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  • Finance 0

    Gold Bounces Back

    Video Length: 00:02:26 Today’s hot topic is all about the Gold rush! Gold surged $30 on Friday, that’s a massive 2.6% rise. Bullion was the best performing metal last month, appreciating 9%. Are we seeing the comeback of Gold? Let’s find out what’s going on. Last Friday’s NFP release saw new job creation well short of the expected 191 thousand to just 151 thousand. However, we also got a multi-year low for unemployment at 4.9% and a rise in average hourly earnings delivering a mixed bag of employment data out of the US These figures have investors questioning further Fed hike rates especially for next March. How did gold respond? We...
    On February 9, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    S&P 500 And Nasdaq 100 Forecast – February 9, 2016

    S&P 500 The S&P 500 fell rather significantly during the day on Monday, as the stock markets continue to fall around the world. We did get a bit of a bounce towards the end of the day, somewhere near the 1820 handle. This is an area that offered support in the past, and as a result it’s more than likely that we will continue to see short-term bounces that it sold off yet again. The question then becomes whether or not we can even break down below the 1800 level, which leads the way to much lower levels. I don’t really have any interest in buying this market, because there is so much in the way of negativity at the moment. I think ...
    On February 9, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    Dividend Sustainability Continues To Grow For AT&T

    A couple of weeks ago, AT&T (NYSE:T) announced fourth-quarter earnings of 63 cents per share, which met analyst expectations. AT&T continues to trade with a dividend yield of around 5.5%. While AT&T’s earnings of 63 cents per share are clearly higher than its 48 cents per share dividend, a deeper analysis is required to determine the sustainability of the telecom giant’s dividend. The first method of determining AT&T’s dividend sustainability is to examine the payout ratio or the dividend divided by the earnings.  On a quarterly basis, AT&T’s payout ratio was 76% in the fourth quarter, which is higher than ...
    On February 9, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    How To Trade The Nikkei 225 This Week

    The Japanese Nikkei 225 index is an interesting one to trade and several important conclusions can be drawn from traders taking a negative approach, a neutral approach and a positive approach. In the short-term, the consensus estimate is that the Nikkei 225 is bearish. In the medium-term, the index is neutral and in the long-term the bulls win out. Let’s look at the short-term with respect to the Nikkei 225 index. The trend is bearish and the declines will likely continue as expected given the negative interest-rate imposed by the Bank of Japan. There are various support points along the 16,000 level and the resistance points appear to...
    On February 9, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    Is Gold A Safe Haven Again?

    Stocks have been slumping since the beginning of 2016. Sellers just keep selling. Tech stocks have been dropping fast the past couple of weeks, from biotechs to internets to semiconductors to software; across the board, they have all been weak. We have been staying mostly in cash and playing the downside here and there. While the markets have been pulling back, we have been making nice gains. My Happy Trades portfolio has popped more than +30% in the past 30 days! In October last year, I wrote an article, titled “Time to Buy Some Gold!”. While gold traded mostly flat in the following months, GLD has now just broken out to the up side. Dur...
    On February 9, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    WTI Plunges Back Below $30 After Goldman “Teens” & IEA Excess-Supply Warning

    WTI keeps dead-cat-bouncing thanks to the algos and crashing thanks to reality. This morning’s reality check on the overnight ramp comes courtesy of a double-whammy from Goldman (“wouldn’t be surprised to see WTI in the teens”) and The IEA which increased its estimate of excess-supply drastically. This has dragged WTI back below $30 once again and where oil goes, stocks go…   Goldman Sachs Says No Surprise If Oil Price Drops Below $20/Bbl “I wouldn’t be surprised if this market goes into the teens,” Head of Commodities Research Jeff Currie says in interview on Bloomberg TV. “Once you breach storage cap...
    On February 9, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    USD/JPY At One-Year Lows As Risk Aversion Continues

    Today’s Economic events Japan M2 money stock y/y 3.20% vs. 3.10% Australia NAB business confidence 2 vs. 2 previously Japan prelim machine tool orders y/y -17.2% vs. -25.7% Germany industrial production m/m -1.20% vs. 0.20% Germany trade balance 19.4bn vs. 19.4bn MPC Member Cunliffe speech UK trade balance -9.9bn vs. -10.4bn Coming up JOLTS Job openings Wholesale inventories m/m The markets in Asia saw the equities falling sharply with the benchmark Nikkei225 closing -5.40% lower as Japan’s 10 year bond yields fell below 0% for the first time after the BoJ surprised with negative rates in late January. With the weak Nikkei225, the Yen...
    On February 9, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    Great Graphic: Dollar May Be Less Important For Fed

    Investors and policymakers continue to wrestle with the economic impact of the dollar’s rise. The Federal Reserve has argued that the dollar’s appreciation acts as a headwind on exports and dampens imported inflation. At the same time, despite the dollar’s appreciation and the fall in oil prices, core inflation rose steadily last year. Core CPI rose from 1.6% at the end of 2014 to 2.1% at the end of 2015. The core PCE deflator lagged, but the after bottoming last July below 1.26%, it finished the year near 1.41%.  Fed officials have a nuanced understanding of the dollar. On one hand, the share of exports in the US econ...
    On February 9, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    January 2016 Small Business Optimism Index Declines

    The National Federation of Independent Business’s (NFIB) optimism index fell 1.3 points to 93.9 in January as a result of two important Indices declining. The NFIB says the Index is well below the 42-year average of 98. The market was expecting the index between 93.8 to 95.6 with consensus at 94.9 – versus the actual at 93.9. NFIB chief economist Bill Dunkelberg states: Neither the tumultuous stock market nor the Federal Reserve’s rake hike had much of an influence on this month’s drop in small business owner optimism. Most of the decline was accounted for by expected business conditions in the next six months and th...
    On February 9, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    Race To Bottom Enters Final Lap: ECB Will Cut To -0.7% In June, JPM Predicts

    Here is how global currency warfare and the global “race to debase” works: ECB cuts rates to -0.3%, the BOJ cuts to -0.1%, then the ECB cuts to -0.7% next. At least that’s JPMorgan’s most recent forecast, which now see Mario Draghi going full NIRPtard, and cutting the ECB’s -0.3% deposit rate to -0.5% next month, and then to -0.7% in June, unleashing an epic deflationary tsunami around the globe, one which will send the USD soaring, will force more retaliation by the BOJ, will force more devaluation by the PBOC, will lead to more angry complaining by Deutsche Bank how easing is killing the bank, and so on. When d...
    On February 9, 2016 / By