Sunday, May 10, 2020

The Illusion of Owning Gold / Commodities / Gold & Silver 2020

By: Nick_Barisheff

Gold-backed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and similar products account for a significant part of the gold market, with institutional and individual investors using them to implement many of their investment strategies without considering the true risk associated with many aspects of holding non-tangible assets. Gold ETFs are units representing physical gold in paper or dematerialized form, which is very different from owning physical gold. According to the World Gold Council, global gold-backed ETFs added 298 tonnes, or US$23 billion, across all regions in the first quarter of 2020[1]. Total ETF holdings amounted to 3,296 tonnes, representing US$179 billion. The largest ETF is SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) with 1,048 tonnes.

Many investors and financial advisors may be surprised to learn that owning shares in a gold ETF is not the same as owning physical gold. As one of the largest ETFs, GLD states in its prospectus: “…designed to track the price of gold.” Is it wise to choose convenience over holding physical gold?

Since their introduction in 2003, gold-backed ETFs have transformed the gold investment market into an illusion, diverting attention from ownership of physical gold. This is like a magician that has you focused on a distraction while they perform a trick.

Sunday, May 10, 2020

The Financial Crisis Will Continue To Lurk Even If the Lockdown Gets Eased / Stock-Markets / Financial Crisis 2020

By: Submissions

Saturday, May 09, 2020

Right Now, the Bullish S&P 500 Ride Goes On No Matter What / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2020

By: P_Radomski_CFA

Yesterday, we’ve pointed out the many bullish signals going for stocks, and saw them open higher, and extend their gains. Well, that was true about the first half of the session, as the S&P 500 returned to trading close to unchanged before the closing bell. Is the upswing over now?

In short, we doubt that.

S&P 500 in the Short-Run

Saturday, May 09, 2020

Silver Offers A Great Opportunity / Commodities / Crude Oil

By: Hubert_Moolman

The stock market has had a great run during the last decade. It has made some people a good stack of money.

However, the March crash has many wondering what it will do next. Will it continue to crash, or will it continue the bull market?

Is it really worth spending time and effort contemplating its next move? I think not.

The market is currently presenting a great opportunity to lock in those stock market profits, and then even growing it much more.

Saturday, May 09, 2020

Will Gold Decline As Economies Gradually Reopen? / Commodities / Gold & Silver 2020

By: Arkadiusz_Sieron

Half the US States and countries like Italy and Germany are gradually easing lockdowns. Taking measured steps, the moves are broadly cheered. Rightfully so? And what does the reopening mean for the gold market?

Epidemics: Bad, Good, and Ugly

By May 6, 2020, more than total 3.6 million of confirmed cases have been reported in the world and more than 250,000 have already died from the COVID-19. In the United States, about 1.2 million of cases have been identified so far, and more than 71,000 people have died. This is bad news.

Friday, May 08, 2020

Junior Gold Miners Ready To Run / Commodities / Gold and Silver Stocks 2020

By: Chris_Vermeulen

Both Gold and Silver Futures have been struggling to rally above recent high levels since the start of the global stock market collapse related to the COVID-19 virus event.  Yet, the Junior Gold Miners appear to be telling us the Precious Metals market is boiling hot.

Gold, the bell-weather safe-haven asset, initially collapsed when the US stock market started the massive selloff in late February 2020, then recovered to higher price levels near $1785 recently.  Since reaching these levels, Gold has stalled into a sideways price flag near major resistance.

Silver, on the other hand, is trading near $15.60 and has yet to really recover to anywhere near the levels it had achieved in early January 2020 (near $18.60).

Friday, May 08, 2020

The Giant Presumption behind Re-Opening America / Economics / Coronavirus Depression

By: Patrick_Watson

Newly “liberated” Americans are flocking to beaches, parks, and restaurants, eager to prove the novel coronavirus doesn’t scare them.

In fact, the virus doesn’t care how brave they are. It just wants to spread. I suspect it found many new hosts at those gatherings, and this will be apparent soon.

At the same time, many others are still staying home whenever possible, not yet convinced it is safe to go out. 

But regardless of who’s right, Wall Street people are thrilled. The stock market shot higher in April. Many experts think the economy will soon be back to normal.

Friday, May 08, 2020

RABBITS in the HEADLIGHTS! US and UK Government Response to Coronavirus / Politics / Pandemic

By: Nadeem_Walayat

RABBITS IN THE HEADLIGHTS that's what the UK and US Government response to Covid-19. Nearly always acting about 6 weeks after they should have done so and only then when in the midst of a panic, likely due to being advised by mad scientists who should not have been let out of their ivory towers!

They do not have a clue, not a single clue whatsoever, literally are rabbits in the headlights cannot even understand the most basic aspects of what's taking place. If anything should come out of this crisis than it should be less reliance on governments! Though I fear the exact opposite may transpire as governments use the pandemic to expand their reach into every aspect of ordinary citizens lives which does not bode well for the next crisis!

Friday, May 08, 2020

3 Things to Watch When the Stock Market Fed Jet Fuel Runs Out / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2020

By: John_Mauldin

Main Street needs customers. The Fed, for as much as it is trying to flood the markets with money, can’t create them.

And yet, the jet fuel has succeeded in pushing stock benchmarks and valuations back near their old highs. Clearly, and probably rightly, investors are willing to look past the second- and possibly even third-quarter earnings, which everyone acknowledges will be dismal.

But what happens when earnings are dismal in the fourth quarter?

Friday, May 08, 2020

A New Day Has Dawned for Gold and Silver / Commodities / Gold & Silver 2020

By: MoneyMetals

Most resource sector writers (including me) have for a long time been "wrong" about gold and silver.

When they ran from $250 and $5 an ounce, respectively, to $1,920 and $49 in 2011, those who listened, acted, and sold a bit did quite well. We argued the "longer time bullish case" as these metals dropped into their final cyclical bear market graves in late 2015.

But that was then… and this is now.

What we DID get right was that when the Big Turn finally came, it would change directions so swiftly and violently that anyone waiting for "the bottom" would miss it, as rising premiums more than offset declining prices.

Friday, May 08, 2020

Stock Market Bears Running Out Of Time / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2020

By: Ricky_Wen

Tuesday’s session played out as a ‘gap up and go’ structure that faded in the final few minutes of regular trading hours (RTH). If you recall, RTH opened at 2863.25 after Monday’s closing print of 2827.5 on the Emini S&P 500 (ES), so it was a +1.2% gap up. Then price action continued in the trending direction for the majority of the day, forming higher lows and higher highs as the northbound train goes towards the immediate targets.

However, the bears made a counterattack around 2889.75 high, which was right near the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement of the 2965-2771 range, and swiftly backtested into our key support of 2850 by the end of the day.

Friday, May 08, 2020

Technical Analysis Points To Key Reversal Of Global Markets / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2020

By: Chris_Vermeulen

Recently, we received a number of email messages and comments regarding our recent Bitcoin article and how we attempted to explain the market trend/technical analysis.  It appears we were not making our interpretation very clear for our friends and followers.  This article should help to clear up our interpretation of the major market trends and our advanced technical analysis tools and utilities.

As purely technical traders, there are certain things we want to make clear.  First, we do pay attention to what is happening to the fundamentals and global economic data when it posts.  We’ve authored many previous articles stating our belief that “capital is like a living/breathing entity which attempts to survive (generate ROI with little risk) in various global market environments”.  In order for us, as technical traders, to identify real opportunities for superior trades, we must be aware of what is happening in the “environment” that surrounds us.

Thursday, May 07, 2020

Light Crude oil prices have bottomed and starting to rise / Commodities / Crude Oil

By: Donald_W_Dony

Light Crude oil prices have dropped an alarming 68 percent since the start of 2020. Brent prices are down 60 percent over the last four months. But recent price action appears to show that the worst of oil's decline is likely over.

As the world economies are still being mauled by the effects of COVID-19, there are growing signs that oil prices are starting to recover.

Thursday, May 07, 2020

Oil Investors Are Doomed Even If Crude Oil Prices Recover / Companies / Oil Companies

By: Stephen_McBride

I’m writing this essay because millions of investors are in danger without realizing it.

As you probably know, oil has recently taken an historic nosedive. On April 20, its price crashed from $18 a barrel to -$38, turning negative for the first time on record.

The news has set off an oil buying frenzy among Americans hoping to profit on a rebound.

In a matter of days, United States Oil Fund (USO), America’s most popular oil ETF, has exploded in popularity, as you can see below:

Thursday, May 07, 2020

Natural Gas Breaks $2.00 On Upside Rally and Next Target / Commodities / Natural Gas

By: Chris_Vermeulen

Overnight, Natural Gas broke above the $2.00 price level as we expected.  On April 6, 2020, we published our research that Natural Gas was setting up a bottom pattern and that our seasonal analysis suggested April and May should prompt a price rally in Natural Gas pushing price levels above $2.40. 

The current rally has broken above a price resistance level near $2.00 and the rally up to $2.40 may happen faster than we expect.  Currently, our Daily Fibonacci price modeling system is suggesting the $2.35 area is the first area of resistance.  Beyond that, the next level of resistance would be near $2.90.  Beyond that incredible upside target, the Fibonacci Weekly data is projecting an upper target near $3.60.

Thursday, May 07, 2020

Buying a Samsung Galaxy S10+ Smartphone off Ebay for £362 - Bargain or Scammed? / Personal_Finance / Money Saving

By: HGR

Whilst most are dashing to buy Samsung's flagship phone the S20+ that costs £999. However, before you rush out and buy it, you could be missing out on a great bargain, a S10+ at LESS than half the price! The S10+ currently sells NEW for between £650 and £800. Which is not that much cheaper than an S20+, so no wonder many opt for the S20+. However, what most fail to consider is that they could get as good as new (not refurbished) phones off ebay, in pristine condition for LESS than £400!

Thursday, May 07, 2020

Quantitative INFLATION - Fed QE4EVER / Stock-Markets / Quantitative Easing

By: Nadeem_Walayat

Once money printing starts it never ends! Instead what happens is any unwinding of central bank balance sheets tends to be temporary in advance of the next crisis which tends to send balance sheets through the roof. This has been my consistent message for the past 10 years since Quantitative INFLATION began in 2008! And so the corona crisis has seen the Fed once more flood the markets with liquidity buying up all sorts of assess left right and centre from junk bonds, to stocks of bankrupt corporations to of course government bonds, and when the buying is done the Fed will likely have DOUBLED it's balance sheet from $4.2 trillion a couple of months ago to approaching $9 trillion!

Thursday, May 07, 2020

Bitcoin Price Trades Like the S&P 500, and is Testing Resistance / Currencies / Bitcoin

By: Chris_Vermeulen

If you pay attention to the trends taking place on the Weekly Bitcoin chart, you’ll notice that it has reacted to the global market Covid-19 trends almost exclusively since the beginning of 2020.  After the end of 2019, the US stock market rallied on Q4: 2019 data and so did Bitcoin.  The US Stock market peaked near February 20 and began a deeper selloff on February 25 – Bitcoin followed this pattern as well.  When the US Fed initiated the stimulus on March 23, Bitcoin prices had already started to bottom in anticipation of the Fed stimulus and really began to rally after the Fed began intervening.

Before you continue, be sure to opt-in to our free market trend signals before closing this page, so you don’t miss our next special report!

Thursday, May 07, 2020

Money Printing is the New Mother's Milk of Stocks / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2020

By: Michael_Pento

My friend Larry Kudlow always says that Profits are the mother's milk of stocks. That used to be true when we had a real economy. But sadly, that is no longer factual because we now have a global equity market that is totally controlled by central banks.  To prove this point, let's look at the last few years of earnings. During the year 2018, the EPS growth for the S&P 500 was 20%; yet the S&P 500 Index was down 7% over that same time-frame.

Conversely, during 2019, the S&P 500 EPS growth was a dismal 1%; yet the Index surged by nearly 30%. What could possibly account for such a huge divergence between EPS growth and market performance? We need only to view Fed actions for the simple answer: it was the degree to which our central bank was willing to falsify asset prices.

Thursday, May 07, 2020

Another Stock Market Selloff Could Drive More Bullion Buying / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2020

By: Avi_Gilburt

Investors got a look at first quarter GDP, and it wasn’t pretty. The U.S. economy contracted by 4.8%, even worse than the 3.3% decline anticipated by economists.

In addition to that bad news, 4 million more Americans filed for unemployment last week. More than 30 million people have lost jobs over the past 6 weeks, and the situation is only getting worse.

The S&P 500 lost 2.8% on Friday.

Perhaps equity investors are beginning to wonder if share prices, which have moved relentlessly higher in recent weeks, accurately reflect the dismal economic data.