home or getting a new mortgage can often be an expensive process. Cashback can be a great way for cash-strapped borrowers to reduce any costs that may occur, especially as the latest research from moneyfacts.co.uk shows that the number of cashback deals has increased by 27% over the past year.
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Monday, November 27, 2017
OPEC Will Extend The Production Cut / Commodities / Crude Oil
There will be an OPEC deal extension—no matter the public tussling between opposing forces in the industry cartel—if the world's largest oil producers are really determined to end the supply glut.
A failure to agree on the market remediation would cause oil prices to plummet immediately, forfeiting any gains that have been made in the last year.
Saudi Arabia needs $60 per barrel for its Aramco initial public offering to be a success in the second half of next year. It plans to sell just five percent of its prized company in the largest IPO in financial history, but a low price could force the country to sell a larger share, siphoning off government revenues at a time of strained budgets.
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Monday, November 27, 2017
Overcoming Decades of Missed Foreign Direct Investment in the Philippines / Economics / Asian Economies
Since the 1980s, economic success in Asia has often relied on foreign investment, at least initially. Last week, President Duterte took a decisive step toward that direction. Why has the change taken so long? And why is the devil in the details?In the third quarter, the Philippine economy grew 6.9%, which made it Asia’s second fastest-growing economy after Vietnam. But unlike Vietnam, which has reaped many benefits of foreign direct investment (FDI), the Philippines has not.
Again and again, former President Benigno Aquino III acknowledged the need to boost FDI during his reign. Yet, the main challenge to attract FDI has been the 60/40 foreign ownership law, which Aquino neglected to confront between 2010 and 2016.
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Monday, November 27, 2017
The Global Rise of Chinese Corporate Giants / Companies / China Stocks
Only a decade ago, Chinese companies accounted for barely 1 percent of the world’s largest companies and multinationals. Today, their share has grown by more than tenfold.After mid-November, Alibaba again won the highest ecommerce sales day in history on China’s Singles’ Day beating last year’s record by almost 40 percent – hitting some $25.4 billion.
In the United States, the 2016 combined Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales amounted to $6.5 billion, while Amazon’s 2017 Prime Day sales rose to $600 million to $1 billion range. Even combined, all of these revenues account for less than one-third of Alibaba’s Singles’ Day sales.
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Monday, November 27, 2017
The Insanity Of Stock Market Investors / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
As I read articles in early 2016, the debate centered around how deep the “crash” is going to take us, and much of it was event-focused. As I now read articles as 2017 comes to an end, they are still discussing how deep the “crash” is going to take us, and it still remains event-focused. But, while many are debating that issue, I now see much debate on how high this market will take us.
When investors begin to turn towards the “how high” debate is the point in time where one must become truly worried about how high this market can take us. You see, market sentiment is a funny market driver. When the great majority of market participants speak in terms of inevitable crash, you should be looking for an imminent bottom. However, when the great majority are speaking in terms of “new paradigm,” or how the market will “certainly continue in its current trend,” then its time to begin to look towards a market top.
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Monday, November 27, 2017
Stock Market Bulls Beware - We Are Finally Closing In On A Top / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
When former bears call for a “New Golden Age” of the stock market, with targets of the DOW set at 100,000, well, it is clearly time for bulls to beware.
In fact, the Dow 100,000 prediction of this former bear is explained as follows:
“This is not some pie in the sky prediction.
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Sunday, November 26, 2017
ISIS Last Stand; End Times for the Caliphate / Politics / ISIS Islamic State
Hezbollah, recaptured the city of Abu Kamal in Deir Ezzor province. The city was the last bastion for the terrorist group, ISIS, which, at one time, controlled a vast swathe of land stretching from northern Iraq to central Syria. Now the group has been chased from its last urban hideaway and scattered across the arid wastelands like a nomadic tribe wandering the dessert. Abu Kamal was ISIS’s “last stand”, the final chance to fend off the advancing loyalist forces and reverse the course of the war. But the three-pronged attack proved to be too much for the demoralized jihadists who fled the city northward or surrendered to Syrian troops on the perimeter. Thus, ISIS no longer occupies any of the major towns or cities that once comprised the emerging Wahhabi proto-state. The group has been soundly defeated, its leadership is in tatters and the star-crossed Caliphate has met its end.
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Sunday, November 26, 2017
Stock Market Minor Top / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
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 – Soon coming to an end – 2 wks?
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, November 26, 2017
Bitcoin Soars To Nearly $9,000 As Cryptos Continue Massive Surge / Currencies / Bitcoin
Another day, another $20 billion rise in the value of the cryptocurrency space.
Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash played a big role in the rise of the space as a whole over the last few weeks and most cryptos were heavily in the green again today. But, today’s big rise in the overall market cap of the crypto space is mainly attributed to bitcoin rising another 8% today.
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Sunday, November 26, 2017
EURUSD Weekly Analysis / Currencies / Euro
EURUSD extended its bounce from 1.1554 to as high as 1.1944, breaking above 1.1879 resistance. Further rise to test test 1.2092 resistance would likely be seen in the coming days, a breakout of this level will confirm that the uptrend from 1.0340 (Jan 3 low) has resumed, then next target would be at 1.2500 area.
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Sunday, November 26, 2017
The Big Three Commodities : Copper, Oil and Gold / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
Tonight I would like to show you some long term charts for the big three, Copper, Oil and Gold. There are a lot of similarities between them which is strongly suggesting all three should be in new bull markets. The laggard is gold which has still not confirmed its new bull market but is getting closer as you will see. The key will be what the US dollar has up its sleeves so lets start with a daily chart for the US dollar.
The US dollar still hasn’t totally broken down yet, but it did have a failed inverse H&S bottom. It was a very beautiful and symmetrical H&S bottom that looked like it was going to reverse the downtrend that is right at a year old now. It had a nice clean breakout above the neckline with a clean backtest from above. All looked good. After a brief rally the US dollar declined once more to the neckline, but this time the neckline failed to hold support, strongly suggesting the H&S bottom was failing.
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