Battleground South America
Just returned from a week in Colombia and Panama (thus the radio silence the last few days). It was amazing and I had a great time and experienced many things. Sorry for the delay but here is some information that I gathered during my trip that you may find beneficial and informative. Let us begin:
There’s a lot afoot in Latin America. On the day I arrived in Panama, U.S. Treasury announced its new tax information exchange agreement allowing the U.S. government to access information on Americans with Panamanian bank accounts.
Is This the Next Financial Disaster?
I wrote last week about big changes coming to financial regulation in Europe.
Look for the sequel soon in the U.S. America is buckling down for a new era of financial rulemaking.
Case in point: on Friday, the newly-created Financial Stability Oversight Council met for the first time ever. This 11-person committee is made up of officials from the Department of Treasury, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, the Federal Reserve, Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (amongst others). Its mission is “identifying risks and responding to emerging threats to financial stability.”
The Real Gold Story
Interesting report on gold this week from ABN Amro and VM Group.
The Gold Mine Cost Report studies operating costs for 89 gold companies running 232 mines around the world. The most recent report shows that operating costs increased by 1.8% in Q2, as compared to Q1.
This is the lowest quarterly increase in opex since Q1 2009. Over the last year, operating costs have been growing quickly as prices for fuel, steel and labor increased on the back of the apparent global economic recovery.
Gold forms Overbought Rising Wedge at Resistance
Precious metals soar as investors flock to gold and silver. But are they looking deep enough to truly understand the current trends at hand?
When reviewing the metals sector I like to look at it from different angles to get a solid understanding of the patterns and trend forming. I follow multiple time frames along with monitoring the gold mining stocks. Gold stocks tend to lead the price of gold bullion and when its out performing the price of gold substantially by 10% or more you should be expecting a pause or pullback in both gold stocks and gold bullion prices temporarily.
Holiday Squeeze on the Dollar, Gold & Stocks
The past week and a half has been as choppy as it gets for the stocks market. Thankfully the herd mentality (fear & greed) stays the same. Understanding what others think and feel when involved in the market is one of the keys to making money consistently from the market. The crazy looking chart below I will admit is a little tough on the eyes, and I should have used red and green for holiday colors but green just was not going to work today so bear with me .
Mid-Week Market Report on Equities and Metals
Its been an interesting week with stocks, commodities and currencies having a knee jerk reaction to the FOMC minutes released Tuesday afternoon. In short the Fed clearly said there must be more quantitative easing before things will get better. It was this news which triggered a rally in both stocks and commodities.
Quantitative easing is a fast way to devalue the dollar and the Fed is doing a great job at that. As long as the dollar continues to decline the stock market will keep rising.
Natgas: As Bad as It Seems?
Hedge funds are dumping natural gas.
The most recent Commitments of Traders report in the U.S. shows that bets on natgas by funds dropped 16% in the week ended September 14. Bringing the total to the lowest level this year.
Indeed, sentiment in the gas business is running low. As one analyst bluntly told me on a recent visit, “Gas is [three-letter synonym for donkey].”
Is the situation really that bleak? Price-wise, it certainly isn’t pretty. Front-month NYMEX gas is sitting at $4/mcf. Even for the coming winter months, futures prices are only running $4.50.
Bonds, Dollar, SP500 & Gold Have Changed Direction – Are You Ready?
There have been some major trend changes recently and it looks as though more investments are about to follow. The real question though is… Are You Ready To Take Advantage Of It?
It has been an exciting ride to say the least with the equities and metals bull market and the plummeting dollar. But it looks as though their time is up, or at least for a few weeks. Traders and investors will slowly pull money off the table to lock in gains or cut losses and re-evaluate the overall market condition before stepping back up to the plate and taking another swing.
Mid-Week Dollar, Gold & SP500 Trend Trading
It has been a roller coaster week thus far as stocks and precious metals plunged on heavy selling volume on the back of a rising dollar, only to make a strong rebound Wednesday. While there has been significant intraday price movement, it was no surprise to us as we have been anticipating this pullback since discussing it in my Sunday Gold Newsletter.
Let’s take a quick look at the charts…
US Dollar Daily Trading Chart
