Tuesday, March 06, 2018
8 Reasons Your Investment Portfolio Needs Crisis Insurance / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2018
By Olivier Garret : We’ve recently witnessed what I consider to be a turning point for the stock market.Just when many predicted another growth year for the markets, on Monday, February 5, the Dow plunged by 1,600 points—its greatest point drop in history.
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Tuesday, March 06, 2018
Will the Stars Shine on Gold? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2018
Major blow to the EU! The populist Five Star Movement won about one-third of the votes in the Italian general elections. It’s another negative shock for the European establishment. Will these stars shine on gold?
Five Stars Movement Triumphs
We live in strange times. To be a hairstylist, you need a license. But you can become a politician being just a comedian and telling jokes. We refer here to Beppe Grillo who co-founded the Five Star Movement a decade ago. Although the party was initially perceived as a harmless prank, it quickly became a serious threat for mainstream politicians in Italy. In 2013, it reached 25.55 percent of the vote, introducing 109 out of the 630 deputies in the Parliament. It would obtain even more members, but it refused to form a coalition. Fast forward to 2018 – the Five Star Movement won about one third of the votes. It means that it will likely be the largest single party – and the pillar of the next legislature.
Tuesday, March 06, 2018
Credit Card Customers Prepare for Debt Crackdown / Personal_Finance / Credit Cards & Scoring
Consumers who frequently use their credit cards to cope with everyday costs and large purchases may be concerned by the latest scrutiny in the market. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has, as of this month, given credit card providers six months to adhere to the new rules that tackle the issues surrounding persistent debt*.
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Tuesday, March 06, 2018
The Powell Fed is Draining Liquidity. Here’s Where Stocks Are Going / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018
The Fed officially has a new Fed Chair, Jerome Powell. And ever since he took office, it is clear that “something” has changed at the Fed.
That something is the famed “Fed put” or the idea that the Fed would immediately move to prop up stocks any time they began to fall.
Jerome Powell was sworn in as Fed Chair on February 5th 2018. At that time, the market was in the sharp sell-off annotated in the chart below:
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Tuesday, March 06, 2018
Jeff Sessions the Mr. Magoo Buffoon / Politics / US Politics
Pick your poison for the Trump administration's biggest failure. Russian demonization by the State Department, movement of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem or adopting the threat of an aggressive use of nuclear weapons are all high on the list. All of these topics deal with foreign policy. However, the country ignores or dismisses such concerns because the bombs are not yet hitting our shores.
What does impact every inhabitant is that the rule of law has become an utter joke, especially under the regimes of the last three Attorney Generals. Sadly President Trump got snookered by former Senator Jeff Sessions when he was picked to lead the Department of Justice, better described as UNJUSTICE by anyone who has half a brain left to admit the true condition of the top cops, head attorneys or government pseudo magistrates.
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Tuesday, March 06, 2018
Top Things to Look Into When Considering Home Investment / Housing-Market / Investing 2018
Investing into a new home or another property can take a significant toll on anyone`s budget. It is a very important investment to make, so you need to carefully examine a few things first before giving away your money. If you have a stable job and steady income then you are in good position to pursue your goal of buying a new house. However, buying new home takes time as well as effort. You have to go through a few processes first in order to make sure that you are getting good value for your investment. Finally, when you buy your new house you should also not forget to insure it. It is advisable for you to pick a good insurance package like iSelect - home & contents insurance so you will eliminate all your worries. Now check out the following things to look into when considering investing into a new home.
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Tuesday, March 06, 2018
Sheffield Street Fellings Revolution Against Labour City Council Rule / Local / Sheffield
Following the thawing of the 'Beast from the East', the amount of force being deployed against Sheffield's -tree felling protestors has been ratcheted up to a whole new level, with at least 30 police officers deployed onto Abbeydale Park Rise Road in support of an similar number of SIA security and a dozen or so chainsaw wielding tree fellers, all to fell start felling some 20 relatively small sized cherry trees that have been the centre point for the areas annual Christmas Lights for charity display each December.
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Monday, March 05, 2018
Wild Stock Market Swings Coming Up.. / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018
I had thought the Fractal Model would only work on the impulses and not the corrections. However this rally is emulating Wave A perfectly with a 50% retracement. This implies a 175 point decline may be coming next. The target appears to be 2540.00-2545.00. This does not appear to be taking out the February 9 low, as suggested. This sets up the buy-the-dippers for a smashing after another probe of the 50-day Moving Average at 2738.50 or the mid-Cycle resistance currently at 2748.63.
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Monday, March 05, 2018
Trump to Declare War on Fed Central Bank / Politics / Central Banks
We are only a little over one year into the Donald’s Presidency and what we know most for sure is that our new President loves debt. Not only did debt and deficits get the cold shoulder in the recent State of the Union, Trump played “Let’s Make a Deal” with the Lords of the Swamp Mitch and Chuck to increase government spending by 13% over current levels. We also know that he prefers a weaker dollar, which he hopes will engender balanced trade—along with trade tariffs it now seems. But most of all, he loves as a rising stock market that he views as a report card for the administration and his success.
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Monday, March 05, 2018
Gold’s Chance to Finally Shine and its Upside Target for Friday / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2018
Taking profits on our short positions and closing them on Thursday turned out to be a good idea. Gold, silver and – on an intraday basis – mining stocks moved higher on Friday, while the USD Index declined. But, is the rally over after just one day? Not likely – gold’s and miners’ turning points are likely to result in something more than just a daily rally. So, how high is gold likely to rally this time? That’s what we discuss in the following part of today’s alert.
But first, let’s take a look at what happened in the USD Index (chart courtesy of http://stockcharts.com).
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Monday, March 05, 2018
Stock Market SPX 100 Point Drop? / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018
SPX futures have started to decline again as of 6:00 am. SPX is on a sell signal, having declined beneath all Cycle supports, including the 50-day Moving Average.
Today the Fractal Model suggests a decline of approximately 100 points that should take SPX beneath the Cycle Bottom support at 2603.68. Unless something breaks down, it does not appear that it will take out the prior low at 2532.69. That may complete Wave 1 of (3). From there we may see a bounce back to the trendline near 2675.00. Prepare yourself for some wide swings as the volatility increases.
ZeroHedge writes, “What started off as a sea of red, with S&P futures tumbling as much as -25 points ahead of the European open, on fears of trade wars and concerns about the surge in Italy's anti-establishment parties, has managed to rebound notable and stabilize, with most Asian and European markets now green. The dollar was steady and Treasuries gained, while Italian bonds dropped as the nation headed toward a hung parliament.”
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Monday, March 05, 2018
Friday's Bounce Gave Stock Market Bulls Some Hope, Stocks at a Crossroads, or a Cliff? / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018
Friday's trading session brought an intraday rebound of the main U.S. stock market indexes. They opened lower and continued short-term downtrend before bouncing off and closing between -0.3% and +1.1% vs. their Thursday's closing prices. Was this a final sell-off within a downtrend from Tuesday's local high? The broad stock market may have found at least some temporary bottom, but will it continue upwards or just go sideways?
The main U.S. stock market indexes were mixed between -0.3% and +1.1% vs. their Thursday's closing prices on Friday, following lower opening of the trading session and an intraday bounce off support levels. The S&P 500 index closed 0.5% higher, and it is currently trading 6.3% below January 26 record high of 2,872.87. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.3%, as it was relatively weaker than the broad stock market again and the technology Nasdaq Composite gained 1.1% on Friday.
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Monday, March 05, 2018
US Dollar at the Start of Multi-Year Downtrend / Currencies / US Dollar
Since the US Dollar trades freely in the 1970s, on average it has rallied and declined in a period of 7.5 years. The chart below shows short term and long term US Dollar cycle:
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Monday, March 05, 2018
Five Year Buy-to-let Mortgage Interest Rates Return to Record Lows / Housing-Market / Mortgages
In April 2016, the buy-to-let (BTL) market faced a stamp duty rule change, whereby BTL purchases would incur an extra 3% surcharge on the stamp duty payable. As a result, many landlords who are looking to buy a property sought to do so before this tax change.
Those who took a two-year fixed rate deal back then will be thinking about remortgaging soon. In attempts to attract these borrowers, research from moneyfacts.co.uk shows that the average five-year fixed rate has fallen to 3.43% – a joint record-low, which was last seen in October 2017.
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Monday, March 05, 2018
The Biggest Energy Breakthrough Since Fracking / Commodities / Oil Companies
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Monday, March 05, 2018
Will The Trump Trade Tariffs Send The Stock Market Into A Tizzy? / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018
Each week, I believe the silliness being espoused as to what moves the market reaches a climax. Yet, the following week somehow always proves me wrong.
Two weeks ago, I noted how the pundits claimed the market dropped because of rising rates, but when the market rallied, the same pundits claimed that it was rallying because of rising rates.
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Monday, March 05, 2018
Fade The News – Another Leg Higher For Stocks / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018
Recently, quite a bit of news has been published warning of a massive market correction or top that may scare you. Our research shows this is not the case. We want to set your mind at ease with regards to these fears they may be experiencing with some real research and price modeling that has proven to be extremely accurate over the past 5+ months.
The research team at www.TheTechnicalTraders.com has continued to publish market research documents that have contradicted many of the largest research firms on the planet. Our small, but dedicated, team of analysts and researchers have spent years developing modeling systems that assist us in knowing what the markets will do in the future. In some cases, many weeks in advance. This helps us time our trades and select market sectors that are about to rotate well before the moves begin.
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Monday, March 05, 2018
SILVER Large Specualtors Net Short Position 15 Year Anniversary / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2018
Technical analyst Clive Maund charts silver and explains why he is bullish on the metal.
The purpose of this update is to commemorate the Large Specs having their first net short position in silver since the site started 15 years ago, and also to consider how we can turn this to our advantage. Before we look at silver's latest extraordinary COT chart and consider its implications, we will first quickly review the silver charts.
We will start with an 8-year chart that shows the big picture and includes the entire bear market from the April–May 2011 peak. On this chart we see that silver is in the very late stage of a giant downsloping Head-and-Shoulders bottom and currently grinding sideways marking out a protracted Right Shoulder low. Because of its downslope, many observers think that silver's bear market is ongoing and fail to spot that this is a giant base pattern, but the parallel Head-and-Shoulders bottom in gold is much more obvious because it is flat-topped, and it is this that helps give the game away.
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Monday, March 05, 2018
A Complex Stock Market Correction / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018
Current Position of the Market
SPX: Long-term trend – The bull market is continuing with a top expected in the low 3000s.
Intermediate trend – The intermediate correction from 2872 has become more complex.
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, March 04, 2018
Best Cash ISA Savings for Rising UK Interest Rates and High Inflation - March 2018 / Personal_Finance / ISA's
UK savers have just 1 month left to capitalise on their 20k annual tax free ISA savings allowance, and I am sure many are buoyed by mainstream financial press coverage of warnings of rising UK interest rates which includes for savers as well as borrowers as the Bank of England is expected to continue hiking UK base rates as it plays the game of follow the US Federal Reserve Bank leader and withdraw some of its support for Britain's banking sector such as the funding for lending scheme that resulted in a catastrophic downwards death spiral in UK savings interest rates when it first began in 2012. That resulted in UK savers being literally ripped off by the tax payer bailed out banking sector, the duration for which the banks that have continued to bank bonuses on the basis of artificial profits engineered by the Bank of England in an attempt at recapitalisng the bankrupt banks all whilst savers continue to suffer and pay the price in terms of real terms loss of purchasing power of savings as inflation continues to erode the heard earned wealth of Britain's savers.
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