Photo Credit: Baynham Goredema || When things are crowded, how much freedom to move do you have? Stock diversification is overrated. Alternatives are more overrated. High quality bonds are underrated. This post was triggered by a guy from the UK who sent me an infographic on reducing risk that I thought was mediocre at best. First,…
Yesterday’s Trading: The USD on Thursday managed to break its two-day falling habit. The euro/dollar bounced from the LB at 1.1042 to 1.0924. The forecasted data for initial unemployment benefit applications in the US was exceeded and this held back the pair. The number of for initial unemployment benefit applications in the US for the…
Reader Tim Wallace sent in another series of interesting charts showing the existing trends in employment, government spending, population, and labor force. Click on any chart for a sharper image. Federal Spending Per Full Time Worker In 1968, the US government spent $2,734 per every full time worker. By 2015, the amount soared to $30,834….
Now that OPEC has announced that will continue to pump out more oil despite piling-up supplies and falling demand, traders have set a new bottom for the long-exhausted commodity oil of $20 which is way below the psychologically resistant level of $40. OPEC terminated the production limit after the December 4 meeting. Though the investing…
USD/CNY broke above 6.4500 for the first time since the August devaluation, extending its post-IMF plunge to 6 days. This is the largest and longest streak of weakness since March 2014 as China seems to have taken the SDR-inclusion as blessing to devalue its currency drip by drip. Default risk is once again stomping higher as CDS…
Biotech Rally Is Stalled But Tape Action Is Lively It has been a directionless choppy week of trading with a very bearish sentiment and a few market strategists calling for a tough year ahead because of lackluster revenue growth. The energy sector has led the way down as oil tanked below $40, nat gas futures…
As I discussed last week the main drivers of the large move down in the US Dollar’s DXY index on Thursday were the European currency pairs with the USD/CAD and USD/JPY mostly sitting out the decline in the DXY index. The GBP/USD was certainly up on Thursday but had very much underperformed the gains that were seen…
During the day on Friday, we have several different announcements coming out, including the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment numbers, the Core PPI numbers, and even Retail Sales out of America. Ultimately, we believe that the US dollar will be heavily influenced as well as the US stock markets. In general, we do for buying…
Is the Fed’s interest rate increase pegged for next Wednesday already in stock prices? Or are investors worried that something else is afoot given recent equity sector weakness? Stocks Thursday rallied modestly and unevenly which relieved some short-term oversold conditions. Leading the way higher were beaten down energy shares (despite decline energy prices), healthcare and biotech…
Gold: With the commodity continuing to hold on to its downside bias, Gold remains weak and declining on bear pressure with eyes the 1058.00 zone. On the downside, support comes in at the 1050.00 level where a break will turn attention to the 1040.00 level. Further down, a cut through here will open the door…
