Thursday, June 07, 2018
Shangri-La Arms Race: Or Follow the Money / Personal_Finance / Military Spending
As the Trump administration seeks to boost arms sales in Asia, the Shangri-La Dialogue is morphing into a marketing arm of Western arms exporters in Asia.At the Shangri-La Summit, U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis accused China of "intimidation and coercion" in the Indo-Pacific. "Make no mistake: America is in the Indo-Pacific to stay. This is our priority theater," he said. What Mattis left unsaid was why America wants to stay in Asia and how U.S. defense contractors hope to turn the region into a weaponized cash cow.
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Thursday, June 07, 2018
Judgment Day for the ECB / Interest-Rates / ECB Interest Rates
Will the ECB Withstand Pressure?
Next week, the ECB will hold its monetary policy meeting. The bank was expected to start winding down its stimulus program at the end of 2018. However, Italian turmoil led some analysts to think that the ECB will remain cautious. Will the ECB withstand the pressure or funk? And what does it all mean for the gold market?
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Thursday, June 07, 2018
Suspended Sentences for Sheffield Tree Protestors - Videos of the Incidents that Triggered the Court Case / Local / Sheffield
Four Sheffield citizens were in High Court this week for potential committal to prison as the Labour controlled council took the four to court for the parts they played in Sheffield's anti street trees felling protests that have seen more than 20 arrests this year alone which culminated in an halt to tree fellings announced late March in the run up to the May 3rd local elections that continues. At the conclusion of the trial Justice Males verdict was that the case had been proven against three of the campaigners - Simon Crump, Fran Grace and Benoit Compin that they breached the injunction banning direct action against tree fellings, whilst reserving judgement on the fourth person, Paul Brooke.
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Thursday, June 07, 2018
Sharp Dollar Appreciation and Gold / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2018
On the macroeconomic front, the rapid strengthening of the U.S. dollar has been the most important development since the latest edition of the Market Overview. Let’s mull over the reasons behind it and its potential effects on the gold market.
As one can see in the chart below, the U.S. dollar appreciated 6 percent against the broad basket of currencies since its bottom from the early February. But the real rally started in mid-April. Since April the 17th, the index rose from 117.27 to 122.16 on May the 18th, for more than 4 percent.
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Thursday, June 07, 2018
Axel's Stock Market Outlook / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018
Ask me what I am currently most enthusiastic about in the markets, and I’ll tell you it is the underpricing of rate hike expectations. Let me elaborate on why, what it means for investors’ portfolios and how to possibly profit from it.
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Thursday, June 07, 2018
Blue Chips Take the Lead, Enough to Push Stock Market Higher? / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018
Investors' sentiment continued to improve on Wednesday, as the broad stock market accelerated its short-term uptrend following Monday's breakout above three-week-long consolidation. The S&P 500 index gets closer to march local high. Will the uptrend continue? There are still two possible medium-term scenarios, but bulls are much happier now.
The U.S. stock market indexes gained between 0.7% and 1.4% on Wednesday, extending their short-term uptrend, as investors' sentiment continued to improve and blue-chip stocks regained their strength. The S&P 500 index broke above 2,750 mark and it currently trades just 3.5% below January's 26th record high of 2,872.87. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.4%, as it was relatively stronger than the broad stock market yesterday, and the technology Nasdaq Composite gained 0.7%.
Thursday, June 07, 2018
Stock Market More Important for Gold than US Dollar / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018
The fundamental drivers for Gold and the US Dollar are similar and that is why they typically trend together. Negative and/or falling real rates drive Gold and the same drives the greenback though with respect to differentials between the other competing currencies. When real rates are rising or strong in the US that is bearish for Gold and bullish for the US Dollar. The opposite is also true. And with the US Dollar being the global reserve currency, it naturally competes with Gold, which is an alternative. All being said, history as well as recent action suggests that weakness in the stock market is more crucial to Gold’s future than weakness in the US Dollar.
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Thursday, June 07, 2018
Why $10,000 Gold Will Not Be What You Think / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2018
For almost 7 years now, I have been actively engaged in the online community relating to investing opportunities. In fact, my first public article about a specific asset was when I called for a top in gold back in the summer of 2011, when most were certain we were about to easily eclipse the $2,000 mark. However, my expectation was that the $1,915 region would likely put a cap to this rally, despite the parabolic rally we were experiencing in gold at the time. And, as we now know, gold topped at $1,921 about a month after my top call.
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Thursday, June 07, 2018
CFD Assets: Shares / InvestorEducation / Learn to Trade
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Wednesday, June 06, 2018
Precious Metals Represent Something True / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2018
You began investing in precious metals because they represent something honest.
Gold and silver are tangible, scarce, and beautiful. People have always recognized them as such. Societies naturally gravitated toward using them as a trusted medium of exchange – money – almost as soon as societies were formed.
Over time civilizations have come and gone. The world has seen constant social upheaval and change.
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Wednesday, June 06, 2018
Gold’s Breakout vs. Relativity / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2018
Gold, silver, and mining stocks moved higher once again yesterday and the former even managed to move above the declining trend channel. Breakouts are bullish and thus the outlook for gold improved significantly… Or did it? Gold’s price in terms of the euro and gold’s relative performance to silver and mining stocks make replying to the above question quite easy. Looking at the relative price moves on a day-to-date basis doesn’t provide any interesting implications, but who says that it’s the only way in which one can examine them?
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Wednesday, June 06, 2018
SPX Extends But in a Limited Range / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018
SPX futures are higher this morning as they progress toward their ultimate target at/near 2762.00. The Cycles Model has tomorrow tagged as the turn date, but we should see waning strength and possibly a turn in the indicators as early as today. The hourly Trading Bands are very tight, suggesting a reversal is coming in the SPX.
ZeroHedge reports, “Global stocks, US equity futures and Treasury yields extended gains while the dollar slumped as "risk-on" sentiment returned after the U.S. and China exchanged trade proposals meant to avoid an escalation of economic tensions, while European bonds declined and the euro strengthened following a Bloomberg report and hawkish comments from ECB speakers suggesting that the ECB's next, June 14 meeting will be "live" to debate the end of QE.”
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Wednesday, June 06, 2018
Russell 2000 Leading The Stock Market Charge Higher / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018
While the US majors continue to push higher through recent price rotation levels, the IWM (Russell 2000 ETF) is showing investors where strength lies in the markets. Recently, we issued a research report showing that a massive dynamic shift is beginning to take place in the US market that provides an incredible opportunity for investors. Now, we have further proof that this shift is well underway and is likely much further along than we initially expected.
The Russell 2000 is one component of the US market that often reacts to market strength and weakness a bit differently than the S&P, DOW or NASDAQ index. The reason for this is that the Russell 2000 index makes up a broader scope of trading symbols that represent a greater chunk of the total market segment. The US majors don’t always follow the Russell 2000, but when the Russell 2000 index breaks recent all-time highs on a broad push higher – we need to pay attention.
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Wednesday, June 06, 2018
Who Finances America's Borrowing? Recession Indicator for Independent Thinkers Part 2 / Economics / Economic Theory
Have you ever lacked for information about America’s various debt burdens? Twenty-odd years ago, if you paid any attention to debt, you might have relied on original source data to stay current. But the times they are-a-changing, aren’t they? In today’s high-tech, data-rich world, anyone who follows financial news should know roughly where we stand with our borrowings. Whether you’re a mainstream media addict or a blog junkie, your daily dose includes more commentary than ever before on which types of borrowers are increasing their leverage and by how much.
For example, don’t bother to sit down and ready yourself before reading the following observations about debt ratios, they should come as no big surprise (but note that we’re comparing debt to the highest prior GDP reading, or peak GDP):
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Wednesday, June 06, 2018
Train to Win 2 Minute Spinning / Rotating Bar Hang Challenge at Theme Parks / Personal_Finance / Theme Parks
Here is our definitive guide of how to beat the 2 minute / 100 second hanging from a bar challenge at theme parks such as at Alton Towers and Thorpe Park. Which includes our how to make your own spinning bar to train on. We also show at the end of the video of how we finally beat the challenge!
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Wednesday, June 06, 2018
USD IS POINTING HIGHER IN THE SHORT TERM / Currencies / US Dollar
UPCOMING RISK EVENTS:
USD: Crude Oil Inventories.
EUR: N/A.
GBP: N/A.
JPY: N/A.
Wednesday, June 06, 2018
How Savvy Investors Do (and Don’t) Hedge against Inflation / Stock-Markets / Inflation
Inflation is a corrosive force that gradually – and sometimes rapidly – eats away at the nominal value of savings and investments.
It is perhaps the biggest threat looming on the horizon for millions of retirees who have been steered into assets marketed as “conservative” – such as dollar-denominated money market accounts, bonds, and annuities.
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Wednesday, June 06, 2018
Respite for Bitcoin Traders Might Be Deceptive / Currencies / Bitcoin
There seems to be some respite for Bitcoin traders. It might be tempting to take this breather as a sign of the tide turning. We highlight the reasons why you probably shouldn’t.
In the last couple of days, Bitcoin has gone up a bit. This has brought questions if the current move is only a correction within a decline or already an important sign of a shift in the market. In an article on CoinDesk, we read:
Bitcoin looks primed for a move to $8,000, but low trading volumes point to the risk of a bull trap.
The cryptocurrency broke through a key descending trendline (drawn through the May 6 high to the May 21 high) on Sunday, adding credence to last Tuesday's bullish outside-day candle and signaling a short-term bearish-to-bullish trend change.
Wednesday, June 06, 2018
Bottom Holds in Bitcoin, Ethereum: Price Must Prove Sentiments / Currencies / Bitcoin
Last week in my article, "A bottom in the crypto market, or more blood-letting?" I suggested that a bottom could be imminent, or that we had bottomed. I often look to our bellwethers, Bitcoin(BTC-USD) and Ethereum (ETH-USD), as signals for the larger crypto market.
I wanted to see $7085 hold in bitcoin and $495 in Ethereum. On May 28, bitcoin hit $7075, a nominal break and ethereum $505. So far, those levels have held, and we appear to have set up bullishly. As long as they do, we have a very bullish setup - the five-wave pattern off the April lows, which suggests this wave ii we believe bottomed that proceeds a larger third wave rally.
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Tuesday, June 05, 2018
Markets are Flat, Waiting for a Catalyst? / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018
Good Morning!
I am having difficulty with investing.com this morning. Not sure it is my computer or theirs.
SPX futures are flat. We are seeing the calm before the storm. Yesterday was a Primary Pivot which may account for the top being made. Another Primary Pivot occurs on Thursday. The second Pivot in a week may direct us to the catalyst for the decline to begin.
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