Market Meltup
After taking a pause the last nine days of 2017, which almost pushed our risk gauges to the point of exiting stocks, a monster rally emerged to start off the year with the Dow Jones Industrials jumping over 2% and the Nasdaq 100 over 3% in the first week of trading. The laggard is small […]
Bitcoin Miners Migrate From China To Canada As PBOC Begins Crackdown
Bitcoin rang in the year with a Peter Thiel-inspired ramp following reports that the People’s Bank of China is preparing to crack down on bitcoin miners. In fact, Reuters reported that the PBOC had held a meeting about regulating bitcoin mining power use, an increasingly sensitive topic now that global bitcoin energy consumption is greater […]
Accommodative Officials And Synchronized Upturn Drive Markets
The investment climate is being shaped by two powerful forces. First, is the very accommodative policy stance. This includes the United States, where despite delivering the fifth rate hike in the cycle, adjusted by headline CPI, remains negative. The balance sheet has begun being reduced, financial conditions in the US are easier now than a year […]
Market Numbers Through 2017…Not As Impressive As You Might Think
No one would deny that 2017 was a banner year for the markets…at year end, all the equity indices were close to their all time highs. Even the WSMSI (Working Capital Model Select Income Index) had a capital growth number approaching 12%. But, let’s step around Wall Street’s promotional pennants, and look at the numbers […]
AUD/USD Forecast Jan. 1-5 2018
The Australian dollar extended its relentless rise, reaching the highest levels since October 2017. Can it move even higher? The big event of the upcoming week is the retail sales report. Here are the highlights of the week and an updated technical analysis for AUD/USD. China’s Caixin manufacturing PMI advanced to 51.5 points, implying better growth in […]
The End Of WhoIs As We Know It
WHOIS is lining up to be the first victim of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It may soon be no more. The Internet Corporation for the Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the international non-profit organization charged with defining rules that regulate domain registrations. ICANN requires registrars (like the Verisign’s and GoDaddy’s of the […]
Dow 25K Has Come: What’s Next?
It is hard to find a “talking head” in the media that isn’t able to justify the persistent rally in the major indexes and more recently the Dow Industrial Average crossing 25,000. In short, they are always able to offer that the end is justified by the means. With the end being Dow 25,295 as […]
U.S. Gold Market Switches From A Surplus In 2016 To Deficit In 2017
The U.S. gold market suffered a net deficit this year compared to a small surplus in 2016. This was quite interesting because U.S. physical gold demand will be down considerably this year. In 2016, total U.S. gold demand was 212 metric tons versus an estimated 150 metric tons this year. The majority of the decline […]
Did The Economists ‘Steal Christmas’?
What to make of Friday’s job’s report? Probably not much. Yes, the headline was a disappointment, but that 148K isn’t going to have any material impact on the dot plot, and don’t forget, AHE was in line. That’s probably why the dollar rebounded from its knee-jerk dip and why yields reacted similarly: But there’s something else worth […]
