Saturday, December 19, 2015

U.S. Fed Mission Accomplished / Interest-Rates / US Interest Rates

By: Peter_Schiff

On May 1, 2003 on the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln then President George W. Bush, after becoming the first U.S. president to land on an aircraft carrier in a fixed wing aircraft (in a dashing olive drab flight suit), declared underneath an enormous "Mission Accomplished" banner that "major combat operations" in Iraq had been concluded, that regime change had been effected, and that America had prevailed in its mission to transform the Middle East. 13 years later, after years of additional combat operations in Iraq, and a Middle East that is spiraling out of control and increasingly disdainful of America's influence, we look back at the "Mission Accomplished" event as the epitome of false confidence and premature celebration.

Friday, December 18, 2015

Stock Market Flash Crash Time? / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2015

By: Anthony_Cherniawski

This is getting uncomfortably close to a meltdown, despite the late hour. If it continues to decline into the close, options sellers will be caught wrong-footed and will have to continue to sell on Monday.

Flash Crash time?

Friday, December 18, 2015

Stock Market Figures Out Fed No Longer Has Its Back / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2015

By: John_Rubino

US stocks soared while the Fed was meeting to raise interest rates this week — though it’s not clear why that should be so since monetary tightening isn’t generally a good thing for stock prices.

In any event, it didn’t last. Over the past 48 hours the Dow is down more than 3%, with many, many individual stocks down far more.

Friday, December 18, 2015

Is the Stock Market "Courting Catastrophe?" / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2015

By: Anthony_Cherniawski

On the surface, it seems like a “normal” trading day in the SPX.  It is not.  The chart gives it away by showing the daily volume already at the to of its daily range and it’s not yet 1:00 pm.

Back in 2006 I had the privilege of talking with Andrew Smithers, who was part of the investigation team to determine what caused the Crash in 1987.  He had been interviewed by Barrons Magazine in a now famous article entitled, “Courting Catastrophe.” 

Friday, December 18, 2015

The Velocity of the American Consumer / Economics / US Economy

By: Raul_I_Meijer

I was reading something yesterday by my highly esteemed fellow writer Charles Hugh Smith that had me first puzzled and then thinking ‘I don’t think so’, in the same vein as Mark Twain’s recently over-quoted quote:

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

I was thinking that was the case with Charles’ article. I was sure it just ain’t so. As for Twain, I’m more partial to another quote of his these days (though it has absolutely nothing to do with the topic:

Friday, December 18, 2015

U.S. Yield Curve and Spreads: Fed's Real Policy Error in Pictures; What's Next? / Interest-Rates / US Interest Rates

By: Mike_Shedlock

Inquiring minds may be interested in a detailed look at the yield curve and spreads between various durations following the Fed's Wednesday rate hike. Let's start with a long-term chart from 1996 to 2015.

Friday, December 18, 2015

Post ZIRP Stock Market and Gold Era / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2015

By: Zeal_LLC

The Federal Reserve finally mustered the courage to end its radical zero-interest-rate-policy experiment this week.  Its quarter-point rate hike announced on the seventh anniversary of ZIRP kicks off the long road to normalization.  This leaves the stock markets and gold in unprecedented uncharted territory.  The Fed has never before attempted to exit ZIRP, let alone in the midst of such extremely distorted markets.

The Fed’s ZIRP saga symmetrically ended 7 years to the day after it began way back in mid-December 2008.  That was just after the dark heart of that year’s once-in-a-century stock panic, which struck terror into the Bernanke Fed.  The benchmark S&P 500 broad-market stock index (SPX) had plummeted 30.0% in a single month in October, and then plunged another 11.4% from those brutal lows in the subsequent month.

Friday, December 18, 2015

Stock Market Something Strange is Going On / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2015

By: Anthony_Cherniawski

It appears that the data feed to all the websites from the stock exchanges is having issues. StockCharts, Bloomberg and ForexPros appear to be in limbo. As far as I can tell, this is accurate, but who knows what goes on when the system is “off?”

This may be a way to discourage trades, since one can hardly know if he/she is getting an accurate quote. There is no report from ZeroHedge on this issue, which I find strange.

Friday, December 18, 2015

Spread of Islamophobia and the Upsurge of Ultra-Fascism to Contain and Counter Arabization and Islamization of the West / Politics / Social Issues

By: Dr_R_M_Mathew

The World, especially the West is under the grip of Islamophobia consequent on the onslaught of the western culture, democratic values, open society and women empowerment by the new brand of Radicle Islam and above all Islamic Terror Attacks. Radical Islam or Islamism ultimately aims at Arabization, more specifically Primitive Arab Tribalization of the West and the Rest of the World.

Friday, December 18, 2015

Do Inflation Indicators Drive the Prices of Gold? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015

By: Arkadiusz_Sieron

Alongside the GDP and labor market’s strength, inflation rate is the most important macroeconomic indicator – since the Fed promotes full employment and price stability. The price stability is measured as the inflation rate, so inflation reports are closely watched by the U.S. central bank and investors. In the August Market Overview, we showed that gold is not always an inflation hedge. At that time, we focused on the Consumer Price Index, which is not the only measure of inflation. The others are the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (PCEPI) and the Producer Price Index (PPI).

Friday, December 18, 2015

Cineworld Star Wars the Force Awakens NOT for Tesco Clubcard Voucher Customers / ConsumerWatch / Shopping

By: Sami_Walayat

Star Wars the Force Awakes with near unanimously good reviews looks set to become one of the biggest movie hits of all time, and so is encouraging many less frequent cinema goers to pay a visit to their local cinema's such as Cineworld, preferably to watch the movie on the biggest IMAX screens in 3d for the full Star Wars effect.

Friday, December 18, 2015

SPX Defending 2000 Today / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2015

By: Anthony_Cherniawski

Good Morning!

I spent some time reviewing my Cycles chart to verify its accuracy. You may recall that I had suggested about two weeks ago that December 9 would be the “ideal day” for a Master Cycle low (258 days). Instead, it may have fallen on Monday, December 14, at 11:39 am. You might say that it was 4.3 calendar days from the average length of time, on day 263. I don’t have the exact figure any more, but I had done a study that showed that over 90% of all Cycle bottoms happen within 4.3 days of their normal date.

Friday, December 18, 2015

Data, Charts, History Show Rising Interest Rates Good For Gold / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015

By: GoldCore

Gold fell to the lowest level in dollar terms since 2009 yesterday after the Fed’s “historic” 25 basis point interest rate rise on Wednesday. The rate hike has been heralded as the “end of cheap money.” This may or may not be the case but what is more important for precious metal buyers is the impact of potential rising rates on gold prices.

Friday, December 18, 2015

Gold Price Bottom is Close - Video / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015

By: Gary_Savage

Transcript excerpt :
gonna do a quick little video on goal this morning we are getting pretty close
to at least an intermediate cycle bottom and possibly maybe the final bear market
bottom near Market St in a yearly cycle o gold is in the process of leading a
yearly cycle low right now so couple things I want to look at everybody is
bearish on gold expecting no new lows here soon and I have to say that's
probably the most likely scenario but there is the potential that we could
have formed a double bottom yesterday gold is balancing this morning as I was
recording also we've got a table in Japan crash signal senior gold is closed
slightly below the lower Bollinger Band and bottoms will often form on these on
these moves below the close below the lower Bollinger Band here's one right

Friday, December 18, 2015

Eric Coffin Calls Out the Fed's Biggest Mistake and What You Can Do to Protect Your Portfolio / Commodities / Gold and Silver Stocks 2015

By: The_Gold_Report

Eric Coffin, editor of HRA Journal, writes one of the must-read newsletters in the junior mining sector. In this interview with The Gold Report, Coffin implores gold equity investors to ask: Is the project financeable in this market? And he discusses some companies he covers in the HRA Journal with the know-how to find funds, as well as a couple of uranium names that would benefit from utilities re-entering the market to find long-term delivery deals. But Coffin gets rolling by questioning U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen's timing, warning investors about the growing divergence between equity and higher yield markets, and shooting down the accepted theory that the U.S. dollar index is heading to 120.

Friday, December 18, 2015

The Fed Rate Hike Will Trigger a $9 Trillion Financial Markets Meltdown / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2016

By: Graham_Summers

Yesterday, the Fed has hiked interest rates from 0.25% to 0.5%.

It is the first rate hike in 10 years. And it is now clear that the Fed is not only behind the ball in terms of raising rates… but that it has now primed the financial system for another 2008-type meltdown.

By way of background we need to consider the relationship between the US Dollar and the Euro.

Friday, December 18, 2015

Sugar Commodity Trade Setup / Commodities / Agricultural Commodities

By: Chris_Vermeulen

Before I dig into the nitty gritty of this potentially sweet trade setup, I would like to first wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday!

Being from Canada, I’m very lucky to be able to spend quality time with my family for the next month down in the sunshine state of Florida. I sure love the ocean breeze, sand between the toes, palm trees, and heat. Its amazing how cold Floridians make a sunny 70-degree day look being all bundled up in pants, jackets, and hats while I live in my bathing suit practically the entire time I’m down here. I don’t put on pants or a sweater until its 65ish outside or a restaurant demands I must wear pants and I’m still sweating wearing all that clothing. Its great to be back in America!

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Darth Trump Presidency - Trump Empire Storm Troopers Strike Back - Video / ElectionOracle / US Presidential Election 2016

By: Videos

Will the force awaken amongst America's electorate by the time of the November 2016 poll? Or will Darth Trump be victorious and unleashes the Trump Empire's storm troopers first on other nations and then on america's own neighbourhoods as ever expanding lists of enemies of the Trump Empire are eliminated.

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Silly Myths About Gold During Rising Interest Rates / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015

By: MoneyMetals

Fed Hikes; Silly Myths about Interest Rates & Gold Persist

The Fed finally acted this week – upping its benchmark Federal Funds rate by 0.25%. Now that the speculation over whether the Fed will hike has been put to rest, analysts are busily speculating about what the Fed's move means for the economy and markets.

Many of these speculations are unfounded. It's time to bust some silly myths.

Thursday, December 17, 2015

SPX Breaks a Trifecta of Supports / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2015

By: Anthony_Cherniawski

SPX has declined beneath its 200-day at 2062.12, its 50-day at 2061.90 and its mid-Cycle support at 2060.98. In case you have been stopped out, this is a confirmed sell signal. We may see a very fast, deep decline, so stay on the alert and stay short.