For certain types of workers, specifically someone employed as a public safety employee, there is a special exception to the normal distribution rules. For a public safety employee, retirement plan withdrawal can begin without penalty as early as age 50, rather than age 55 or 59½. Public Safety Employee The list of public safety employees includes government or municipal firefighters, police, and emergency medical service employees. Recent expansion of this definition was put in place to include federal employees who work in certain public safety professions. These additional classifications include federal law enforcement, customs and bor...
AT40 = 52.7% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs)AT200 = 55.6% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAsVIX = 11.1 (flat) (volatility index)Short-term Trading Call: neutral Commentary Tech was back today sucking energy out of other parts of the stock market. The Nasdaq increased 0.4%, and the PowerShares QQQ ETF (QQQ) increased 0.7%. The S&P 500 (SPY) barely eked out a gain at 0.1%. Yet, AT40 (T2108), the percentage of stocks trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs), declined slightly by 2 percentage points to 52.7%. The Nasdaq managed to close above its 50DMA in an a...
In this newest precious metals update, Tom Cloud is announcing a SILVER BUY ALERT. This is one of the few silver buy alerts he has made in his 40 year history in the precious metals retail industry. Tom is not issuing this silver buy alert based on trading data, but rather fundamental analysis via discussions with individuals all over the world, wealthy clients and fund managers about the precious metals retail industry. Tom discusses five reasons why he is putting out a SILVER BUY ALERT: Video Length – 00:08:53 One of the reasons Tom is announcing a silver buy alert is based information for a large London Trader that Bill Murphy of GAT...
EUR/USD continues hovering around the highs, but isn’t going anywhere fast. What’s next? Here is their view, courtesy of eFXnews: NAB FX Strategy Research maintains its positive EUR view noticing that European rates and the EUR are currently in an impulsive upward phase, with investors in something of a higher yield, higher EUR price discovery chapter. In particular, NAB argues that with the USD much closer to a range bottom than top, an improvement in US data or any shift in US politics towards a Healthcare deal and thus a fiscal splurge will aid the USD, but less so against the EUR especially on the back of NAB’s expectation of a...
A lullin top-tier event risk allowed space for gold prices to consolidate after Friday’s sharp downswing in the wake of June’s upbeat US labor-market data. From here, a lackluster offering on the data docket puts Fed-speak in the spotlight. Comments from Governor Lael Brainard, the Fed’s most vocal dove, are due to cross the wires. If even she appears to favor another rate hike in 2017, skeptical financial markets may begrudgingly resign to a more hawkish baseline outlook and send gold lower. Significant follow-through seems unlikely however as investors await testimony from Fed Chair Yellen later in the week. Crude oil prices ...
Asian equity markets are higher today as Chinese and Hong Kong shares show gains. The Shanghai Composite is up 0.35%, while the Hang Seng is up 1.02%. The Nikkei 225 is trading up by 0.27%. The US stocks ended mostly higher led by gains in technology stocks as investors were optimistic ahead of earnings. Meanwhile, share markets in India have opened the day on a positive note. The BSE Sensex is trading higher by 60 points, while the NSE Nifty is trading higher by 24 points. The BSE Mid Cap Index and BSE Small Cap index both opened the day up by 0.2%. Barring consumer durables stocks and metal stocks, all sectoral indices hav...
Podcast: Play in new window | Play in new window (Duration: 13:15 — 7.6MB) DOW – 5 = 21,408 SPX + 2 = 2427 NAS + 23 = 6176 RUT – 7 = 1408 10 Y – .02 = 2.37% OIL + .09 = 44.49 GOLD + 1.90 = 1215.10 GOLD – 12.80 = 1213.20 BITCOIN – 0.60% = 2357.73 USD ETHEREUM – 5.71% = 199.45 Three big events on the calendar this week, including: Janet Yellen’s semi-annual testimony before Congress, another attempt to pass a replacement to Obamacare, and Amazon Prime day. Congress returned from a July 4 recess, with Senate Republicans beginning to consider what they should do if their Obamacare replacement bill fails. While lawmakers were...
“Davidson” submits: For 8yrs part of the conversation has centered around a weak recovery and weak Hourly Wage Growth. To paraphrase: “If only we had higher wages we would have a better economy and the world would be better off.” The same talk flooded the media today with the higher than expected employment levels. The problem with this hand-wringing and the pressure for government action is that is and has been ‘wrong-headed’. Wage growth has been higher than inflation for most of the historic record since 1978 even though there have been periods when inflation did run hotter than wages. Wage growth is higher than inflation to...
All eight indexes on our world watch list have posted gains for 2017 through July 10. The top performer thus far is India’s BSE SENSEX with a gain of 19.11%, followed by China’s Hang Seng not far behind at 15.91%. In third is our own S&P 500 with 8.42%.. The Last Four Weeks The tables below provide a concise overview of performance comparisons over the last four weeks for these eight major indexes. We’ve also included the average for each week so that we can evaluate the performance of a specific index relative to the overall mean and better understand weekly volatility. The colors for each index name help us visualize t...
As a cross-border financial advisor, one question I hear nearly every day is, “Can I afford to withdraw my principal in retirement?” For most of my clients, the short answer is, yes, but it is important to know how much and from which accounts you can dip into your principal. WHEN WITHDRAWAL IS PART OF A STRATEGY The financial planning industry’s “4 Percent Rule” is commonly applied in determining how much principal you can draw down annually without risking outliving your money. Based on historical worst-case scenarios for a portfolio allocation of 60% stocks and 40% bonds over the last 100 years, 4% is considered a safe withdrawal...