U.S. stocks traded relatively flat on Monday and Asian stocks seemed to echo the sentiment on Tuesday. The S&P traded in its tightest range so far this year on Monday, as traders sat to the side while waiting for the Federal Reserve to being its two-day policy meeting today. Approximately 6.18 billion shares changed hands on Wall Street on Monday, compared with 6.93 billion shares traded daily in the past 20 trading sessions. According to CME Group’s FedWatch tool, market expectation for a Fed rate hike is 95.2 percent. Also weighing on traders’ minds across the globe is the Dutch election which is scheduled for Wednesday and British ...
The U.S. Census Bureau’s data for goods and services exported to the U.S. from China and from the U.S. to China in January 2017 suggests that both economies are growing much more strongly than they were a year earlier. At least, that’s what is suggested by the sharp rise in the exchange-rate adjusted year-over-year growth rate of the value of goods and services traded between the two nations in the following chart! Before we continue, we should recognize that this data partially overlaps this year’s weeklong Chinese New Year/Spring Festival holiday, which because the timing of the holiday is based on a lunar calendar, can gr...
Currency Last High Low Daily Change (pip) Daily Range (pip) AUD/USD 0.7588 0.7592 0.7531 47 61 AUD/USD Daily Chart – Created Using Trading View AUD/USD extends the advance following the U.S. Non- Farm Payrolls (NFP) report, with the pair at risk for a larger recovery as the 0.7500 (50% retracement) handle offers near-term support; however, the string of failed attempts to close above the Fibonacci overlap around 0.7590 (100% expansion) may produce range-bound conditions especially ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting as the central bank is widely expected to deliver a March rate-hike. Nevertheless, another 16.0K...
The euro has been consolidating near a 15-year low with the first two months of the year showing no major movements in the currency pair. While there are significant fundamental risks to the single currency in the form of the elections in Europe this year, the euro has been so far muted. However, this is likely to change over the coming weeks especially as at least two major events will pass through, which could provide more clarity to EURUSD in the run-up to the first round of French elections in April. Fed rate hike could add short-term noise to EURUSD On March 15, the U.S. Federal Reserve will be meeting for the monthly monetary policy mee...
Charles Schwab Corp (NYSE:SCHW) just launched a new offering for investors that hopes to capitalize on the rising trend of automated investments while still retaining the old school touch of human advisors....
Brexit is almost here. The British government led by Prime Minister Theresa May now has the authority to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, notifying the European Union that Britain is leaving. The Brexit Bill was returned to the House of Commons with amendments from the House of Lords. These were related to sensitive issues: the rights of EU citizens living in the UK and the involvement of parliament in the EU exit details. However, the debate in the House of Commons did not last too long. Despite growing opposition and a narrower margin, the lower house rejected the amendments quite swiftly. It was then returned to the upper house ...
Gold prices dropped $1.7 an ounce yesterday as a stronger dollar and gains in equity markets weighed on the metal and investors awaited outcome of the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting. Fed officials will update their forecasts for the growth, unemployment and inflation, and Chair Janet Yellen is scheduled to give a post-meeting press conference. The key levels remain unchanged, as the market is stuck in a relatively tight range. Prices are located in the opposite sides of the daily and 4-hourly Ichimoku clouds – XAU/USD is above the daily cloud but below the 4-hourly cloud. The fact that we have seen a hammer followed by a shooting st...
Stock TA Diverging Hard from Market Price Action The price action is dull in the overall market, and while the price on the indices still hovers at the all-time highs, the TA of stocks (technical analysis) continues to falter under the surface. Breadth is dismal, and without a catalyst to continue pushing the market higher at this point, profit taking continues to gain momentum under the surface. There are plenty of stocks whose TA suggests they’ll breakout and they aren’t hard to find, but the majority of stocks at the moment are languishing. Some are getting hit by downgrades, and others still trying to recover from their earn...
The low oil price continues to wreak financial havoc on the largest oil producer in the Middle East. While the Mainstream press has published articles forecasting a rebound in Saudi Arabia’s financial outlook, due to higher oil prices this year, it seems like the Kingdom’s problems are just beginning. In order to make up for falling oil revenues, Saudi Arabia has been liquidating its foreign currency reserves at a pretty good rate over the past two and a half years. I discussed this in my article, Bankrupting OPEC… One Million Barrels Of Oil At A Time. In that article I published this chart: Due to the rapid oil price decline, Saudi Ar...
Not too long ago, I wrote an article on Seeking Alpha about selling General Electric (GE) before it fails investors again. I knew there are lots of GE shareholders and I expected to get thrown my fair share of tomatoes. After all, we have all our reasons to hold share of one company instead of another and someone telling you it’s a bad idea may hit the wrong button. There was something very surprising in the comments thought. Especially coming from supposedly educated investors. Several shareholders commented they would keep GE because they bought it at $6-$9 during the 2008 market meltdown. I don’t really understand why the price they...