Saturday, October 21, 2017
Emerging Megatrends Hurting Consumers / ConsumerWatch / Shopping
By: Rodney_Johnson
I think Dilbert is hilarious. The comic strip’s creator, Scott Adams, has incredible insight into everyday life.More than a decade ago, he showed the cartoon’s title character in a grocery store. A clerk asked Dilbert, a white-collar, micromanaged engineer by day, if he wanted to sign up for the store’s loyalty card so he could save on purchases.
His reply went something like this: “So you want my personal information, which you’ll then use to track me and market to me, and in return I get the manufacturers’ rebates that I’ve always received? And if I don’t give you my data, then you keep the money?”
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Saturday, October 21, 2017
A Catalyst of the Stock Market Bubble Bust / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: Harry_Dent
Brexit. Markets up.Shock election of President Trump. Markets up.
Drum beats of war with North Korea. Markets up.
Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Markets up.
Wild fire incinerating Northern California. Markets up.
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Saturday, October 21, 2017
Choosing Your Path in This Financial Landscape / Personal_Finance / Investing 2017
By: Rodney_Johnson
I just turned off the television. There wasn’t anything wrong, there was just… nothing. As I go through my day, I stay tuned to CNBC, albeit with the sound down low, simply to have background activity. But today, I just can’t get there. I keep asking myself the same question when I hear their comments… so what?Usually I enjoy some of the banter, and I recognize that most of the people floating across the screen are very smart and accomplished. But I don’t feel edified. In my head I’m playing an endless loop of old quotes and comments that ends up sounding like a game of “Pick a Platitude.” It goes something like this:
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Saturday, October 21, 2017
Silver Stocks Comatose / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
By: Zeal_LLC
The silver miners’ stocks have mostly drifted sideways this year, looking vexingly comatose. Such dull price action repels speculators and investors, so they’ve largely abandoned this lackluster sector. That weak trader participation has led to silver stocks’ responsiveness to silver price moves decaying. What can shock silver stocks out of their zombified stupor? And how soon is such an awakening catalyst likely?
Silver stocks’ flatlined behavior so far in 2017 is surprising and odd. Silver-stock prices are ultimately driven by silver-mining profits, which are overwhelmingly driven by prevailing silver price levels. Silver in turn is slaved to gold’s fortunes, the yellow metal is the white metal’s dominant primary driver. With gold faring quite well this year despite the euphoric record stock markets, silver and its miners’ stocks should be shining.
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Saturday, October 21, 2017
Bitcoin Tests $5,100 / Currencies / Bitcoin
By: Mike_McAra
There’s been some talk of gold becoming an alternative to gold. Goldman Sachs doesn’t seem to agree. In an article on CNBC, we read:
Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are not the "new gold," Goldman Sachs said in a note, advising investors that precious metals "remain a relevant asset class" in portfolios.
In a note to clients earlier this week, Goldman detailed the benefits of holding gold in a portfolio.
Saturday, October 21, 2017
Stock Market "Buy and Hold" ... and Investing is Easy / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: EWI
"Buy and Hold" ... and Investing is Easy
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Friday, October 20, 2017
Stock Investors Ignore What May Be The Biggest Policy Error In History / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: John_Mauldin
My good friend Peter Boockvar recently shared a chart with me.
The University of Michigan’s Surveys of Consumers have been tracking consumers and their expectations about the direction of the stock market over the next year.
We are now at an all-time high in the expectation that the stock market will go up.
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Friday, October 20, 2017
Gold Up 74% Since Last Stock Market Peak 10 Years Ago / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
By: GoldCore
– 10 year anniversary of pre-Global Financial Crisis market peak in S&P 500 on October 9th
– Gold up 74% since the last market peak a decade ago; 11% pa in USD, 9.4% pa in EUR and 12.4% pa in GBP
– Precious metal has climbed $736/oz on Oct 9th 2007 to $1278.75 ten-years later
– S&P 500’s 102% climb is thanks to asset-pumping policies by central banks, rather than value
– Gold’s performance is slowly forcing mainstream to re-consider gold
– “Notion of gold as a hedge against serious risk aversion is true… ” – Bloomberg analyst
Friday, October 20, 2017
Chinese Economy and Gold / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
By: Arkadiusz_Sieron
In the 2015 October edition of the Market Overview, we analyzed the impact of the Chinese slowdown, as well as the stock market crash and the devaluation of yuan, on the gold market. Two years later, it is worth providing investors with an update about the second biggest economy in the world, especially since the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China will be held in October.
Friday, October 20, 2017
The New World Order Currency Reset, Dollar Collapse and Crypto / Currencies / Bitcoin
By: Jeff_Berwick
We’ve been focusing a lot on the crypto space for the last few months. And, can you blame us?
Bitcoin again sits on the cusp of $6,000 having risen nearly 1,000% in the last year.
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Friday, October 20, 2017
Labour Sheffield City Council Employs Army of Spy's to Track Down Tree Campaigners / Felling's Watchers / Local / Sheffield
By: N_Walayat
The Labour controlled Sheffield city council has adopted extreme measures in an attempt at silencing dissent or disruption of it's programme to fell 6000 street trees by the end of this year out of a stock of about 30,000 mature street trees. The strategy being deployed amounts to one of intimidation of anyone who disagrees with the tree felling's programme, where even standing and watching a tree felling in progress is likely to prompt the Labour council's ever expanding army of intelligence gathers (spy's) to add watchers on to a growing list of persons of interest, regardless of whether they have actually interfered in anyway in the Labour councils tree felling's programme, as an army of evidence gathers (spy's, with cameras at hand can be found recording anyone and everyone, even those who just stop to look at the felling's underway across Sheffield's streets.
Friday, October 20, 2017
Stock Market Calm Before The Storm / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: Peter_Schiff
In light of the 30-year anniversary of the Black Monday Crash in 1987 (when the Dow lost more than 20% in "one day", we should be reminded that investor anxiety usually increases when markets get to extremes. If stock prices fall steeply, people fret about money lost, and if they move too high too fast, they worry about sudden reversals. As greed is supposed to be counterbalanced by fear, this relationship should not be surprising. But sometimes the formula breaks down and stocks become very expensive even while investors become increasingly complacent. History has shown that such periods of untethered optimism have often presaged major market corrections. Current data suggests that we are in such a period, and in the words of our current President, we may be "in the calm before the storm."
Friday, October 20, 2017
Gold/Silver vs. Bitcoin Comparisons: A No-Brainer... or Brainless? / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: MoneyMetals
By David Smith: For most of the year, as Bitcoin soared, crashed, and soared again, cryptocurrency vs. physical gold-silver talking heads engaged each other in heated rhetoric about which of these venues is here to stay.
Some of the biggest names in finance, government, and the newsletter analyst space have made comments that – to be charitable – appear less-than-fully informed. Comments like "Even though bitcoin could rise to $100,000, it's still going to zero!" don't offer much insight. Some other questionable assumptions:
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Friday, October 20, 2017
GOLD Price Creates Bullish Higher Low / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2017
By: Enda_Glynn
We had an interesting development in stocks today.
The market hit a no-bid 'air pocket' and the price dropped dropped 100 points right out of the gate.
This is not a good sign if you are a bull,
The price has recovered this evening but I am marking this one in my diary as the first shot across the bow.
I will elaborate on that later.
Friday, October 20, 2017
Here’s the US’s Biggest Vulnerability in NAFTA Negotiations / Economics / US Economy
By: John_Mauldin
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN AND ALLISON FEDIRKA : As the fourth round of NAFTA negotiations comes to an end, the agreement's survival has once again been brought into question.
US President Donald Trump has threatened to strike a new deal with just Canada. Mexico downplayed the threat, saying it would walk away from negotiations if the new terms brought by the US put it at a disadvantage. For their part, the Canadians have been quiet.
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Friday, October 20, 2017
A 2-3% Stock Market Correction Could Wipe Out Most VIX Short Sellers / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: John_Mauldin
Did you know that there have been 39 times since 1990 when the VIX has closed below 10, and that 30 of those times have happened this year? And 15 of those have been in the last 30 days!
Ed Easterling of Crestmont Research sent me recently an updated chart of the VIX Index. Notice that the all-time low of 9.19 was put in on October 5, 2017.
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Friday, October 20, 2017
The Runaway Stock Market / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: Gary_Savage
Runaway moves can last from 6-8 months. They are sustained by traders who try to pick tops and are forced to cover and by those who finally decide to buy into overbought conditions.
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Friday, October 20, 2017
The Greatest Investing Lesson Learned from the 1987 Stock Market Crash / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest
By: Nadeem_Walayat
It's that time of the year again when the stock market doom merchants are at their most vocal as they focus on the historic apex of the darkest day of the darkest month for stocks of the year, October 19th, the 30th anniversary of the 1987 Black Monday that saw the stock market crash by an unprecedented 22% in one day that few saw coming but ever since many prophesies the repeat of each October, regardless of what the stock market has actually done thus far each year as the perma bear crowd can always be seen literally jumping up and down like demented rabbits proclaiming that a crash is once more imminent, pointing to a myriad of harbingers of the imminent stock market apocalypse. Against which the historic record paints a picture of a coin toss having proved infinitely more accurate than the perma crash is coming calls awaiting their broken clock moment to proclaim their success.....
Thursday, October 19, 2017
Stock Market Time to Go All-in. Short, That Is / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: Anthony_Cherniawski
SPX has challenged short-term support at 2548.77 and bounced off the Diagonal trendline at 2548.00.
A decline beneath 2548.00 is a confirmed sell.
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Thursday, October 19, 2017
How Gold Bullion Protects From Conflict And War / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
By: GoldCore
– Gold and silver’s historical role in conflict shaped the world today and the modern financial system
– Gold played an important function in the great conflicts up to and throughout the 20th century
– Gold and the effective use of bullion played a crucial role in the outcome of the American Civil War
– Gold was an important economic agent in both World Wars, conferring a huge advantage on the allies
– In a world beset with risks of war both in the Middle East and with North Korea, Russia and China … gold will protect