Highlights of the Prior Week Macro The monthly non farms jobs report hit on Friday and was a monster. The report showed 321,000 new jobs with the headline (U3) unemployment rate holding steady at 5.8% while the broader U6 moved down one tick to 11.4%. Oddly the labor force participation rate remained at a 36…
Crude oil has collapsed under $65 to a new five-year low on predictions that oversupply would keep building until 2015. Indeed, we are preparing a special report on Energy. Some people have assumed this is a covert manipulation to bankrupt Russia. This is not true. We are in the last throes of the collapse in…
There has been another redemption of bullion from the Sprott Physical Gold Trust. Someone has redeemed units in the Trust to obtain 36,915 ounces of gold bullion. Physical gold is not plentiful in the West at these prices. The premium on the Sprott Physical Silver Trust has moderated significantly from its recent levels. Given the…
With large cap U.S. indices hitting record highs on a daily basis, it is becoming easier to spot the areas of the market that aren’t participating. The one that stands out the most in my view is Social Media. A high-growth, high-profile industry that had huge outperformance in 2013, one would expect it to be…
Things just went a little bit turbo in the world financial markets. WTI crude continues its crash… and precious metals are surging today High yield bond prices are now below the Bullard lows of mid-October and spreads back at their widest since Oct20th. Stocks are tracking USDJPY lower tick for tick despite a…
What Drives Bond Yields And The Fed? Since the Fed is the largest player in the bond market, it plays a big role in the direction of interest rates. However in the end, interest rates are determined by all bond market participants. If consumer prices are stable, conservative bonds are more attractive. Conversely, if prices…
A terrific day for the equity bears (so far, at least). I’m short Dicks (DKS) – – which reminds me of my college days, when there were stores all around this valley with this name: Dick’s Electronics, Dicks Carpet, and my favorite – Linoleum Dicks. (I’m serious). Apparently their sports outlet was the success story,…
Finding the right combination of factors for an investable tungsten operation is no easy matter, says Robert Baylis, managing director of London-based Roskill. Much of the tungsten space is held privately, but some publicly traded equities offer leverage to future demand growth. In this interview with The Gold Report, Baylis says investor success in this space depends on finding…
(from my colleagues Dr. Win Thin and Ilan Solot) Falling commodity prices and better US economic data are the biggest macro drivers for EM, overriding just about all idiosyncratic variables – perhaps with the exception of the weaker yen for Korea. We note that aside from the huge fall of over 40% in the price…
In Washington’s coming budget battles, sacred cows like the tax deductions for home mortgage interest and charitable donations are likely to be on the table along with potential cuts to Social Security and Medicare. But no one on Capitol Hill believes Wall Street’s beloved carried-interest tax loophole will be touched. Don’t blame the newly elected…
