March 18, 2014. Russia just annexed Crimea. All G-7 countries condemned the move and promised more sanctions. First sanctions were small and weak. That same day, Jay Carney, Obama’s chief spokesman, literally said: “I wouldn’t, if I were you, invest in Russian equities right now. Unless you’re going short.” I remember big noise on CNBC. Several pundits,…
The notion of companies returning more and more to their shareholders through various types of dividend-related events is always something that has intrigued me. With that said, I wanted to highlight one particular company that has recently announced a 20% increase in its regular quarterly payout. TerraForm Power (TERP) – On December 22, TerraForm Power,…
(T2108 measures the percentage of stocks trading above their respective 40-day moving averages [DMAs]. It helps to identify extremes in market sentiment that are likely to reverse. To learn more about it, see my T2108 Resource Page. You can follow real-time T2108 commentary on twitter using the #T2108 hashtag. T2108-related trades and other trades are sometimes posted on…
This week, the core ‘look ahead’ framework is to confirm U.S. macroeconomic strength and non-U.S. macroeconomic weakness. Fresh data that surprise this macro ‘divergence’ consensus moves risk markets sharply. With a New Year’s 2015 Holiday falling on Thursday this year, the week ahead for global markets doesn’t get interesting until Friday. On Friday –once 2014…
Crude oil is not the only commodity that is crashing. Iron ore is on a similar trajectory and for a common reason. Namely, the two-decade-long economic boom fueled by the money printing rampage of the world’s central banks is beginning to cool rapidly. What the old-time Austrians called “malinvestment” and what Warren Buffet once referred to as the…
Exactly one month ago we observed that, as expected in the aftermath of the Netherlands’ shocking and still not fully-explained gold repatriation from the NY Fed, the amount of foreign earmarked gold on deposit with the Fed had just experienced a 42 ton withdrawal: the single largest outflow of gold held at the NY Fed…
A version of this post ran in the San Antonio Express News. I want to be wealthier. I also want to be a good person. A friend – someone who also wants these two things – recently asked if I could recommend a good, reasonable-cost, “socially responsible” mutual fund. My answer: Nope. I can’t. Now, I…
Over the last few years the internet shaped itself into what we know as the Social internet. The social networks such as Facebook (FB), Twitter (TWTR), Youtube (GOOGL), WordPress, Instagram, Tumbler and many more web sites gave us the power to control the content on the internet rather then just consume it. For the more consuming parts…
Peter Schiff appeared on Fox Business to explain why the bursting of the oil sector bubble could be the first of many collapsing bubbles that will push the United States economy back into recession. Highlights from Peter’s interview: “Long term, of course [lower oil prices are a good thing]… Contrary to what the…
Access to Gmail in China was difficult, but not impossible. Workarounds included Outlook, Apple Mail, and third-party Gmail hosts. Starting last Friday, the “Great Firewall” became nearly impenetrable as China’s Censors Took Final Step in Blocking Gmail. In the six months since Google’s mail service Gmail was blocked in mainland China, users had been able…
