Last week saw the global financial system tip from delusion — where it had happily drifted for several years — into chaos. Consider the following more-or-less randomly chosen data points: French unemployment hits record high Italian unemployment hits record high Oil’s price falls by $10.36/bbl, or 13.5%, in a single day, to its lowest price…
“There comes a time in the affairs of man when he must take the bull by the tail and face the situation.” – W. C. Fields Stocks are not hitting new highs. Only a particular index, the S&P 500, has that distinction. When reviewing sentiment surveys this weekend, I am struck by how extreme optimism…
There has only been one other time in history when the price of oil has crashed by more than 40 dollars in less than 6 months. The last time this happened was during the second half of 2008, and the beginning of that oil price crash preceded the great financial collapse that happened later that year…
EUR/USD Signal Update Last Thursday’s signals expired without being triggered as the price did not reach either 1.2564 or 1.2442 during that day’s London session. Today’s EUR/USD Signals Risk 0.75% Trades may only be taken between 8am and 5pm London time. Short Trade 1 Go short after bearish price action on the H1 time frame immediately…
As we head into the home stretch of 2014 a great opportunity is seemingly handed to us for the month of December. That opportunity comes in the form of continued weakness in the oil and materials sector as depressed commodity prices have given rise to a sea of great dividend income opportunities for those willing…
Black Friday might have been the most anticipated shopping event of the year, but Americans have their attention (and wallets) locked on to the next big spending event: Cyber Monday. This year, Adobe forecasts Cyber Monday sales to reach $2.6 billion, a 15 percent increase over 2013. While there might be a few deals that…
The chart below (and similar comparisons) has been circulated widely in the media and the blogosphere. It shows homebuilder optimism (as measured by the NAHB) far outpacing sales of singly-family homes in the United States. Naive reporters and bloggers have been arguing that builders are simply out of touch with reality. How could homebuilders possibly be…
Top scoring weekly returns: Buy and Hold 1 Year Utilities and industrial goods are the two best scoring sectors. Consumer goods, services, and healthcare also score above average. Tilt toward small cap stocks across utilities. In industrial goods, focus on large cap stocks. In consumer goods and healthcare concentrate on large and mid cap stocks,…
From exuberant credit-fueled cycle highs in July, China’s official Manufacturing PMI has done nothing but drop as the hangover-effect from the credit-impulse weighs once again on the now commodity-collateral crushed nation. At 50.3 (missing expectations of 50.5 for the 2nd month in a row), this is the lowest print since March. All 5 components dropped led…
