Tuesday, April 25, 2017
3 Maps That Explain the Geopolitics of Nuclear Weapons / Politics / Nuclear Weapons
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN : North Korea has received a lot of focus due to a recent missile test and the expectation of another nuclear test. It is a poor country whose nuclear program has allowed it to punch above its weight internationally. This has also forced superpowers to approach it with great caution.
Nuclear bombs are in their own category of weapon. They are useful in that they deter aggression. The potential for massive destruction on both sides forces countries to rethink moves that may threaten an adversary’s national security interests.
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Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Fed Drops MOAB on Wall Street, Swamp Creatures Sack D.C. / Politics / US Politics
Wall Street and our central bank are in for a rude awakening very soon! The idea that the US economy is on stable footing and about to experience a surge in growth is ridiculous. Hence, the consensus that the Fed can normalize interest rates and its balance sheet is nothing short of a bad joke...and it's on them.
For starters, the government's fiscal deficit for the month of March came in at $176.2 billion, which means the deficit 6 months into fiscal 2017 is $526.9 billion and running 15% over last year. If not for the calendar timing of receipts and payments, our government's deficit would be a year-to-date $564.0 billion or 23% above last year. In addition, there was an 18% decline in corporate income tax collection. We all know there was no corporate tax reform passed. So the credible conclusion must be reached that corporations are not growing there profits...they are actually shrinking.
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Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Morrisons Frozen Fish 1/3rd Frozen Water? / ConsumerWatch / Retail Sector
The super market giants are playing their customers for fools, from Shrinkflation to dropping the number of items in multi packs, any devious trick in the book is being pulled to get one over their customers, a couple of months ago it was the BBC revealing Tesco's fake shelf prices that fail to convert at the checkouts. Whilst in this video test reveals that Morrisons frozen fish are actually 1/3rd frozen water! Which makes a mockery of the price labels when comparing store brands with the better quality brands such as Birds eye.
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Monday, April 24, 2017
Risk on Stock Market French Election Euphoria / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
SPX futures went euphorically higher as the DAX made an all-time high this morning.
Currently the level of the SPX futs are near 2375.00. SPX is in the 84th hour of its Cycle which began at 2378.36. If the current EW reading is correct, it should reverse in the next three hours without overcoming its April 5 high.
Last Thursday, Bloomberg noted, “European Central Bank officials signaled that their liquidity facilities remain available to counter any market tension that may arise in the aftermath of France’s presidential election, the first round of which takes place Sunday.”
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Monday, April 24, 2017
Mind the Mortgage Gap - High LTV Interest Rates Soar / Housing-Market / Mortgages
Research from Moneyfacts.co.uk reveals that despite average mortgage rates falling across the market, the gap between the 60% loan-to-value (LTV) bracket and the highest LTV band (95%) has expanded. Statistics show the divergence has grown by 0.31% in just six months.
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Monday, April 24, 2017
Fear Campaign Against Americans Continues Nuclear Attack Drills in New York City / Politics / Nuclear Weapons
In many ways, you have to feel bad for Americans. They have been on the receiving end of constant fear propaganda for decades.
Just look back to the 50’s with the “Duck & Cover” fear campaign as one example.
Getting malleable young minds to cower under their desks in their government indoctrination camps, as though that would somehow protect them from a nuclear blast, shows that it has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with fear.
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Monday, April 24, 2017
Candidate Trump: 'I Love Wikileaks.' President Trump: 'Arrest Assange!' / Politics / US Politics
"I love Wikileaks," candidate Donald Trump said on October 10th on the campaign trail. He praised the organization for reporting on the darker side of the Hillary Clinton campaign. It was information likely leaked by a whistleblower from within the Clinton campaign to Wikileaks.
Back then he praised Wikileaks for promoting transparency, but candidate Trump looks less like President Trump every day. The candidate praised whistleblowers and Wikileaks often on the campaign trail. In fact, candidate Trump loved Wikileaks so much he mentioned the organization more than 140 times in the final month of the campaign alone! Now, as President, it seems Trump wants Wikileaks founder Julian Assange sent to prison.
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Monday, April 24, 2017
Is the Stock Market Bounce Over? / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
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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Monday, April 24, 2017
This Could Be One Of the Biggest Winners Of The Electric Car Boom / Companies / Cobalt
There’s a new metal in town, and it’s bigger than lithium—and hotter than any other commodity on the market right now.
Supply is fantastically tight and set to get phenomenally tighter.
Analysts at Macquarie Research project deficits of 885 tonnes of this resource next year, 3,205 in 2019 and 5,340 in 2020.
Monday, April 24, 2017
Chinese Internet Leaders Will Shake the World / Companies / Internet
A decade ago, Chinese internet companies were still marginal internationally. Today, they are world-class industry innovators. In the internet economy, the leadership is shifting from the advanced West to the emerging East.Today, China’s leading internet companies rival their counterparts in the West in terms of scale, value and innovation. Yet, their impact outside of China is still relatively limited. Even the international leader Alibaba generates less than 10% of its revenue outside China.
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Monday, April 24, 2017
Le Pen Shifts Political Landscape- The Rise of New French Gaullism / Politics / France
After the first round of the French presidential election, “center-right” Macron and “radical right” Le Pen are positioned for a face-off. However, the real story of the election is that Le Pen's agenda has shifted the political landscape toward new French Gaullism.
At the eve of the French election, A gunman opened fire on the Champs-Élysées, killing a police officer and wounding others, while the Islamic State claimed responsibility. Meanwhile, US observers explain the rise of Le Pen on the basis of the French industrial decline, while German observers see France sandwiched between extremists on the Left and the Right.
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Monday, April 24, 2017
IMF Says Austerity Is Over - Surplus or Stimulus / Economics / Economic Austerity
Austerity is over, proclaimed the IMF this week. And no doubt attributed that to the ‘successful’ period of ‘five years of belt tightening’ a.k.a. ‘gradual fiscal consolidation’ it has, along with its econo-religious ilk, imposed on many of the world’s people. Only, it’s not true of course. Austerity is not over. You can ask many of those same people about that. It’s certainly not true in Greece.
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Monday, April 24, 2017
Russia Campaigns for the Le Pen French Presidency / Politics / France
The European Union's busy election season is an important campaign opportunity, not only for the politicians running, but also for the Kremlin. Several leaders and governments around the world have accused Moscow of coordinating disinformation campaigns to influence other countries' political affairs over the past year. The Kremlin quadrupled its spending on media activities abroad in its latest federal budget, and since half its projected expenditures are labeled confidential, Moscow may well be devoting hundreds of millions more to the cause. Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of Russia's legislature and a top political strategist, has been stumping across the European Union this campaign season, meeting with representatives of nationalist parties such as Alternative for Germany. And now Moscow has turned its focus toward France as the country gears up for two months of presidential and legislative elections.
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Sunday, April 23, 2017
Emmanuel Macron vs Marine Le Pen Round 2 - Can BrExit Factor Deliver Le Pen Victory? / Politics / France
France is heaving a temporary sigh of relief as the nightmare scenario of a far right Le Pen vs a far left Melenchon round 1 win failed to materialise, instead that which has always been most probable has come to pass, where the two candidates with the most votes going into the second and final round of the French Presidential election will be centrist Emmanuel Macron (23.8%) vs far right Marine Le Pen (21.7%).
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Sunday, April 23, 2017
USD Cycle Update - 23rd April / Currencies / US Dollar
This Update will provide both a near term and long term update on the USD an where I think it stands in its short and long term cycles. My first two charts are the same near term daily chart. The first provides my cycle counts for the past 6 Trading Cycles. The second shows a potential Blue Fork Channel that should hold it. USD did find a TC low on day 17 last week.
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Sunday, April 23, 2017
The Upsides and Risks of May's Snap UK Election Decision / Politics / UK General Election
The decision by Prime Minister Theresa May to call a snap election took the United Kingdom somewhat by surprise. When word went out early Tuesday that she was to make an announcement an hour later, rumors about what she would say rumbled across the country, touching on everything from the possible death of the queen to the announcement of direct rule in Northern Ireland. The idea that she would call a snap election initially was dismissed in light of her previous flat denials, but once the other possibilities were eliminated, an election was all that could remain.
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Sunday, April 23, 2017
EURUSD at a Critical Point in Wave Structure / Currencies / Forex Trading
My Bias: short in wave 3 blue.
Wave Structure: downward impulse wave 1, 2 blue
Long term wave count: lower in wave 3 blue
Important risk events: EUR: French Presidential Election, German Ifo Business Climate. USD: N/A.
Sunday, April 23, 2017
Stock Market Grand Super Cycle Overview While SPX Correction Continues / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
The market started this gap filled week at SPX 2329. A gap up opening Monday took the SPX to 2349. Then after a gap down opening on Tuesday the market found support at SPX 2335. A gap up opening on Wednesday took the SPX to 2353, which was sold off into 2335 again. On Thursday another gap up opening took the market to SPX 2361. Then the market pulled back to SPX 2349 on Friday. For the week the SPX/DOW gained 0.70%, and the NDX/NAZ gained 1.75%. Economic reports for the week were mixed. On the downtick: the NY/Philly FED, the WLEI, the NAHB, housing starts, plus weekly jobless claims rose. On the uptick: building permits, industrial production, capacity utilization, leading indicators and existing home sales. Next week’s reports will be highlighted by Q1 GDP, the Chicago PMI, durable goods and housing. Best to your week!
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Sunday, April 23, 2017
Robert Prechter Talks About Elliott Waves and His New Book / InvestorEducation / Elliott Wave Theory
Avi Gilburt of ElliottWaveTrader.net conducted a thoughtful interview with Bob Prechter recently. We thought you'd like to see it.
1. How did you come across Elliott wave analysis?
My dad subscribed to Richard Russell's Dow Theory Letters, and he would occasionally forward his copies to me. In 1968, Russell began writing about A.J. Frost's Elliott wave work. He published wave interpretations for the Dow off and on through late 1974, when he called the end of the bear market. During that time, I began charting gold and gold stocks, labeling the waves. After I became a professional technician at Merrill Lynch in 1975, I went on a search for Elliott's original books, which were published in ring binders. The Library of Congress didn't have them. Finally I found copies on microfilm in the New York Public Library. It was a thrill coming across those listings on library cards. In 1980, I republished Elliott's original books and articles in what is now called R.N. Elliott's Masterworks. Later I published all of Bolton's, Frost's and Russell's Elliott wave writings along with bios and notes.
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Sunday, April 23, 2017
After The Crash - Digital And Regenerative Medicine, Live for Ever! / Companies / BioTech
For most people, the doctor visit hasn’t changed in decades. Same physical waiting rooms, same paper forms to fill out, same slow, expensive tests and marginally-effective, maximally-invasive treatments. But that’s about to change, as a wave of new technologies drag medicine into the 21st century. Among the most interesting:
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