This week opens with a lighter economic docket than what we’ve seen over the past couple of weeks, and next week brings the Christmas holiday as we move towards year-end. From what we do have on the calendar, it appears as though the primary focus will be on the latter portion of this week. Wednesday afternoon brings…
There’s no looking back for the technology sector, as its players continue to thrive on the growing popularity of cloud-based platforms, AI solutions, AR/VR reality devices, autonomous cars and Internet of Things (IoT). The year is coming to an end with a remarkable stock market run. The NASDAQ Composite (IXIC), the S&P 500 (GSPC) and…
Last week, the reports on U.S. consumer inflation and retail sales were released. What do they imply for the gold market? Consumer prices jumped 0.4 percent in November, following a 0.1 percent rise in October. However, the move was driven mainly by higher costs of gasoline and fuel oil. The energy index increased 3.9 percent last…
The South African Rand has had an interesting year as shown below. The market movements has been associated with President Jacob Zuma who has faced multiple no confidence votes for the massive corruption in his government. The main corruption case related to his association with the wealthy Gupta family who were accused of State Capture;…
The equity markets seem to keep pretending that the tax cut bill is a big surprise, as with each trading day it gets “priced in” again. Last night’s trading was no exception: Whereas the action in Bitcoin was, shall we say, a little more volatile (to put it in perspective, it would be as if the Dow futures traded down 1200…
Many times we investors make investing much harder than it needs to be. We spend countless hours researching trying to find the next Apple or Amazon. In reality, we could just deploy a simple dollar cost averaging strategy, save time and earn a nice return on our money. In this post, I am going to…
Global stocks and US equity futures roared upward to new record highs to start the second-to-last week of the year, boosted by optimism over a Republican agreement on the shape of U.S. tax cuts aimed at lifting growth; incidentally this is the 6th consecutive day that the “tax bill” has been priced in by the…
On Friday, Kevin Brady of the House Ways and Means Committee was on my radio program discussing the “Tax Cuts & Jobs Act” bill which was released later in the day. Here are the details of the release he referenced in the interview. Of course, the real question is how are you going to “pay for it?” Even as Kevin…
We have published many articles, arguing that bitcoin is unsound. Yet for all those arguments, there is a bright side to bitcoin. It is exciting to see that there is an audience of millions of people—mainstream people, not wild-eyed End-The-Fed gold bug preppers who keep their gold hoards with their stockpiles of ammo—who are looking for…
OVERNIGHT MARKETS AND NEWS Mar E-mini S&Ps (ESH18 +0.36%) this morning are up +0.33% at a new record nearest-futures high and European stocks are up +1.20% at a 1-week high. Optimism U.S. lawmakers will pass legislation to reduce corporate and individual tax rates is fueling gains in equities. The House and Senate will vote on the…
