My palms are clammy, heart-rate is elevated, and sweat has begun to drip down my brow. There I sit with my hands clenched in the doctor’s office waiting room. I’m trying to mentally prepare for the inevitable poking, prodding, and personal invasion, which will likely involve numerous compromising cavity searches from head to toe. The…
War Games Inquiring minds may wish to take a peek inside a Fed ‘War Games’ Exercise conducted this past summer, just recently reported on by the Wall Street Journal. Commercial real-estate prices have continued to rise and are projected to far exceed levels they reached before the 2007-09 financial crisis, adjusted for inflation. Debt is building up…
The stock market’s behavior during election years can be pretty variable. We are now less than a year away from the next presidential election, and the stock market’s behavior during election years can be pretty variable. When a first term president is angling for reelection, he will typically try to spin the news in his…
As hard as it is to believe, we’re headed full speed into the end of 2015. That means now’s a perfect time to discuss one of the most powerful investment tactics of all. Before I tell you what it is though, let me say that the tactic we’re going to discuss today is something many…
I am amused by the constant discussion by the Federal Reserve governors and the Fed Chair about raising the federal funds rate. As next week is the last FOMC meeting of the year – this is the last chance for the Fed to begin to “normalize” interest rates this year. During the Great Recession, the Fed reduced the…
Trouble in High Yield Bonds Begins to Spread It has become clear now that the troubles in the oil patch and the junk bond market are beginning to spread beyond their source – just as we have always argued would eventually happen. Readers are probably aware that Saturday was an abysmal day for “risk assets”….
Confirming what we explained here, Goldman Sachs notes that the publication of a new CNY exchange rate index suggests an increased focus on broader CNY moves against other non-USDollar currencies and reinforces the likelihood of further depreciation versus the USD. Goldman Sachs writes… “The China Foreign Exchange Trade System (also known as CFETS), a sub-institution of the People’s…
This week is when the rubber meets the road after months – years, even – of qualified remarks, convoluted press conferences, and opaque policy statements: the Federal Reserve will finally get on with it and raise its benchmark interest for the first time in nearly a decade. Historically, the Fed finds itself raising rates at a time…
Oil prices plunged, junk bonds hit a 2½ year low, stocks took a nearly 4% hit, a junk bond fund halted withdrawals, the country’s biggest pipeline operator cut its dividend by 75% and two of the biggest mining companies in the world suspended theirs completely. It was not a good week for financial markets. And…
Does anyone see a marked daily pattern in the precious metals for the month of November? What a surprise! These charts are from Nick Laird at goldchartsrus.com
