Thursday, May 23, 2019
UK Savers Lock in Cash to Beat Inflation Erosion / Personal_Finance / Savings Accounts
By: MoneyFacts
Savers looking to beat the eroding impact of inflation will find that fixed bond rates have risen in the past 12 months, so they can now get a better true return on their cash. Not only this, but easy access and notice account rates are also increasing, however none of the rates on offer in these sectors are currently able to beat inflation.
Despite the fact that inflation has now risen above the Government target of 2%, the latest research from Moneyfacts.co.uk shows that it still remains lower than the level seen in both May 2017, when the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) for April was announced at 2.7%, and May 2018 when inflation was 2.4%. Better still, savings rates have risen over both time periods.
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Thursday, May 23, 2019
Elliott Wave Analysis of GBPUSD / Currencies / British Pound
By: WavePatternTraders
I suspect a relief bounce is close at hand for some of the GBP pairs, when we look at the decline from the May 2019 high, the new low on pairs such as GBPCHF and GBPCAD are supportive that the new low on GBPUSD is most likely the 5th wave of an impulse wave (5 wave decline) from 13176.A partial rally in 3 waves is favored soon, that can offer an opportunity for traders that are looking to sell GBPUSD, stops need to be placed at 13176. That is likely to align with a bounce on pairs like GBPCHF and GBPCAD etc.
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Thursday, May 23, 2019
Capitalism Works, Ravenous Capitalism Doesn’t / Economics / Economic Theory
By: Raymond_Matison
For more than a century, capitalism has proven to be successful in expanding the efficient manufacture of goods and agricultural products, increasing jobs and incomes, promoting technological innovation, decreasing poverty and improving the general welfare of humans globally. By contrast, socialism and communism with its centrally planned economy and collectivism historically have produced misery, war, need and poverty through oppressive totalitarian governments.
Super hedge fund manager Ray Dalio, the president of Bridgewater Associates, the very successful and largest hedge fund in America recently released a thoughtful and timely report stating that “capitalism is broken” - pointing to, among other things, the gross income disparity between high and low earners. Ray Dalio’s judgment of broken capitalism relates to his observation that the vast majority of wages going to the top 5% wage earners does not benefit the overall economy, destabilizes society and is destructive to capitalism. The fact that a true-blue capitalist wrote the article should alert industrialists, globalists, bankers and all capitalists that perhaps “capitalism with American characteristics” has veered off its previously successful course. Capitalism does work; but ravenous capitalism is indeed self-destructive. The bounty of capitalism must be shared not only with its owners or investors, but also with its other “significant partners” – the nation’s workers.
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Thursday, May 23, 2019
Trump's futile quest for a renminbi Plaza Accord / Politics / Protectionism
By: Dan_Steinbock
Recent US media reports claim China may depreciate its renminbi to cope with shrinking exports. Yet, economic realities are precisely the reverse. Worse, trade wars are about to hit American consumers. Recently, the White House lifted tariffs to 25% from 10% on $200 billion of Chinese goods, while targeting another $300 billion worth of Chinese imports for potential punitive tariffs.
As was to be expected, the renminbi depreciated from 6.7 to more than 6.9 against the US dollar, mainly on renewed trade tensions.
China retaliated by imposing duties on $60 billion of US goods, starting June 1. China could have retaliated hard, but opted for a mild response that highlights the importance of talks.
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Thursday, May 23, 2019
Bitcoin's Strong Extensions Warn The Bear May Try To Come Back / Currencies / Bitcoin
By: Avi_Gilburt
In our last update, we stated that Bitcoin was providing us the minimum price patterns to suggest that a bull market was under way. Moreover, we were looking for a standard corrective pullback to solidify the bull market case.
But when the price action is too strong, it can flash warnings signals. This is clearly what we have seen over the last week or two. Price is always king, and we must not act emotionally as price barrels upward. We must continue to put price action to the test, as it is the only truth in the market.
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Thursday, May 23, 2019
The Euro Is Bidding Its Time: A Reversal at Hand? / Currencies / Euro
By: Nadia_Simmons
Relentlessly, the USD Index keeps pushing higher. The euro has come under pressure earlier today though it looks to have stabilized. How close are we to the euro flashing a buy signal and how strong would that have to be to make us act? Is it time to change sides and make another quick buck or two this way? And what about the rest of our profitable positions?
Thursday, May 23, 2019
Gold Demand Rose 7% in Q1 2019. A Launching Pad Higher for Gold? / Commodities / Gold & Silver 2019
By: Arkadiusz_Sieron
In May, the WGC published a new edition of its quarterly report on gold demand. It features interesting data about the changes in gold demand and supply. What does the Gold Demand Trends Q1 2019 say about the gold market in the first quarter of the year? How will its conclusions be reflected going forward in the gold price?
WGC Publishes Report on Gold in Q1 2019
According to the newest WGC data, the supply of gold was virtually unchanged (modest growth in mine production and recycling were offset by a decline in hedging), while the gold demand rose 7 percent year-over year to 1,053.3 tons in the first quarter of 2019.
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Thursday, May 23, 2019
Financial Independence Has Nothing to Do with Being a Millionaire / Personal_Finance / Money Saving
By: Jared_Dillian
I am on Facebook, and there is a lot of crap on Facebook. Even the non-political crap is stuff I just do not believe in.
For example, people say that you should spend your money on experiences, not things. There is some spiritual component to this that I don’t get.
I like spending money on experiences (particularly travel), but I like spending money on things more. Clothes in particular.
You feel (and act) differently when you are wearing an expensive suit and an expensive pair of shoes. People who make $150,000 a year and still get all their clothes at Target do this not out of frugality, but low self-esteem.
It is good and right to spend money on yourself now and then.
The other crap you hear on Facebook, and pretty much everywhere else, is that money doesn’t make you happy.
Wednesday, May 22, 2019
Global Economic Tensions Translate Into Oil Price Volatility / Commodities / Crude Oil
By: Chris_Vermeulen
Our continued efforts to alert and assist fellow traders to the incredible setups that are currently happening throughout the globe with regards to increased global economic tensions are starting to take root. We are hearing from our readers and follower and we love the comments we are receiving. Near April/May 2018, we started predicting that the end of 2018 and almost all of 2019/2020 were going to include incredible opportunities for skilled traders. We made these predictions at about the same time that we issued a series of incredible calls regarding the future market moves in 2018 & 2019.
Wednesday, May 22, 2019
Fed Encourages Runaway US Debt as “Minsky Moment” Approaches / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: MoneyMetals
Federal Reserve officials like to pretend they can use interest rates like a motorcycle throttle on the U.S. economy. They can either rev things up by dropping interest rates or slow things down by moving rates higher.
The public has been led to believe the central planners can do whatever is needed with rates to keep things purring along.
The truth is the central planners at the Fed are meddling with forces beyond their control. They are encouraging consumers, companies, and government to take on debt. Soon, the nation will choke on it.
Wednesday, May 22, 2019
The Coming Pension Crisis Is So Big That It’s a Problem for Everyone / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_Mauldin
A decade ago I pointed out that public pension funds were $2 trillion underfunded and getting worse. More than one person told me that couldn’t be right.
They were correct: It was actually much worse. It has gotten to $2 trillion and much worse in just a few years.
Note that we are talking here about a specific kind of pension: defined benefit plans. They are usually sponsored by state and local governments, labor unions, and a number of private businesses.
Many sponsors haven’t set aside the assets needed to pay the benefits they’ve promised to current and future retirees. They can delay the inevitable for a long time but not forever. And “forever” is just around the corner.
Wednesday, May 22, 2019
Top Democratic Presidential Candidates Opposing Trump / ElectionOracle / US Presidential Election 2020
By: BATR
At this early stage in the political propaganda war for the presidential 2020 election, the best the Democrats can come up with is "Anyone but Trump". Their chances for success resides in the talent that they perfected; namely, election fraud. The mainstream filtered media that attack President Trump share a bipartisan message. Whether wrapped in Marxist terms or Corporatist rational, they are based upon a globalist objective, which benefits international finance. Trump is not immune or exempted from the influence of these despots. The reason he is vilified as no other President has been is because he dares to push back against the established order.
Donald Trump has earned an exemplified record of achievement in the face of a Congress that refuses to bring up or vote for most needed legislation. Add to this impediment a Federal Court system of recreant judges, who ignore the constitution or make up decisions that are illegitimate.
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Wednesday, May 22, 2019
Crude Oil, Hot Stocks, and Currencies – Markets III / Commodities / Crude Oil
By: Chris_Vermeulen
In our continued effort to help skilled traders/investors understand the future risks associated with geopolitical market turmoil, the EU Elections next week and the continued US/China trade war, this Part III of our Sector Rotation article will highlight certain sectors that we believe may continue to perform over the next 12 to 24+ months and help traders/investors survive any extended price volatility/rotation over that same time. Read Part I, and Part II.
Currently, the US stock market has weathered a bit of a jolt in terms of price rotation. After many stock indexes reached new all-time highs, the news of Iran Oil Sanctions, US/China trade talks failing and the political turmoil in DC as an incredible 2020 US Presidential election cycle heats up, investors are watching the markets for any signs of strength or weakness. Meanwhile, the US Dollar continues to strengthen against other global currencies in an incredible show of “King Dollar” strength and dominance. All of this plays into one of our favorite narratives that we started discussing over 30 months ago – the Global Capital Shift.
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Wednesday, May 22, 2019
The No.1 Energy Stock for 2019 / Companies / Solar Energy
By: OilPrice_Com
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Wednesday, May 22, 2019
Brexit Party and Lib-Dems Pull Further Away from Labour and Tories in Latest Opinion Polls / ElectionOracle / BrExit
By: N_Walayat
The latest european election polls have the Brexit Party and Lib Dems further pulling away from the Tories and Labour party. The polls were conducted by Yougov between 19th May and 21st of May.
The BrExit party continues to extend it's huge lead over the other parties by gaining 3% on the week to 37%.
Lib Dems widen their 2nd place position by gaining 2% at the expense of Labour that falls 2% to just 13%.
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Tuesday, May 21, 2019
The Deep State vs Donald Trump - US vs Them Part 2 / Politics / US Politics
By: James_Quinn
In Part I of this article I discussed why the “Us versus Them” mindset permeates society and how Trump has become a lightning rod for hate. Now I will assess his progress in fighting the Deep State and try to peer into a murky future.
In addition to not being Hillary, the main reasons I voted for Trump was he promised to build the wall, he promised to repeal and replace Obamacare, he promised to end our foreign military interventions, he said he would bring fiscal sanity to the budget, he said the Federal Reserve had blown an immense stock market bubble, he questioned the fake economic data spouted by government drones, and he called out the fake news bullshit media. When I regularly assess his progress on these issues, the standard response from Trump acolytes is “Would you rather have Hillary?”. No, I would not. But that doesn’t get Trump off the hook for his failures in my book.
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Tuesday, May 21, 2019
Deep State & Financial Powers Worry about Alternative Currencies / Stock-Markets / BlockChain
By: Axel_Merk
Welcome to this week’s Market Wrap Podcast, I’m Mike Gleason. Later in today’s program we’ll hear from Axel Merk of Merk Investments. Axel breaks down the trade war with China and gives us some keen insights on the likely strategy being employed by President Donald Trump there, and also tells us why he sees inflationary pressures returning in the economy and the affects it will have on gold prices. Don’t miss another wonderful interview with the highly respected Axel Merk, coming up after this week’s market update.
As markets continue to gyrate on global trade and tariff threats, precious metals are struggling to capture investor interest.
Lately, the big push in alternative assets has been in Bitcoin. The cryptocurrency has doubled in price over the past two months, though it remains well below its old high.
Gold was the sole metal to show strength amidst the recent selloff in stocks. However, its momentum petered out mid week and turned lower on Thursday. As of this Friday recording, gold prices are down 0.8% for the week to trade at $1,277 an ounce.
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Tuesday, May 21, 2019
Gold’s Exciting Boredom / Commodities / Gold & Silver 2019
By: P_Radomski_CFA
The last few trading days in gold were quite interesting, but overall gold has been a quite boring market in the last couple of months. Gold’s volatility index dropped to new lows as the current back and forth movement is just a small part of the same kind of movement on a broader scale. It’s more of the same. And when gold’s volatility gets very low, interesting things tend to happen next over 80% of the time. In other words, the situation in gold is now so boring that it’s a signal on its own. In today’s analysis, we’ll dig into details.
It’s time for gold’s boring, yet effective signal.
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Tuesday, May 21, 2019
Trade War Fears Again, Will Stocks Resume the Downtrend? / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2019
By: Paul_Rejczak
Stocks retraced some of their short-term rebound on Friday, as investors’ sentiment worsened once again. The S&P 500 index bounced off the nearest important resistance level of around 2,890-2,900. Will stocks resume their downtrend?
The U.S. stock market indexes lost 0.4-1.0% on Friday, retracing some of their recent advance, as investors’ sentiment worsened again. On Monday a week ago the S&P 500 index fell the lowest since late March, and it got very close to the 2,800 mark (daily low at 2,801.43). Then it rebounded to the resistance level of around 2,890-2,900. It currently trades 3.2% below its May the 1st record high of 2,954.13. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.4% and the Nasdaq Composite lost 1.0% on Friday.
The nearest important resistance level of the S&P 500 index remains at 2,880-2,900, marked by the previous support level. The resistance level is also at 2,920-2,930. On the other hand, the support level is at 2,850. The support level is also at around 2,800-2,820, marked by the recent local lows.
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Tuesday, May 21, 2019
Buffett Mistake Costs Him $4.3 Billion This Year—Here’s What Every Investor Can Learn from It / Companies / Investing 2019
By: Robert_Ross
Even the best investors have bad days.
Warren Buffett is no exception. In February, he watched one of his biggest acquisitions quickly sour.
I’m talking about Kraft Heinz, an American food giant that makes everything from ketchup to Oscar Mayer hot dogs to Kool-Aid.
The stock plunged 30% in one day after it announced a 36% dividend cut and never recovered: