Thursday, March 16, 2017

Stocks Get Close To Record High Again As Fed Hikes Interest Rates / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017

By: Paul_Rejczak

Briefly: In our opinion, speculative short positions are favored (with stop-loss at 2,410, and profit target at 2,200, S&P 500 index).

Our intraday outlook is bearish, and our short-term outlook is bearish. Our medium-term outlook remains neutral, following S&P 500 index breakout above last year's all-time high:

Intraday outlook (next 24 hours): bearish
Short-term outlook (next 1-2 weeks): bearish
Medium-term outlook (next 1-3 months): neutral
Long-term outlook (next year): neutral

Thursday, March 16, 2017

Scotland Second Independence Referendum War - SNP Determined to Destroy the UK / Politics / BrExit

By: Nadeem_Walayat

In the run up to Scotland's September 2014 Independence Referendum, the Scottish Nationalists from Alex Salmond to Nichola Sturgeon down promised that they would abide by the results of the referendum, declaring that it was at least a once in a generation decision if not once in a life time decision. So here's a reminder of why the SNP cannot be trusted who blindly only see Independence as the answer to every question, and thus remain fanatically determined to destroy the United Kingdom at every opportunity.

Thursday, March 16, 2017

Trump’s Infrastructure Boondoggle / Politics / Infrastructure

By: Mike_Whitney

Donald Trump’s $1 trillion infrastructure plan is not an infrastructure plan and it won’t put $1 trillion of fiscal stimulus into the economy. It’s basically a scheme for handing over public assets to private corporations that will extract maximum profits via user fees and tolls. Because the plan is essentially a boondoggle, it will not lift the economy out of the doldrums, increase activity or boost growth.  Quite the contrary. When the details of how the program is going to be implemented are announced,  public confidence in the Trump administration is going to wither and stock prices are going to plunge.   This scenario cannot be avoided because the penny-pinching conservatives in the House and Senate have already said that they won’t support any plan that is not “revenue neutral” which means that any real $1 trillion spending package is a dead letter.  Thus, it’s only a matter of time before the Trump’s plan is exposed as a fraud and the sh** hits the fan.

Thursday, March 16, 2017

Here’s How Pharma Is Using AI Deep Learning To Cure Aging / Companies / AI

By: John_Mauldin

BY PATRICK COX : In 2011, scientists made one of the most important discoveries in the history of AI development. They found that graphics processing units (GPUs) are far better at simulating biological learning than central processing units (CPUs).

In retrospect, it seems obvious. Human brains are much more like GPUs than CPUs. Both brains and GPUs rely on parallel processing that simulates and predicts real world physics.

Thursday, March 16, 2017

China’s Economic Miracle Is Over / Economics / China Economy

By: John_Mauldin

BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN : Chinese Premier Li Keqiang told the National People’s Congress that China’s GDP growth rate would drop from 7% in 2016 to 6.5% this year. In 2016, the country’s growth rate was the lowest it has been since 1990.

The precision with which any country’s economic growth is measured is dubious, since it’s hard to measure the economic activity of hundreds of millions of people and businesses. But the reliability of China’s economic numbers has always been taken with a larger grain of salt than in most countries. We suspect that China’s economy is growing less than 6.5%, if at all.

Thursday, March 16, 2017

US Interest Rates Up Quarter Percent, Stock Market Loved It / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017

By: Harry_Boxer

Fed Yellen raised interest rates a quarter percent today and the stock market loved it. The Nasdaq 100 popped early, and then pulled back, but the S&P 500 kept going up all morning. By midday, just before the FOMC, they pulled back just a little going into that meeting, and then exploded. They pulled back again and rallied sharply. Only at the end of the day did they pull back a little to pare back the profits.

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Stock Market Chaos in the Chicken Coop / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017

By: Anthony_Cherniawski

SPX has exceeded its 61.8% Fib retracement and may be headed for the hourly Cycle Top at 2391.50. It is overbought to an extreme and may reverse at any time.

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Gold and Silver Price Manipulation: The Biggest Financial Crime In History / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017

By: Stewart_Dougherty

According to the mainstream financial media (MFM), the biggest financial frauds in history are the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme, with roughly $20 billion in net investor losses, and the Bank State rigging of LIBOR, which resulted in 16 guilty banks paying $35 billion in fines, which supposedly equated to their theft.

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

“Ryancare” Dead on Arrival: Can We Please Now Try Single Payer? / Politics / Healthcare Sector

By: Ellen_Brown

The Canadian plan also helps Canadians live longer and healthier than Americans. . . . We need, as a nation, to reexamine the single-payer plan, as many individual states are doing. — Donald Trump, The America We Deserve (2000)

The new American Health Care Act has been unveiled, and it has been pronounced an even greater disaster than Obamacare. Dubbed “Ryancare” or “Trumpcare” (over the objection of White House staff), the Republican health care bill is under attack from all sides, with even conservative leaders calling it “Obamacare Lite”, “bad policy”, a “warmed-over substitute,” and “dead on arrival.”

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Fanaticism, Stock Market Crash 2017 or Continuation of Bull Market / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017

By: Sol_Palha

"A fanatic is a man that does what he thinks the Lord would do if He knew the facts of the case." ~ Finley Peter Dunne

Not too long ago this bull market was one of the most hated in history; that no longer appears to be the case. Throughout the unpopular phase of this bull market, we consistently and much to the dismay of many penguins, oops we mean experts, stated that every pullback should have been treated as a buying opportunity. There were two reasons for this; market sentiment was consistently negative, and the trend was up.

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Stock Market Most Overvalued On Record — Worse Than 1929? / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017

By: GoldCore

The US stock market today has never been more dangerous and overvalued, according to respected Wall Street market analyst John Hussman.

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

A Response to “Bitcoin Won’t Work When SHTF” / Currencies / Bitcoin

By: Jeff_Berwick

I’ve been commenting a lot on bitcoin lately as it has had an amazing and volatile week.

One thing that I keep noticing in the comments, though, is at least one or two people always chime in and say, “Bitcoin is screwed when SHTF”.

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Forget 3% Growth with This Deficit, US Approaching 150% Debt-to-GDP Ratio / Interest-Rates / US Debt

By: John_Mauldin

Studies have shown that when government debt rises above 90% it begins to have an effect on the growth of GDP. That conclusion is a bit controversial in economic circles, as some say the critical level is higher or lower.

Understand, those studies are not examining some theoretical proposition; they are looking at actual debt and growth levels in countries over a long period of history. And the data show that excess debt inhibits growth.

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Desperate Saudi Arabia Turns to Asia for Investment / Economics / Saudi Arabia

By: John_Mauldin

BY XANDER SNYDER : King Salman of Saudi Arabia visited Malaysia on February 26. It was the first trip to the country for a Saudi monarch in over a decade. In his tour through Asia, visits also included Brunei, Japan, China, and Indonesia. Jakarta has not received a formal Saudi visitation in nearly five decades.

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Startups Will Define the Future of US Employment / Economics / Employment

By: John_Mauldin

Research shows that technology has net-net created far more jobs than it has destroyed. A recent study by Deloitte drew on data going back to 1871 in England and Wales and found that technology has been a job-creating machine.

Part of that is because technology increases people’s spending power, which creates a surge in the demand for hairdressers, bar staff, etc.

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Inflation + Populism = Soaring Gold / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017

By: John_Rubino

Inflation is back, thanks to the past few years’ exuberant borrowing and currency creation. Meanwhile, populist politicians are gaining traction in Europe, threatening both the European Union and the eurozone.

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

What's Preventing the Dow from Exploding? / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017

By: Clif_Droke

The stock market has once again entered a period of consolidation as investors wait for the results of the most important legislative decision of the year.  The fight to repeal and replace Obamacare has taken the spotlight as Congress debates the passage of legislation that would eliminate its most burdensome aspects for businesses and individual taxpayers alike.

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Fed Rate Hikes, Fiscal vs. Monetary Policy and Why Again the Case for Gold? / Interest-Rates / US Interest Rates

By: Gary_Tanashian

I’ve been thinking about the current Fed Funds rate hike cycle, which is logically gaining forward momentum now that the Fed can stand down from its 8-year, ultra-lenient monetary policy cycle.  That is because the Obama administration’s goals required a compliant Federal Reserve to continually re-liquefy the economy as its fiscal policies drained it.

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Energy Stocks Preparing a Bounce / Commodities / Oil Companies

By: ElliottWave-Forecast

2016 was a good year for Energy Stocks as Oil & GAS price rose significantly helping the Energy sector to recover from the drop that started since 2014 . However since the recent peak early this year , Oil price stabilised in a tight range and failed to move higher before the recent 9% drop last week in both Brent Crude and West Texas Intermediate .

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

SNP Declare Scotland to Commit Economic Suicide Early 2019, 2nd Independence Referendum / Politics / UK Politics

By: Nadeem_Walayat

The cult like SNP that sees Independence as the answer to EVERY question and so IS are once more demanding another once in a generation Independence referendum, barely 2 years since the last one. This despite current opinion polls stating that 55% of Scots want to remain within the United Kingdom. Though facts on the ground barely register with Scotland's IS fundamentalists who could be seen as being just as dangerously determined to destroy the United Kingdom as are their Levant namesakes. Permanently deaf, dumb and blind to the real world consequences of that which they zealously seek, an outcome that would amount to Scotland committing economic, social and territorial suicide, for that is what happens when nations tear themselves apart and this whilst Britain is attempting to pull itself away from the European Union is clearly meant to do maximum damage to England and Scotland, in their never ending quest for suicide as is the ultimate goal of all cults.