Tuesday, August 21, 2018
When the Constitution Hurts the US / Politics / US Politics
By: Rodney_Johnson
I’m not a fan of small spaces, and MRIs give me the willies.I understand that there’s no way the giant machine could collapse, and no possibility that I’ll run low on air, but that doesn’t make me feel any better.
Maybe President Trump has a similar issue, although not with small spaces.
Instead, the smell of new car leather might make him sweat.
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Tuesday, August 21, 2018
US Economy Beholden to Fed Interest Rate Policy; Here's One Way Gold Could Reach $14,000+ / Economics / Gold and Silver 2018
By: MoneyMetals
Welcome to this week’s Market Wrap Podcast, I’m Mike Gleason. Coming up we’ll hear from Dr. Lucas Engelhardt, associate professor of economics at Kent State University and well-known Austrian economist and regular guest lecturer at the Mises Institute. Dr. Engelhardt enlightens us on some of the major flaws in our current monetary policy and the dangers and economic trouble it will eventually produce. He also discusses a couple of different ways we could reintroduce a gold standard to save us from what appears to be an inevitable economic catastrophe. Don’t miss a fascinating interview with Dr. Lucas Engelhardt, coming up after this week’s market update.
Well, there’s no way to soft-pedal it. Precious metals markets got smashed this week.
A currency crisis in Turkey sent a wave of fear through other emerging markets and hard assets at large. That emboldened short sellers who had already piled onto gold and silver futures with historically large positions.
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Tuesday, August 21, 2018
The Shape of Trump to Come / Politics / US Politics
By: Raul_I_Meijer
I thought I’d make list of things we can expect to emanate from the White House over the coming year or so. I’m sure you will agree, wherever you stand on the political roller coaster, that there’s little chance things are going to be boring going forward. Here goes:
Trump will end the ‘monopolies’ of Facebook, Google, Twitter et al. The intelligence community will hate this, but they already hate him anyway, so why bother? And besides, it’s the only thing to do that makes any sense. The AT&T model might be useful, essentially creating Baby Bells, though the international reach of the companies may add a layer or two of complications.
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Monday, August 20, 2018
Turkey Debt Crisis is Not Contained / Interest-Rates / Turkey
By: Michael_Pento
During my last appearance on CNBC, before I was banned several years ago, I warned that the removal of massive and unprecedented monetary stimuli from global central banks would have to be done in a coordinated fashion. Otherwise, there would be the very real risk of currency and debt crises around the world. However, coordination among central banks is not what is happening. The Fed is miles ahead in its reversal of monetary stimulus, as it has already raised rates seven times; with two more 25bps rate hikes in the pipeline scheduled for later this year. It has also avowed to sell off two trillion dollars’ worth of debt off its balance sheet--while the rest of the world’s central banks are far behind in this monetary tightening course. This has led to a significant increase in the value of the US dollar.
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Monday, August 20, 2018
Why Silver Could Replace The US Dollar / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2018
By: Hubert_Moolman
Silver used to be a significant part of the monetary base in many countries. You could find it as part of monetary reserves together with gold, as well as coinage in circulation.
Over the years that silver was demonetized (at least from the 1870s to roughly the 1960s), significant amounts of silver coins (official currency coins) were melted down and sold on the markets, together with silver bars (used as reserves). This brought us to today, where the amount of silver that is part of the monetary base is basically immaterial.
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Monday, August 20, 2018
Surviving a Trade War in the Age of Trump and Brexit / Stock-Markets / Protectionism
By: Boris_Dzhingarov
President Donald Trump keeps surprising the world about this policies. The stance that the US took for years is now changing under his administration. Countries that used to be allies of the United States are now seemingly considered enemies. He has launched trade wars against Canada, China, and even the EU.
Brexit is another problem that has a global impact. There is no final decision yet on how Brexit will happen, and what terms the EU and the UK will agree. These significant global changes have impacted a lot of business owners, especially those who are just starting out.
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Monday, August 20, 2018
Stocks Get Closer to January's Record High, What's Next? / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018
By: Paul_Rejczak
Stocks were little changed on Friday, as investors hesitated following Wednesday-Thursday's S&P 500's advance off support level of 2,800. Will the S&P 500 index continue towards its late January's record high? Or is this just an upward correction before another leg down?
The U.S. stock market indexes gained 0.1-0.4% on Friday, extending their short-term consolidation on Friday, as investors hesitated following the recent advance. The S&P 500 index closed at 2,850 mark and it is currently just 0.8% below the January's 26th record high of 2,872.87. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.4% and the technology Nasdaq Composite gained just 0.1% on Friday.
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Monday, August 20, 2018
All Average Savings Rates Rise for the First Time in Over Seven Years / Personal_Finance / Savings Accounts
By: MoneyFacts
Moneyfacts UK Savings Trends Treasury Report data (not yet published) highlights the savings market’s continued recovery, with all average rates increasing for the first time since February 2011.
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Monday, August 20, 2018
London Eye Best Times to Visit for Shortest Queues - Tourist Tips / Personal_Finance / Holidays
By: Anika_Walayat
The London Eye is at the top of every Tourists London must do list, the consequences of which is that it tends to get very, very busy, and despite the number of capsules you can end up waiting for over an hour as the queue snakes across the Westminster walkway all the way to the Merlin ticket office. So we tracked the Eye queue length over a couple of days to see which are the best and worst times to visit the London eye, as picking the right time could get you on in less than 1/3rd the time. So watch the video and to find out what the queues are like at various times of day during a busy summers day.
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Monday, August 20, 2018
What the Copper and Gold Crash Means for Commodities and Stocks / Commodities / Commodities Trading
By: Troy_Bombardia
As you probably know, commodity prices have been falling significantly over the past few months on Trump’s trade war, which has caused the U.S. Dollar to rise.
This has some bearish investors afraid of a few things:
- “Contagion” from commodities and emerging markets to the U.S. stock market
- An economic slowdown, because commodity prices are “supposed to” reflect economic data. Conventional thinking states that falling commodity prices = falling demand, which signals a slowdown in the economy.
Monday, August 20, 2018
TASI - Saudi Arabia Stock Index Outlook / Stock-Markets / Saudi Arabia
By: MarketsToday
Further weakness will confirm bearish outlook for the Tadawul All Share Index (TASI)
TASI (Saudi Arabia stock market) poised to breakdown from large bearish Ascending Wedge pattern.
Weakness apparent over past couple of months and follows a prior advance.
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Sunday, August 19, 2018
Stock Market Challenging Recent High / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018
By: Andre_Gratian
Current Position of the Market
SPX: Long-term trend – The bull market is continuing with a top expected in the low 3000s.
Intermediate trend – A new correction has started. More time is needed to determine its extent and duration.
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 discusses the course of longer market trends.
Sunday, August 19, 2018
Bitcoin: Landing Gear Engaged. Bottom Is Still a Process / Currencies / Bitcoin
By: Ryan_Wilday
If you have tracked me at all since January, I had stated that if bitcoin (BTC-USD) is in a wave iv of the degree that I believed, support for this corrective wave, that started in January is in the $3000-$4700 zone. $4700 is an ideal landing spot for this wave iv as it is the .382 retrace of the third wave that began in July 2016.
Further, if you tracked my writing, I saw many setups that can bring us to that level, and likewise many bullish setups that could have taken us out of this long correction prematurely. All failed.
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Sunday, August 19, 2018
Venezuela's Great Bolivar Scam, Nothing but a Face Lift / Currencies / HyperInflation
By: Steve_H_Hanke
In the days leading up to Venezuela’s currency reform, which is set for August 20th, the bolivar has taken yet another deep dive. The chart below shows the bolivar’s free fall and the massive gap between the official exchange rate of 248,521 VEF/USD and the black-market (read: free-market) exchange rate of 6,670,079 VEF/USD. That gap results in a whopping black market premium of 2,584%. It also produces huge profits for Maduro’s cronies who have access to the official rate. They can purchase greenbacks for peanuts and sell them on the black market for an instantaneous profit of 2,584%.
Sunday, August 19, 2018
Heavy Truck Sales Sending a Bullish Sign for Stock Market / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018
By: Troy_Bombardia
As you probably already now, Heavy Truck Sales recently made a new high for this economic expansion.
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Saturday, August 18, 2018
Why Oil Prices Fell -- Stockpiles or Price Pattern? / Commodities / Crude Oil
By: EWI
You be the judge...
Let's cut right to the chart below. The shaded triangle highlights the dramatic price action in crude oil prices on August 15, when crude plummeted 3% to its lowest level in over nine weeks.
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Saturday, August 18, 2018
Why The Uranium Price Must Go Up / Commodities / Uranium
By: Richard_Mills
The Trump Administration is at it again. On July 18 the financial press got ahold of a story that said the next target of the Trump tariffs is likely to be the uranium/ nuclear energy sector. In what looks like a repeat of what happened with steel and aluminum, the White House said it would investigate whether uranium imports threaten national security, given how dependent the United States is on the nuclear fuel. If the sector is threatened - and why wouldn’t it be, where 90% of the uranium needed for American nuclear reactors comes from abroad - import tariffs would likely be imposed.
If that happens, it would hurt nuclear power plants, who are already struggling with low electricity prices and flat demand, Bloomberg noted in reporting the story.
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Saturday, August 18, 2018
Land Rover Discovery Sport 90% Motorway Driving MPG Fuel Economy in ECO Mode / ConsumerWatch / Motoring
By: N_Walayat
This is the latest video in out Land Rover Discovery Sport's series that answers the question of what to expect in terms of fuel economy for this great looking Land Rover model as compared against Land Rovers sales pitch of 53.3 MPG, which in reality no one really expects to achieve. Still here is what to expect from a 2 year old Land Rover Discovery Sport in the month immediately after a full dealer service, with 90% of the driving down on Britain's motorways such as the M1, M6 and A1 roads on road trips from Sheffield to London, Warrick, and Blackpool and back.
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Saturday, August 18, 2018
GDX Gold Mining Stocks Q2’18 Fundamentals / Commodities / Gold and Silver Stocks 2018
By: Zeal_LLC
The major gold miners’ stocks plummeted in brutal cascading selling this week as stops were run. That shattered strong multi-year support, devastating sentiment among the handful of contrarians remaining in this forsaken sector. With fear and despair extreme, it’s critical to take a deep breath and get grounded in the gold miners’ just-reported Q2’18 fundamentals. They reveal if this surprise anomalous plunge was justified.
Four times a year publicly-traded companies release treasure troves of valuable information in the form of quarterly reports. Companies trading in the States are required to file 10-Qs with the US Securities and Exchange Commission by 45 calendar days after quarter-ends. Canadian companies have similar requirements. In other countries with half-year reporting, many companies still partially report quarterly.
The definitive list of major gold-mining stocks to analyze comes from the world’s most-popular gold-stock investment vehicle, the GDX VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF. Its composition and performance are similar to the benchmark HUI gold-stock index. GDX utterly dominates this sector, with no meaningful competition. This week GDX’s net assets are 33.4x larger than the next-biggest 1x-long major-gold-miners ETF!
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Friday, August 17, 2018
Free The Press / Politics / Censorship
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Two thirds of Americans want the Mueller investigation (inquisition, someone called it) over by the midterm elections. Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani has said that if Mueller wants to interview Trump, he’ll have to do so before September 1, because the Trump camp doesn’t want to be the one to unduly influence the elections. Mueller himself appears to lean towards prolonging the case, and that may well be with an eye on doing exactly that.
And there’s something else as well: as soon as the investigation wraps up, Trump will demand a second special counsel, this time to scrutinize the role the ‘other side’ has played in the 2016 presidential election and its aftermath. He’s determined to get it, and he’ll fire both Jeff Sessions and Rod Rosenstein if they try to stand in his way.
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