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    Pakistan’s Disunion Puts Investment At Risk

    Jihadism has been radiating out of Pakistan for decades and causing problems for the country’s relationships with other governments. Lately, however, it’s been Pakistan itself that is suffering from its homegrown Islamism. The country was founded on a contradiction between secularism and Islamism, and though it has covered up its incoherence, it has never overcome it. The contradiction is finally catching up to the country, and things in Pakistan will get worse before they get better. Warning Signs Evidence that things in Pakistan are reaching their boiling point came, paradoxically, from the outside. A Nov. 22 report by a Pakistani daily...
    On December 4, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    Microsoft Plunges Most In 18 Months As Tech Wreck Escalates

    Microsoft is down almost 4% – the biggest drop since June 2016 – filling the gap from earnings as the entire tech space is coming under serious pressure in this low-high tax rotation. No, there is no MSFT-specific news or catalyst… FANGs, Semis, and the broad tech sector are in trouble… As the low-to-high tax company rotation continues…...
    On December 4, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    E The Oil Price Impact On Canada’s Currency Has Weakened Since The Central Bank Started Raising Interest Rates

    “The Canadian dollar’s link with crude has been falling sharply since the end of June, spurred by the central bank raising interest rates for the first time since 2010. The currency’s 90-day correlation with WTI crude is now at the lowest level in almost three years.” (Bloomberg News, October 24, 2017.) World oil prices have been in a bear market for the past six years. Canada’s economy is widely thought of as a commodity-based economy, and at times it seems as if the Canadian currency follows the ups and downs of oil prices. Indeed, it is well understood that the Canadian dollar is positively correlated with the price of oil. That...
    On December 4, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    Fed Official Decries Bitcoin As “Not Backed”

    Randal K. Quarles, a Trump administration appointee to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and Vice Chair for bank supervision, has given a lengthy speech (“Thoughts on Prudent Innovation in the Payment System”) that directly targets Bitcoin as a danger to the monetary and financial system. To reiterate, an official speaking for the nation’s central bank that manages the global reserve currency – the institution that has long bragged about its power to bail out the entire world with the magic powers of the alchemist – has put down Bitcoin for being untrustworthy, unbacked, and unsound. Discrediting Crypto The timing here se...
    On December 4, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    What The Recent Market Volatility Means For Traders

    Well, the first day of trading for December turned out to be anything but boring. The morning’s explosive political news sent the SPX down 400 points, and for 30 minutes, the markets saw nothing but sell orders. Over at the NYSE, the ticker kept pounding at -1000 readings minute after minute as the support for the 30-stock index melted. Meanwhile, the Dow Industrials had its first weak session in a while, closing down about 45 points. In response, market volatility ticked up to 14%. Copyright: choreograph / 123RF Stock Photo But as we have seen so often, dip buyers swooped in and the indices rallied back, closing only marginally lower. Th...
    On December 4, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    Dividend Income November 2017

    Each month I will publish my dividend income. I will mainly do this for staying self motivated and to give you the readers the chance to follow my journey from the beginning on. The dividend income in the first couple of years will be on a very low level but investing in dividend stocks is all about the long term. I am very sure that in 5 years from now I will get my first rewards for the patience and focus on my goals. It is again time for the monthly dividend income summary, can’t believe that is already December. November has been a quiet month when it comes to my dividend income. But I was expecting that already nevertheless I was again...
    On December 4, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    NZD/JPY Challenges Resistance Into December Open- Watch This Level

    NZD/JPY Daily Chart Technical Outlook: NZD/JPY has been trading within the confines a well-defined descending pitchfork formation extending off the yearly highs with prices trading into the 77.38/66 resistance zone today before turning lower. Notice the similarities in the previous failure patterns into this upper parallel – heading into the open in December, we’re looking for an exhaustion high while below this slope. Key support remains at 75.91-76.01 with a break below 75.63 needed to expose the next leg lower targeting 73.86 & 73.50. NZD/JPY 240min Chart Notes: A closer look at price action highlights a near-term asce...
    On December 4, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    All Systems Are (Almost) Go Into Year-End, With Tax Reform The Final Missing Piece

    Stocks are rocketing to new highs almost every day. Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com (AMZN) saw his net worth exceed $100 billion. Bonds are still strong (and interest rates low). Real estate pricing is robust. DaVinci painting sells for $450 million. Bitcoin – having no intrinsic value other than a frenzy of speculative demand – trades above $11,000 (up from $1,000 on January 1), with surprising enthusiasm brewing among institutional investors, including some of the wealthiest and most successful, and with futures and derivatives on cryptocurrencies in the pipeline. (By the way, if you are afraid of a global internet crash disrupting your holdin...
    On December 4, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    Yield Curve “Conundrum”: Blame Japan For Flat Treasury Curve?

    Citigroup blames Japanese banks for the flat yield curve. The BIS notes a conundrum. Neither explanation is correct. A Citigroup analyst says don’t worry about the flat yield curve. Instead, Blame Japanese Banks. “We believe that the latest leg of curve flattening has been, to a large extent, driven by front-end selling from Japanese banks and back-end buying from domestic pension funds, and we expect these flows to continue into next year,” said Citigroup strategists led by Jabaz Mathai in a note on December 1. Under this theory, Japanese banks plowed into 5-year and under duration treasuries and are losing money because of rate h...
    On December 4, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    Gold Looks Like A Bargain Just In Time For Christmas

    One of the most compelling and engaging presenters at the Precious Metals Summit in London last month was Ronald-Peter Stöferle, a managing partner at Liechtenstein-based asset management company Incrementum. Incrementum, as you may know, is responsible for publishing the annually-updated, widely-read “In Gold We Trust” report, which I’ve cited a number of times before. During his presentation, Stöferle shared the fact that his wife prefers to do her Christmas decoration shopping in January. When he asked her why she did this—Christmas should be the last thing on anyone’s mind in January—she explained that everything is half-o...
    On December 4, 2017 / By