Monday, April 03, 2017

Gold and Silver Warning Signs / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017

By: Jordan_Roy_Byrne

Precious metals closed the first quarter with solid gains. Gold gained almost 9% while Silver gained 14%. The miners (GDX and GDXJ) gained the same amounts (9% and 14%) but unlike the metals which closed at their highs of the quarter, ended up losing more than half their gains. Despite a strong quarter, the entire complex remains below the February highs and 200-day moving average (ex Silver)  just days after the US Dollar index rebounded strongly from its own 200-day moving average. As the second quarter begins, the warning signs for precious metals are mounting. 

Monday, April 03, 2017

Duterte Under Fire, Philippines 'The Punisher' Takes a Beating / Politics / Asian Economies

By: STRATFOR

Forecast

• Challenges to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's hold on power, whether in the form of an impeachment or a coup, are unlikely to gain momentum while he remains broadly popular.
• But China's unrelenting attempts to extend its maritime boundaries will complicate its detente with the Philippines and undermine Duterte's political support at home.
• Meanwhile, the president's contentious domestic agenda will test the mettle of his ruling coalition. 

Monday, April 03, 2017

The Brexit War! EU Fearing Collapse Set to Stoke Scottish Independence Proxy War / Politics / BrExit

By: Nadeem_Walayat

On Wednesday 29th May 2017 Theresa May's post man in Brussels hand delivered a 6 page letter to Donald Tusk the President of the European Council, triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty starting the formal process for the UK exiting the European Union within 2 years' time, with the negotiations expected to begin during May following the conclusion of the French Presidential elections.

Monday, April 03, 2017

USD and Gold: Intermediate and Super Cycle Update / Currencies / US Dollar

By: SurfCity

Beyond the 5-6 month Intermediate Cycle and Yearly Cycle (2-3 Intermediate Cycle), there are also longer Cycles for all assets. Gold for example has a 4 Year Cycle and the USD has a 3 Year Cycle (measured Low to Low). The USD also has a 15 Year Super Cycle (5 of its 3 Year Cycles).

I have stated that my longer term Cycle analysis indicates the USD should be making its 15 Year Super Cycle top in 2017 but I am not sure just yet if this is behind us or dead ahead. As always, the Price and Time action on the charts will guide me. For now the Wedge in my first chart needs to be watched closely over the next couple of weeks. A break to the upside of my Red down trend line will confirm a new Intermediate Cycle for the USD while a more serious breach of my Blue Uptrend line that goes all the way back to early 2014 would have me strongly consider that the 15 year top is in.

Monday, April 03, 2017

Cyclical Stock Market Correction Underway / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017

By: Andre_Gratian

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.

Monday, April 03, 2017

The American Empire and Economic Collapse / Politics / Economic Collapse

By: Antonius_Aquinas

Despite the widespread hope among libertarians, classical liberals, non-interventionists, progressive peaceniks, and all those opposed to the US Empire that it may have some of its murderous reins pulled in with the election of Donald Trump, it appears that such optimism has now been dashed.  While the hope for a less meddlesome US foreign policy is not completely extinguished and would never have existed had the Wicked Witch of Chappaqua been elected, a number of President Trump’s foreign policy actions, so far, have been little different than his recent predecessors.

Monday, April 03, 2017

Introducing Britain’s “Penny Tech” Revolution / Companies / Investing 2017

By: Submissions

Sunday, April 02, 2017

BrExit War - Spain Warned Remember Falklands Over Gibraltar Subversion Attempts / Politics / BrExit

By: Nadeem_Walayat

With barely the Brexit process begun, Spain has already started to play their age old we want Gibraltar card with the EU issuing the following statement in support of Spain's claims on Gibraltar:

"After the United Kingdom leaves the Union, no agreement between the EU and the United Kingdom may apply to the territory of Gibraltar without the agreement between the Kingdom of Spain and the United Kingdom."

Sunday, April 02, 2017

The Russia US Election Hacking Fiasco: No Evidence Required / Politics / US Politics

By: Mike_Whitney

Here’s what bugs me about the Russia hacking story:  Why would the media, whose credibility is already at its lowest point ever, go after Trump when they had no facts to back them up?

Why?

Do the media bosses really think that if they set their hair on fire and run around yelling, “The Russians did it, the Russians did it”, the American people will sheepishly nod in agreement?

Sunday, April 02, 2017

The American Dream, Twice Removed / Politics / Social Issues

By: Raul_I_Meijer

Nicole Foss is in Christchurch, New Zealand right now for the Living Economies Expo, and sent me, I’m still in Athens, Greece, a piece written by yet another longtime Automatic Earth reader, Helen Loughrey (keep ’em coming!), who describes her efforts trying to find a rental home in Fairfield County, Connecticut.

The first thing that struck me is how effortless and global sending information has become (category things you know but that hit you anyway occasionally, which is a good thing). The second is that the fall-out of the financial crisis has followed the same path as the information ‘revolution’: that is, it’s spreading faster than wildfire.

Sunday, April 02, 2017

Emerging Markets Index ETF (EEM) Increasing Chance of a Correction / Stock-Markets / Emerging Markets

By: MarketsToday

iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index ETF (EEM) hit a high of 40.23 two weeks and has since begun to show signs that it may be starting a correction. At that high EEM had advanced 12.62 or 45.71% off the 27.61 bottom reached in January 2016. A move down to at least the uptrend line is looking likely now before this ETF is ready to make another run higher, if it is to do so.

Sunday, April 02, 2017

Time to Repair the Deflating US Dollar / Currencies / US Dollar

By: Tony_Caldaro

Every century the US has been existence there has been a new USD. And we believe it is time for a new US Dollar in the 21st century. In the following paragraphs we hope to explain why this is required, and how this could be accomplished in the coming years. First a little history.

In the 18th century (1792) the US established the first USD with the one ounce Silver coin. There was no paper currency only Silver and Gold coins. The US was on a Silver standard, and one ounce of Silver was worth $1.

Sunday, April 02, 2017

Neocon Fury Over Trump’s Syria Policy / Politics / Syria

By: John_Rubino

Neocon senators John McCain (R. AR) and Lindsey Graham (R. SC) likely believe war is peace. Freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength - with attribution to George Orwell.

They’re furious about Secretary of State Tillerson, saying “the longer-term status of President Assad will be decided by the Syrian people.”

Separately, US UN envoy Nikki Haley said “(y)ou pick and choose your battles, and when we’re looking at this, it’s about changing up priorities and our priority is no longer to sit there and focus on getting Assad out.”

Sunday, April 02, 2017

Maybe The US Economic Recovery Wasn’t Real After All / Economics / US Economy

By: John_Rubino

For a while there it looked like the US and its main trading partners had finally achieved escape velocity. Growth was up, inflation was poking through the Fed’s 2% target, and most measures of consumer sentiment were bordering on euphoric.

Then it all started to evaporate. Lackluster manufacturing and consumer spending reports sent the Atlanta Fed’s reading of Q1 GDP off a cliff to less than 1%:

Saturday, April 01, 2017

Irish Government To Issue FREE Gold Coin To Protect Citizens From Brexit’s Impact On Euro and EU / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017

By: GoldCore

– Unprecedented move to see Irish government issue free gold coin to Irish citizens
– Controversy as Irish government plans for Irish people to own 1 ounce of gold
– Irish Finance Minister said the “little people” were exposed due to risks from Brexit and the end of the euro
– “Gold can be stored for a long time … doesn’t lose its value for the population as a means of savings”
– Politicians in Ireland criticise move as “too generous” to Irish Americans given Ireland still close to bankruptcy

Saturday, April 01, 2017

SPX at Important Short /Medium Term Juncture / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017

By: Tony_Caldaro

The market started the week at SPX 2344. After a gap down opening on Monday to SPX 2322 the market moved higher for the rest of the week. On Tuesday the SPX hit 2364, pulled back to 2353 on Wednesday, then hit 2370 on Thursday. On Friday it ended the week at SPX 2363. For the week the SPX/DOW gained 0.55%, and the NDX/NAZ gained 1.40%. Economic reports were mostly positive. On the downtick: consumer sentiment, the WLEI and the Q1 GDP estimate. On the uptick: Case-Shiller, consumer confidence, pending home sales, Q4 GDP, personal income/spending, the PCE and the Chicago PMI. Nest week’s reports will be highlighted by the monthly payrolls report and the ISMs.

Saturday, April 01, 2017

The EU Is One Big Fatal Flaw / Politics / European Union

By: Raul_I_Meijer

The true face of the EU is presently on display in Greece, not in Germany or Holland or France. Brussels must first fix what’s going wrong in Athens and the Aegean, and there’s a lot going wrong, before it can move on towards the future, indeed towards any future at all. It has a very tough job in Italy as well, which it’s trying hard to ignore.|

Saturday, April 01, 2017

The BrExit War - Britain Intelligence Super Power Covert War With the EU / Politics / BrExit

By: Nadeem_Walayat

Britain may have stopped being a military super power shortly after winning World War 2, a war that virtually bankrupted the British Empire leading to its dissolution. However the cold war, another war that Britain played a pivotal role in winning, where despite Britain having one of the world’s most effective intelligence apparatus that apart from the bond movies has done a good job of mostly remaining secret, instead letting the CIA and NSA take the public limelight, however did abysmally fail to avert BrExit from becoming manifest, that virtually all saw as an impossible outcome as the following video of Brexit night illustrates.

Friday, March 31, 2017

Gold in Fed Interest Rate Hike Cycles / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017

By: Zeal_LLC

Gold suffered heavy selling in early March leading into the Fed’s latest rate hike.  Speculators frantically dumped gold futures ahead of the Fed’s meeting as implied rate-hike odds soared.  This is nothing new.  This key group of traders has long feared Fed-rate-hike cycles, convinced they are the mortal nemesis of zero-yielding gold.  But this view is highly irrational, as history proves gold actually thrives in rate-hike cycles!

The Federal Reserve’s primary and dominant tool for setting monetary policy is its target for the federal-funds rate.  Commercial banks are required to maintain reserve balances at the Fed, with necessary levels fluctuating daily based on each bank’s underlying business activity.  So banks with surplus reserves can lend them on an overnight basis to other banks running deficits through the federal-funds market.

Friday, March 31, 2017

The Brexit Has Begun: Now What? / Politics / BrExit

By: STRATFOR

Until now, the Brexit had mostly been a succession of public statements, declarations of intent, veiled threats and wishful thinking. But today, the British government made the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union manifest by officially invoking Article 50 of the EU treaty and delivering formal notification of its departure from the Continental bloc, the first member ever to do so. This started the clock on negotiations over the terms of the divorce and their future relationship, which will leave both the United Kingdom and the European Union considerably changed.