The growth in US retail spending has eased lately, with the year-over-year pace dipping to 4.1% through October – the slowest rise since July. Is that a sign that consumption on Main Street will end the year on a disappointing note? Not necessarily, according to the latest run of reports from the front lines of the retail…
Let’s celebrate mediocrity! It’s Non-Farm Payroll day and we’re expecting to see the obligatory 250,000 jobs added to the labor force, which seems nice – until you realize that’s only 3M per year in a population that grew 3M last year and we are STILL missing, 6 years after the collapse, 5% of the Jobs…
OVERNIGHT MARKETS AND NEWS December E-mini S&Ps (ESZ14 +0.10%) this morning are up +0.08% ahead of U.S. Nov payrolls data and European stocks are up +1.63% after German Oct factory orders exceeded expectations. Stocks also rose and European government bonds rallied, with Italy’s 10-year bond yield falling to a record low 1.948%, on speculation the ECB…
In an attempt to try to divert a looming economic stagnation in the European Union, some leading German and French economists have launched some plans to try to revive the economy of the Eurozone by tackling two issues which might have deteriorated the economic situation in the currency bloc. Source Enderlein, an associate at a…
Confused why in the lack of any horrible economic news (unless of course someone leaked a worse than expected November payrolls print which would put QE4 right back on the table) futures are higher, especially in the aftermath of yesterday’s disappointing ECB conference? Then look no further than the Yen which has now lost pretty…
Online Trading Academy Article of the Week by Russ Allen, Online Trading Academy Instructor With U.S. equity markets at all-time highs, many people are thinking about how to protect profits on a stock, or a portfolio, against the inevitable day when the next bear market begins. I have discussed various ways to do this using options,…
Sometimes It Doesn’t Pay to Catch a Falling Knife … We like to think that a contrarian investment approach works best in the long term. Contrarian does not necessarily mean that one simply tries to fight every trend. It is more about attempting to recognize when a trend has gone too far. In practice this…
Peter Schiff was on RT’s Boom Bust to talk about the latest jobs figures, the price of oil, the Swiss gold initiative, and the many uses of physical gold. Video Length: 00:28:01 Follow along with this partial transcript: “I think the kind of jobs we really need are in production. We’re adding all these jobs…
Brent extended losses from a four-year low as Saudi Arabia offered customers in Asia record discounts on its crude, bolstering speculation it’s defending market share. West Texas Intermediate dropped in New York. Futures fell as much as 0.7 percent in London and are headed for a second weekly decline. State-run Saudi Arabian Oil Co. cut…
The US dollar is little changed against most of the major currencies but is taking another step up against the yen. The failure of the Democrat Party of Japan to mount a serious challenge to Abe, despite the quite divided public support for Abenomics, is leading to surveys that the LDP and Komeito coalition will retain…
