Sunday, January 08, 2017
Will Donald Trump Defy Expectations and Be a Peace President? / Politics / US Politics
By: Stephen_Lendman
It’s hardly likely given America’s rage for endless wars, gorging on them. Neocons infesting Washington demand them.
Enemies are invented to accommodate them. War profiteers depend on them. The indifferent public does nothing to demand they stop.
Yet what US leader in memory said getting along with Russia “is a good thing, not a bad thing. Only ‘stupid’ people, or fools, would think that it is bad!” If Trump follows through on this rhetoric, imagine the possibilities for change.
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Sunday, January 08, 2017
The Trump Stock Market Bubble / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2016
By: Mike_Whitney
Donald Trump has a plan for dealing with the stock market bubble. Make it bigger.
Before the election candidate Trump blasted Federal Reserve chairman Janet Yellen for keeping interest rates too low for too long to keep the economy humming along while Obama was still in office. The president elect accused Yellen of being politically motivated suggesting that the Fed’s policies had put the country at risk of another stock market Crash like 2008.
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Sunday, January 08, 2017
In a Lawless World, Rules STILL Matter / Economics / Economic Theory
By: Andy_Sutton
While economics is a science and should be treated as such, economic forecasting is both a science and an art at the same time. However, anyone can forecast. Just like anyone can forecast the weather. To do so accurately and furthermore to do so frequently is a true talent. We think of it along the lines of the ability to hit a major league fastball; a gift granted to maybe 1 in 500 or a thousand babies each year. Then add to that the ability to hit a major league fastball for an average of .300 over an entire career and we’re talking a few babies in an entire generation.
Sunday, January 08, 2017
The Trump Reset War With China: 2. The Putin Doctrine / Politics / US Politics
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Trump's US election win amounts to a pressing of the RESET button on that which has passed for at least the past 40 years. Which demands a reappraisal of virtually everything to ascertain not just the impact of Trump but the trend reversal / rebellion underway amongst Western populations against the ruling elites that will impact on the mega-trend drivers of financial market trends for many years if not decades to come.
Sunday, January 08, 2017
Obama Has 14 Days To Start World War III / Politics / WW3
By: Jeff_Berwick
Barack O’Bomber was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize before he even became President. And he hasn’t had one day of peace in his eight years.
And, he now has 14 days left and appears to be trying to foment World War III with his remaining opportunity.
Long ago O’Bomber accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, but didn’t do anything to either justify or deserve it. More recently he’s actually done a lot to repudiate it.
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Sunday, January 08, 2017
China Potentially Threatens a Near Term Us Treasury Bond Market Short Squeeze! / Interest-Rates / US Bonds
By: Gordon_T_Long
Problems in China are looming on top of an already very tenuous and misunderstood situation in the US Financial Markets. Additionally, Federal Reserve Policy has made the situation even more combustible!
As a result of a Trump Victory inspired bond market massacre there are now few places that a yield starved world can presently find better risk-adjusted yields than in US Treasuries. With China now being forced to sell their FX Reserves and thereby creating the much needed supply so eagerly craved by foreign investors, it is also further depleting an already restricted EuroDollar pool required to buy this supply. There are consequences of this combination of shifting global parameters.
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Sunday, January 08, 2017
Government Bail-ins, Asset Confiscations and the Gold Sword of Self Defense / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2017
By: Stewart_Dougherty
[Preface: In Part 1 of our report, “Goldman to Trump: Situation Assessment, Government Bail-ins and the Precious Metals Threat,” we inferred what Goldman Sachs’s second in command Gary Cohn might have said to President-elect Trump during their meeting on November 29, 2016. Cohn met again with Mr. Trump on December 2, 2016, and this time, we have inferred that he was accompanied by a second person. Here is Part 2 of our intuited, fictional report.]
Mr. Cohn: It is a pleasure to see you once again, Mr. Trump. I have been pre-empted. I was asked by important friends of our firm to introduce to you their envoy, Dr. Hugo Ehrlich. I can vouch for the fact that he represents extraordinarily powerful people with whom you will be working closely going forward. Let me turn it over to Dr. Ehrlich so he can explain.”
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Sunday, January 08, 2017
Soft Commodities and the SPX Stocks Bull Market / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: Tony_Caldaro
The week started on Tuesday at SPX 2239. The market gapped up to start the week, hit SPX 2264, sold off to 2245, then gapped up on Wednesday to hit 2273. Thursday the market pulled back to SPX 2260. Then on Friday the SPX made all-time new highs at 2282. For the week the SPX/DOW gained 1.45%, and the NDX/NAZ gained 2.95%. Economic reports for the week were slightly positive. On the downtick: the ADP, monthly payrolls, unemployment, factory orders, plus the trade deficit increased. On the uptick: construction spending, ISM manufacturing, auto sales, the WLEI, the Q4 GDP estimate, plus weekly jobless claims declined. Next week’s reports will be highlighted by retail sales, business/wholesale inventories and consumer credit.
Saturday, January 07, 2017
Now Is the Time to Face Reality and Invest in Gold / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
By: David_Galland
Stephen McBride writes: Since reaching multi-year highs in July, gold has plummeted 17%. Having risen 22% in the first seven months of 2016, many believed the yellow metal had moved too far, too fast.
They were right.
Gold’s fall quickened post-election, caused by an uptick in optimism about America’s future. The economy was seen as ready to “take-off” in 2017 once Trump’s pro-growth policies kicked in. The Fed’s December rate hike just added fuel to the fire.
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Saturday, January 07, 2017
The World Is Entering a “Localism” Era / Politics / Social Issues
By: John_Mauldin
BY PATRICK WATSON : Against all odds, we made it through 2016.
I think future historians will call last year the, “Year of Shattered Concepts.” Obvious truths proved false, and unstoppable trends stopped.
Globalization is a prime example.
The idea that free trade and technology would merge the planet into one Giant Happy Global Economy is mortally wounded. The incoming Trump administration may well deliver the coup de grâce.
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Saturday, January 07, 2017
DOW Breaths FIRE on Dow 20k, Stock Market New All Time Trading High 19,999.63 / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The Dow after a 2 week holiday break on Friday finally re-attempted to break above the stocks bull market mega-milestone of 20,000, by literally breathing fire on 20k for the whole of the trading session, trading to a high of 19,999.63 early in the session, retreating to close at 19,963. The Dow literally cannot get much closer than reaching 20k than 19,999.63 without actually touching it! A remarkable trading session taking the Dow within a cats whisker of achieving 20k.
Saturday, January 07, 2017
4 Reasons the Trump Stock Market Rally Has No Legs / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2016
By: David_Galland
US equity markets are already factoring in Trump’s promised reforms, while bond markets are pricing in higher inflation.
There’s just one thing: Trump hasn’t done anything yet. We’re still weeks away from his inauguration, and details of his economic plans remain scarce.
Investors seem to take potential positives for economic growth (lower taxes, deregulation, and fiscal stimulus) at face value, but ignore the potential negatives (soaring deficits, tariffs, and trade wars).
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Saturday, January 07, 2017
Financial Crisis, Sleepy Dull Masses & Reality Wake-Up Call / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2017
By: Jim_Willie_CB
Many people who have been steady loyal dedicated even honorable investors in the gold & silver trade as personal protection for life savings have endured struggles with the family and friends. Whether the conversations are with dullards or stubborn types, maybe educated and formerly successful types, maybe those who are stuck in the paper world of shuffled investments of seemingly no basis, it is of no matter. The battle has been for a few years to convince those around us that a deep contracted crisis is underway. The battle has been to convince that a paradigm shift is in progress. The battle to convince family, friends, colleagues, neighbors, and acquaintances that the financial and economic system is facing a profound risk of total breakdown has been difficult. Most people are stuck in their own cocoon with family duties and business responsibilities, to be sure. Many people are also stuck within entrenched assumptions, most of which are false and easily dismissed. Many people simply do not care, since the official thermometer and barometer readings all read normal if not healthy signals, but then again they are rigged much like icing a thermometer from a rabidly sick man with a high fever. No resolution to certain pervasive intractable problems can come easily, not without a tumultuous sequence of events. The climax appears to have begun last year, while the breakdown accelerates.
Saturday, January 07, 2017
Gold, Zince, the Ultimate Resource Investing Portfolio for 2017 / Commodities / Investing 2017
By: The_Gold_Report
Investors can profit in resources, says Lior Gantz, editor of Wealth Research Group, by partnering with and investing like the big players in the field.
The natural resource industry is a maze of companies—thousands of them—but when you get right down to it, this entire sector is 95% made up of average businessman and a small and tight-knit group of top dogs.
Saturday, January 07, 2017
Sell those Euros. Sell'em / Currencies / Euro
By: EWI
How do you know a real FX opportunity from a fake one?
Late last Thursday night (Dec. 29), I got an insistent email from a colleague.
Jim Martens, long-time editor of our forex-focused Currency Pro Service sent me this message with only a subject line:
-------- Original message --------
From: Jim Martens
Date: 12/29/16 9:16 PM (GMT-05:00)
To: Vadim Pokhlebkin
Subject: Sell those euros. Sell'em
Friday, January 06, 2017
Gold Stocks Shine in 2017 / Commodities / Gold & Silver Stocks 2017
By: Zeal_LLC
The gold miners’ stocks are rocketing higher again after suffering a rough few months. Following sharp selloffs on gold-futures stops being run, the Trumphoria stock-market surge, and a more-hawkish-than-expected Fed, this battered sector had largely been left for dead. But gold stocks’ strong fundamentals finally overcame the dismal herd sentiment last week, paving the way for this sector to shine again in 2017.
This “shine again” assertion likely seems dubious to casual observers, since the gold miners’ stocks suffered a miserable Q4’16. The leading HUI NYSE Arca Gold BUGS Index plunged 21.1% in a quarter where the benchmark S&P 500 broad-market stock index surged 3.3%. Naturally gold miners’ profits are fully dependent on gold prices, and this metal fell 12.7% in Q4 which proved one of its worst quarters ever.
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Friday, January 06, 2017
The Fourth-Generation War / Politics / US Politics
By: David_Galland
Dear Paraders,
Welcome to 2017. As with every new year, or any stretch of 365 days into the future, we can expect surprises. Some good and some bad.
Of course, we can’t know the future. Therefore, we are left to our expectations and, I suppose, aspirations. For example, I await the arrival of President Trump with high hopes and an almost silly level of anticipation.
Oh, how I hope he continues deriding the political class so firmly attached to the carotid artery of the American people. Derision is all they deserve, and Trump does derision particularly well.
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Friday, January 06, 2017
The Gold Market in 2016 / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2016
By: Arkadiusz_Sieron
How can we summarize the last year in the gold market? First of all, it was a mixed year for gold. The first half of 2016 was excellent for the yellow metal. Actually, the several-month long bull market in gold started in December 2015, when the shiny metal found a bottom at $1,049, after the FOMC historical meeting and the first interest rate hike for almost a decade. From then, the shiny metal made higher highs and higher lows, reaching a peak at $1,366 at the early July in the aftermath of the British referendum on the withdrawal from the EU. Gold was one of the best performing assets that time, and gained about 30 percent, as one can see in the chart below.
Friday, January 06, 2017
Payrolls Underwhelm Markets, While China Boils Over / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2017
By: Anthony_Cherniawski
Short-term support helped to keep the SPX aloft yesterday. The futures markets have been waiting for the monthly payrolls report. Now that it is out, it appears to be less than satisfactory. The question is, will there be a new high, or do the equities markets sell off from here?
Bloomberg reports, “The U.S. labor market turned in a solid performance at the end of 2016, sending job gains above 2 million for a sixth year as paychecks rose by the most during the current expansion.
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Friday, January 06, 2017
Gold Surges Over 30% in GBP In 2016 After Brexit / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
By: GoldCore
– Gold gains in USD, GBP, EUR, CAD, AUD, NZD, JPY
– Gold gains in CNY, INR & most emerging market currencies
– Gold surges 31.5% in British pounds after Brexit shock
– Gold acted as hedge and safe haven in 2016 … for those who need safe haven
– Further signs of market having bottomed and bodes well for 2017
– What drivers will gold respond to in 2017?
– EU elections and contagion risk, Geo-politics, terrorism, war and cyber war
– Outlook for gold good during Trump Presidency (2017 to 2020)