Saturday, July 09, 2016

China’s Long March To Saving Face. Part 1 / Politics / China

By: Raymond_Matison

It was a little over 800 years ago when the Venetian Marco Polo returned from China to reveal and author his wondrous travel experiences.  At that time, the North American continent was still undiscovered.  Principalities, nations or even empires could grow in one part of the world without much awareness of it elsewhere.  Thus it was that China grew, developed and expanded for over four thousand years largely isolated from the Western World.

Saturday, July 09, 2016

Monsanto, Bayer, and the Push for Corporate Cannabis / Companies / Cannabis

By: Ellen_Brown

As detailed in my recent article “The War on Weed is Winding Down,” the health benefits of cannabis are now well established. It is a cheap, natural alternative effective for a broad range of conditions, and the non-psychoactive form known as hemp has thousands of industrial uses. At one time, cannabis was one of the world’s most important crops. There have been no recorded deaths from cannabis overdose in the US, compared to about 30,000 deaths annually from alcohol abuse (not counting auto accidents), and 100,000 deaths annually from prescription drugs taken as directed. Yet cannabis remains a Schedule I controlled substance (“a deadly dangerous drug with no medical use and high potential for abuse”), illegal to be sold or grown in the US.

Saturday, July 09, 2016

10-Year Treasury Bond At All-Time Low...Explains Stocks Bull Market... / Interest-Rates / US Bonds

By: Jack_Steiman

We have been going nowhere for a couple of years. Within that process the emotions of all traders were tested over and over. Many times it appeared that the market was about to break down. Action was terrible on price and their oscillators, and that bad action was accompanied by poor economic reports. One after another, they came in poorly. Just when all hope seemed lost for the bulls they'd pull some magic trick, also known as fed-magic dust. A QE program here. A bail out there. Low rates forever everywhere kept the markets from breaking down. It was good to be the fed. You needed a bull to keep the economy going through those 401K reports. It didn't always work though because the market couldn't break out.

Saturday, July 09, 2016

Jason Zweig: Still Wrong on Gold / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2016

By: Jordan_Roy_Byrne

Jason Zweig, who a year ago called Gold a “pet rock” is doubling down. He reiterates his belief, albeit a misguided one that Gold is a pet rock and justifies it with the usual anti gold bug propaganda. Unfortunately, Zweig along with many gold-bashers and ironically some gold bugs continue to either neglect Gold’s major fundamental driver or have no clue about it.

Saturday, July 09, 2016

Brexit Vote and Gold / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2016

By: Arkadiusz_Sieron

In a historic referendum, Britain voted to leave the European Union. We covered this topic in our Gold News Monitors a few times, however it is worth analyzing in more detail, as the Brexit vote entails important implications for the global economy and the gold market.

Initially, the Brexit vote led to short financial shock with a plunging pound and equities. However, the markets soon recovered, and the shock was not as bad as many had feared. Similarly, there was a knee-jerk reaction in gold, which boosted its price up to the $1,350 level immediately after the vote’s results were announced. As the chart below shows, the gold prices spiked in the U.S. dollar, in the Euro and, to a great extent, in the British pound.

Saturday, July 09, 2016

Dead Pulses & Urgent Systemic Reform / Interest-Rates / US Bonds

By: Jim_Willie_CB

Several important factors work in a powerful manner to debilitate, to distort, and to wreck the global financial and economic system. It is long past the point of effective remedy. After the Lehman kill event, every conceivable wrong move and policy was made and implemented. The investment in the corrupt elements has been so profound in the last several years, as to make remedy impossible. The official policies have been so errant and heretical, as to make remedy impossible. The distortions with the broken elements have been so dedicated in service to the ruling banker class, as to make remedy impossible.

Saturday, July 09, 2016

Deutsche Bank or Dumb Bank? / Companies / Credit Crisis 2016

By: Chris_Vermeulen

Deutsche bank (DBK) shares dropped to fresh new lows with the various news announcements, as well as a feeling that Germany will not be capable of bailing out the bank. The imminent outcome for DBK is ‘bankruptcy’ while the world will have to bear the brunt of the fallout from all of the complicated ‘derivatives’ which are being held by Deutsche Bank.

DBKs’ outstanding ‘derivatives’ exposure is 20x the German GDP and 5x the Eurozone GDP.

Friday, July 08, 2016

Why Stock Market Investors Should Expect the Unexpected / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2016

By: EWI

Read our forecast for a market rally in the wake of Brexit

[Editor's Note: The text version of the story is below.]

Investors who jump on "sure things" in the stock market usually lick their wounds with regret.

The decision of British voters to leave the European Union appeared to represent low-hanging fruit to short sellers.

Friday, July 08, 2016

EU Citizens Living in UK BrExit Status Not Secure, Not Guaranteed / Politics / BrExit

By: Nadeem_Walayat

Junker, Tusk, Hollande, Merkel and the whole of the heavily UK subsidised Eastern European states have been busy laying down threats of x,y,z happening of what Britain faces in its attempts to negotiate its way out of the European Union. Though it's not hard to see why the EU has adopted such a threatening stance because it's obvious Britain breaking away from the EU threatens a wider breakup and ultimately a collapse of the EU project, hence triggering such an aggressive response. Whilst Eastern Europe does not want it's UK gravy train to end that the region profits from to the tune of £75 billion a year!

Friday, July 08, 2016

Gold Stocks Record Summer Surge / Commodities / Gold and Silver Stocks 2016

By: Zeal_LLC

The red-hot gold miners’ stocks have continued blasting higher this summer on heavy ETF buying by professional money managers.  Funds’ ongoing big capital inflows into this market-leading sector have overcome its usual summer seasonal weakness.  While gold stocks’ odds-defying record early-summer surge certainly ramps short-term downside risk, this year’s dazzling new gold-stock bull still remains young.

Managing other people’s money is a hard and challenging job.  Investors naturally expect and demand healthy returns after entrusting their hard-earned wealth to financial professionals.  And if these fund managers fail to deliver, investors are quick to pull their capital and move it elsewhere.  So the money-management industry faces staggering pressure to perform.  The funds that don’t measure up risk extinction.

Friday, July 08, 2016

The EU’s Founding Members Are Giving Up / Politics / BrExit

By: John_Mauldin

PATRICK WATSON: The Mother of Parliaments just got an earful from the public it ostensibly serves. The UK’s Brexit referendum passed easily.

Now, someone has to make it happen.

It won’t be Prime Minister David Cameron. Having led the losing side, he sensibly—and honorably, I must add—said he would resign.

Friday, July 08, 2016

Forex Trading EUR, GBP, USD/JPY - Double Bottom or New Lows? / Currencies / Forex Trading

By: Nadia_Simmons

In recent days, the yen moved higher against the greenback as safe-haven buying supported the Japanese currency. In this environment, USD/JPY declined to important support and approached the Jun low.  Double bottom or new lows?

In our opinion, the following forex trading positions are justified – summary:

EUR/USD: short (a stop-loss at 1.1236; initial downside target at 1.0708)
GBP/USD: short (a stop-loss at 1.3579; initial downside target at 1.2519)
USD/JPY: none
USD/CAD: none
USD/CHF: none
AUD/USD: none

Friday, July 08, 2016

Is the Stock Market Rally Over? / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2016

By: Anthony_Cherniawski

It appears that SPX may be waiting for the Jobs Report tomorrow morning at 8:30 am to reveal its intent. This is my primary Wave structure for SPX. It follows an irregular Wave pattern that fits within the Orthodox Broadening Top. Although the Broadening Top allows for a probe to or beyond 2120.55, but does not require it. As it stands, Wave [v] of 5 is very nearly equal to Wave [i] of 5, satisfying a wave relationship and indicating a probable completion.

Friday, July 08, 2016

Signs the Government Is Planning to Confiscate Your Retirement Funds / Politics / Pensions & Retirement

By: Jeff_Berwick

We’ve warned that bankrupt governments will be eyeing the multi-trillions of dollars in “un-taxed” retirement funds when they get desperate enough.

It is an incredibly common occurrence.  It has happened in numerous countries in just recent memory.  Poland, Hungary and Bolivia are a few in the last years where retirement funds have been seized.

Total funds currently held in private IRA and 401K accounts in the US are estimated to be in the neighborhood of $10 trillion.  That number looks awfully enticing to the US government which is currently indebted to the tune of $19 trillion and holding liabilities of over $100 trillion.

Friday, July 08, 2016

Stock Market Decent Comeback, Mixed, Consolidation Day / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2016

By: Harry_Boxer

The stock market indices had a mixed session. The day started out with a pop to the upside, but they gave it back and then some, getting in the negative column by midday. They retested in the afternoon, making lower lows on the S&P 500, which was not confirmed by the Nasdaq 100. That resulted in a late rally back to finish mixed on the session.

Net on the day, the Dow was down 22.74 at 17,895.88, 70 points off the low. The S&P 500 was down 1.83 at 2097.90, 9 points off its low. The Nasdaq 100 was up 14.88 at 4459.58, 21 points off its low.

Friday, July 08, 2016

Why Stocks Bears Should be Scared / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2016

By: Clif_Droke

The last year has been a scary time to be an investor. In 2015, the slowdown in China's economy caused undue apprehension to investors and contributed to a nausea-inducing rollercoaster ride which began last July and has continued until now.

By the end of 2015 low energy prices were taking a toll on the high yield debt market, which in turn catalyzed another stock market swoon. Although the decline wasn't severe, the January 2016 market panic ended with the biggest spike in bearish investor sentiment since the 2008 credit crash. This reflects the pronounced tendency among investors to panic at the slightest hint of danger, a spillover effect from the historic 2008 crisis.

Thursday, July 07, 2016

Greenspan, Gold, and the Banality of Evil / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2016

By: MoneyMetals

Under certain circumstances, seemingly decent human beings are capable of horrific things.

So it is with Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who parlayed his sound money bona fides into the top post at America's private banking cartel and current issuer of our un-backed currency. In betrayal of his own stated free-market principles, Greenspan spent his tenure at the Fed pumping up financial markets with easy money and enabling runaway government spending commitments.

Thursday, July 07, 2016

SPX Below 2100, but is it Enough? / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2016

By: Anthony_Cherniawski

SPX is beneath the 4.5 year trendline. The formation is irregular, so to be safe, we should use the lower trendline of the Broadening Diagonal as a trigger to go short. That appears to be at or just beneath 2090.00. There is always the possibility of using the trendline as a support to launch another algo orgy. Of course, the ultimate safety for the shorts appears to be beneath the 50-day Moving Average.

Thursday, July 07, 2016

Swing Trading the Nasdaq QQQ's / Stock-Markets / Stock Index Trading

By: Joseph_VanDerveer

My strategy is to time the market using the QQQ's which is an exchange-traded fund based on the Nasdaq-100. Powershares QQQ's etf tracks the market-cap-weighted Nasdaq-100 index which is 100 of the largest non-financial stocks in the Nasdaq Composite Index.

I would suggest inexperienced traders stick to using the 1 for 1 vehicle and not the leveraged etf's such as TQQQ's or SQQQ's. These leveraged etf's are meant for shorter time frame trades, not long term. They tend to lose value over time, they are not buy and hold strategy's.

Thursday, July 07, 2016

How High Is 'Sky-High' Silver Price? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2016

By: MoneyMetals

Now that the precious metals' five-year cyclical bear market is acting like it's been replaced by a vibrant bull run in the opposite direction (up!), many analysts who chided the ongoing rise in the mining stocks and metals that started in December 2015 are begrudgingly changing their "outlook" so they don't get left behind.

Some veterans are holding to long-stated targets, while others are raising them as Mr. Market gives us new information.