A few weeks ago, we took a detailed look from a technical point of view at the two interesting pairs. We speculated the possible scenarios, based on the previous reactions and the potential catalysts, which could lead to the next move. Are Australia’s & New Zealand’s central banks intervening in FX market? The Aussie and the Kiwi did it once again and failed to break above the key levels that we mentioned in our previous report, declining back down and showing more signs of weakness ahead. We will revisit those charts and update the outlook for the next few weeks. Aussie Declines After RBA Decision Last week, the Reserve Bank of Austr...
Top Pick of the Day: CELG Celgene Corporation (CELG) announced that it has agreed to acquire a stake in BeiGene. The deal has valued BeiGene stock at $4.58 apiece. The company will buy 5.9 percent of the total stock, which would be 32.7 million shares. BeiGene is set to receive $263 million in upfront license fee. It is also entitled to receive up to $980 million in development and other milestone payments related to the tumor cancer treatment. According to BeiGene, more than 500 patients have been dosed with its BGB-A317 advanced clinical-stage investigational tumor cancer treatment. The company stock is currently trading close to its 52 wee...
This week is another big one for the U.S. Dollar, as the currency remains pinned-down near 10-month lows. The primary drivers for this week will likely come from Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s two-day testimony in front of Congress, set to take place on Wednesday and Thursday. During this twice-annual Humphrey Hawkins testimony, Chair Yellen will brief both houses of Congress on current financial conditions while fielding questions from the House on Wednesday and the Senate on Thursday. It was at Humphrey Hawkins in February of 2016 that Janet Yellen helped to kick-off a bullish reversal in Equities and Oil. After the first rate hike from the Fe...
The Department of Labor has monthly data on employment by industry categories reaching back to 1939. At the highest level, all jobs are categorized in either Service-Providing Industries or Goods Producing Industries. The adjacent chart illustrates the ratio of the two since 1939. The latest monthly employment report showed a gain of 222K nonfarm payrolls, which consists of a gain of 126K service-providing jobs and 20K goods-producing jobs. In 1939 service providing industries employed more people than goods producing, 62.9% to 37.1%, a ratio of 1.7-to-1. World War II triggered a surge in goods-producing employment and an accompanying reducti...
On Sunday evening we wondered if news that Libya and Nigeria may soon be asked to cap output would serve as a catalyst for crude prices to start the week. Boom.. here’s your catalyst for oil on Monday: KUWAIT: OPEC, NON-OPEC TO DISCUSS OUTPUT CAPS ON LIBYA, NIGERIA — Walter White (@heisenbergrpt) July 9, 2017 If you’re interested in the details on that, you can read them here, but suffice to say any positive sentiment the comments from Kuwait’s Oil Minister might have created evaporated entirely by about 5 a.m. EST. Long story, short, WTI is back below $44 and Brent is down near $46 again. So we’re at the lowest levels since J...
The consumer staples industry has a compelling value proposition for conservative investors. Why is this? The consumer staples sector has historically been one of the best-performing sectors of the stock market… …while also having the best recession performance. Traditional financial theory suggests that additional risk must be assumed to generate excess returns. The outperformance of the consumer staples sector indicates that this is not necessarily true. General Mills (GIS) is one of the most well-known consumer staples stocks. Furthermore, it is also one of the ‘bluest’ blue chip stocks around. This Blue Chip Stocks Excel SheetÂ...
On Monday July 10, the US dollar index (DXY) is trading up thanks to Friday’s payrolls report. At the time of writing this review, the DXY is at 96.15 against a session high of 96.20. The euro/dollar rate has slid to 1.1382. The price is still within Friday’s range of 1.1380 – 1.1440. If the rate breaks out of this range downwards, pressure on buyers will sharply increase. In this case, the single currency will fall against the dollar to 1.1330/35 in the space of 20 hours. What’s the probability of falling to 1.1330 or lower? I reckon it’s about 80%. The euro/pound cross has found a support at 0.8633. As soon as sellers break this l...
Our intraday outlook is bearish, and our short-term outlook is bearish. Our medium-term outlook remains neutral, following S&P 500 index breakout above last year’s all-time high: Intraday outlook (next 24 hours): bearish Short-term outlook (next 1-2 weeks): bearish Medium-term outlook (next 1-3 months): neutral Long-term outlook (next year): neutral The U.S. stock market indexes gained between 0.4% and 1.0% on Friday, as investors’ sentiment improved following better-than-expected monthly jobs data release. The S&P 500 index got close to its late June local low at around 2,405 on Thursday. It has bounced off that support l...
As we’ve noted time and time again, the fact that average national housing prices appear to have recovered from the peak of the housing bubble masks the uneven nature of America’s economic recovery: While certain popular coastal markets have seen prices recover, much of the south and Midwest have struggled with stagnation or even home-price deflation. Now, a new tabulation of home-price data by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies provides a granular look at the unevenness of the recovery from county to county.A quick glance at the map reveals how home-prices – a worthy proxy for wealth inequality – have ri...
Who has the wealth of wealthy stockholders? The question seems absurd: the stockholders have it, of course. But I’m not asking who owns the stock; I’m asking who has the wealth? There is a difference. And the difference matters because many good people condemn the free market system on the mistaken belief that the wealth of the wealthy benefits only the wealthy. One such well-meaning but mistaken person is Amy Traub, Associate Director of Policy and Research at Demos, an equality-focused public policy organization. Here follow excerpts from her arguments against the motion in a recent Intelligence2 US debate on the topic, “Lon...