Seven days ago, Deutsche Bank turned in what various sellside desks described as “horrible”, “grim” results for both Q4 and 2015 as a whole. The bank posted its first annual net loss since the financial crisis, reporting red ink that totaled more than $7 billion as investment banking revenue fell plunged by some 30%. On Thursday, we learn that Credit Suisse (CS) lost nearly $6 billion in the fourth quarter. The 2015 net loss came to nearly $3 billion. Shares in the Swiss bank plunged 13% to their lowest levels since 1991 as Tidjane Thiam’s “turnaround” hit a rather large bump in the road. The shares are down 32% this year alo...
EUR/USD The EUR/USD pair broke higher during the course of the session on Wednesday, finally clearing the 1.1050 level which has been pretty significant resistance in the recent consolidation area. Ultimately, the markets look as if they are ready to continue going much higher now, and as a result it is very likely that the market will continue to go much higher, so with that being the case we are more than likely going to see buyers step back into this market every time we pullback. I don’t have any interest in shorting this market, and I also believe that a break above the top of the range for the day on Wednesday is reason enough to star...
Sterling has neared the 50% retracement of the 11.5 cent decline since mid-December. It is found near $1.4660. After easing ahead of the BOE announcement, sterling was sold to $1.4530 on the initial headlines that showed the BOE was cutting its growth, inflation, and wage forecasts. However, the short-sterling futures had already largely discounted the rates being low for longer, and UK debt instruments also sold off, and after the initial flurry, sterling stabilized and recovered nearly fully. BOE Governor Carney wants it both ways. While the central bank is in no hurry to raise rates, he cautions that the market is not pricing...
Deutsche Bank had a rough go in 2015. The Germany-based big bank posted a Q4 net loss of €2.1billion, largely due to litigation costs. For the full year, its net loss came to €6.7 billion, again mostly because of litigation costs. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t feel bad for the bank. It brought its troubles on itself. Scandal after scandal involving rate and currency manipulation has shown that the big bank didn’t learn anything over the years. It’s to the point where new CEO John Cryan doesn’t actually enjoy helping the bank with its turnaround plan. “The bank I would like to run at the moment is Wells Fargo,” says Cryan. ...
US Stock Market: 3 Amigos bouncing, broad market (including Amigos) remains intermediate bearish The 3 major US indexes are on a ‘bounce within a bear trend’ plan and as of now that plan is intact.Yesterday was hairy and I am glad I was out for the last couple of hours so I could not out think myself during the whipsaws. It was a very profitable day (gold miners and energy playing a nice roll).I took profit on one of my 4 short positions and have some light long exposure in a few non-gold stocks. You can see the green shaded (short-term support) areas and up north, a lot of red (resistance). More and more I find it is dangerous to be...
I assure you that my TEDx Talk from November will be up and running soon, but in the meantime I want to talk about another way that the general public can practice socially responsible investing – all without a degree in finance or even investing in the market at all. However, in order to impact the world this way, you need to have an open mind and a logical brain. I’m a huge supporter of using the power of activist investors to help shape the course of not just the market, but the why corporations do business and respond to consumer concerns. Activist Investors are individuals or groups who purchase large numbers of a public c...
The US Dollar was under pressure after speculation on the Fed’s outlook for interest rates deteriorated. The US Dollar Index, which traders use to assess the greenback’s relative weight against major peers, fell to a 2-month trough. That was triggered by softer than expected US economic data coupled with comments from the President of the NY Federal Reserve Branch who put investors on notice that the weakening global outlook needed to be considered in monetary policy. As reported at 11:33 am (GMT) in London, the EUR/USD was trading at $1.182, a gain of 0.87% and just a few pips from the session high of $1.186; the pair’s daily low came ...
The Hague-based Royal Dutch Shell plc (RDS-A – Analyst Report) owns one of the largest integrated oil and gas businesses in the world. The group has operations all over the world and is involved in various activities related to oil and natural gas, chemicals, power generation, renewable energy resources, and other energy related businesses. Royal Dutch Shell divides its operations into three major segments: Upstream, Downstream, and Corporate. Currently, Royal Dutch Shell has a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) but that could change following its fourth quarter 2015 earnings report which has just released. Coming to earnings surprise hist...
Technical Outlook: Key support level at 1872 was tested yesterday and resulted in a major bounce of 46 points in the span of about 1 hour. The majority of the gains taking place in under 25 minutes. Insane price movements every day being created by computer generated trading in a highly volatile market marked with enormous headline risk. A rising trend-line in place off of the SPX 1/21 lows that was held yesterday. Weakness in the premarket today and some dismal earnings reports, suggests that yesterday’s bounce may be short lived. There is a lot of stop-loss hunting out there in the market, and being agile with getting in and...
After yesterday’s torrid, chaotic moves in the market, where an initial drop in stocks was quickly pared and led to a surge into the close after a weaker dollar on the heels of even more disappointing US data and Bill Dudley’s “serious consequences” speech sent oil soaring and put the “Fed Relent” scenario squarely back on the table, overnight we have seen more global equity strength on the back of a weaker dollar, even if said weakness hurt Kuroda’s post-NIRP world and the Nikkei erased virtually all losses since last Friday’s surprising negative rate announcement. Oil and metals also rose pigg...