What Do Banking Earnings Tell About These Financial ETFs?
The financial sector, which accounts for around one-fifth of the S&P 500 index, is now busy with Q1 earnings releases. The going is good so far, with four big banks crushing estimates on both lines, one reporting mixed results and Goldman falling shy of both counts. The Zacks Sector Rank for banks is in the […]
What’s Left If There Is No Money Or Policy In Monetary Policy? Reality
It’s such an obvious thing, so maybe that is why no one mentions it. I doubt that is the reason, however, because doing so isn’t a mystery so much as narrowing down suspects. That is why when talking about the so-called natural rate of interest, or R* (r-star), the issue is (intentionally) cloaked in the […]
How To Identify Bubbles
The first bubble I ever saw was the dot-com bubble of 1999. I was born in the early seventies, and I made it to my mid-twenties before ever hearing about an asset price bubble. Commercial real estate went nuts in the eighties, but nobody ever called it a bubble. They didn’t even call it a […]
Sensex Trades In Red; Pharma Stocks Drag
After opening the day on a positive note, share markets in India witnessed volatile trading activity and are currently trading below the dotted line. Sectoral indices are trading on a mixed note with stocks in the realty sector and stocks in the capital goods sector trading in green, while stocks in the pharma sector are leading the losses. The BSE Sensex is trading up by […]
German PMIs Mixed – EUR/USD Remains Bid
German manufacturing PMI remains super-strong at 58.2 points, slightly above expectations. However, the services sector sees a decline from 55.6 to 54.7 points, below expectations. EUR/USD is stable after the publication and up on the day. The focus remains on the all-important elections in France. Markit’s flash purchasing managers’ index for April was expected to show […]
Weekly Commodities Wrap: Iron Down 30% Since March 5th
Copper: Fund Managers Slash Long Positions Copper prices fell lower again this week as continued risk aversion, in response to rising geopolitical tensions, continues to weigh on commodity prices. Reflecting the shift in sentiment, the latest COT data shows that fund managers have slashed their long positions in the metal from 101k contracts at its […]
5 Reasons I Favor Junior Exploration Companies
I started following Gold and precious metals in 2002 and first invested in small cap and junior resource companies in 2005. Until recently I always focused on junior producers rather than junior explorers. Production stories were easier for me to understand. Towards the end of the 2008-2011 bull cycle I began covering more exploration companies […]
Euro Steadies Ahead Of Sunday Election
The Euro steadied against the US Dollar and held below the recently struck 3-week peak as the first round of the French presidential voting nears. Recent polling continues to suggest that Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron will move into the next round of voting. Analysts caution, however, that if Marine Le Pen does, in fact, make […]
Why The Relationship Between OPEC And Hedge Funds Is On The Verge Of Falling Apart
Following years of acrimony between OPEC and the hedge fund community, which the cartel dismissed simply as “speculators”, things suddenly changed in 2016 when the two groups got so close, there were outright reports of collusion between the two on various occasions. We documented this last month in “Why OPEC Is Colluding With Hedge Funds.” […]
