The markets have had a rough first quarter. After inflation and rate hike fears spooked the markets in February, it saw a slight recovery as wage growth slowed. However, March has not been welcoming either, as President Donald Trump’s plans of imposing tariffs didn’t bode well for the markets (read: Watch These ETFs as Trade War…
Today the market has been on edge over, and traders are obsessed with, just one question: how will China retaliate to Trump’s trade war and tariffs. After all, the initial response of a modest 15-25% tariff on $3 billion in 128, mostly agricultural, products, seemed laughably small and appeared to be more of a warning shot than a…
The U.S. Markets suffered the biggest weekly decline in more than two years related primarily to concerns over a trade war with China. The S&P 500 finished down 5.9%. The Fed hiked the Fed Funds rate by 0.25% to a target of 1.5%-1.75% and indicated a likelihood of two additional hikes this year. Weekly Returns…
It’s a safe bet that most readers of this column who hold physical precious metals – gold, silver, platinum and palladium – do so because they view the as a store of value. Gold and silver especially, have served in the role of honest money for at least five millennia. With a melting point 700…
I trade options every single day because they are the best product for a retail trader to take advantage of. Options offer built-in risk management dynamics and allow for you to use leverage to your advantage. Most people don’t understand just how big of a benefit this is. They think about options as a risky…
The biggest risk to the bond bear case, that expressed by Bill Gross, Jeffrey Gundlach, and Ray Dalio, is, ironically, stocks. Convention has it that rising interest rates are bad for them, but what are falling stock prices for UST’s? Historically speaking, the introduction of risk and even liquidations is bond positive. When the last…
The market stands on a sinkhole, waiting for the next feather to drop. A feather that will bring down the system and send us into another economic crisis that will make the 2008 crash look like an opening act. For years, I and many others within the precious metals space have written about a hidden…
ECRI’s WLI Growth Index which forecasts economic growth six months forward remains in expansion. ECRI also released their coincident index this week. Analyst Opinion of the trends of the weekly leading indices This index is indicating modest growth six months from today. Here is this week’s update on ECRI’s Weekly Leading Index (note – a…
You’ll recall that the title of our weekly wrap last week was “Different Week, Same Joke.” Here’s what we said last Friday: Another week and the same joke continues to apply: this was the worst week for the Trump administration since last week. Well, this week easily eclipsed last week as the craziest 5-day stretch yet…
