On February 11th, spot gold closed up 4.1 percent to $1,263.9/ounce, surging intra-day as much as 5.6 percent (blue arrow in Chart 1). It was a high-volume session. A healthy $535 million moved into GLD, the SPDR gold ETF, in … Continued
U.S. corporate earnings have been in serious deceleration. This is no news. They have been decelerating for a while now. Operating earnings of S&P 500 companies peaked at $29.60 in 3Q14, and have declined for five straight quarters annually. Chart … Continued
“When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?” The above remark is often attributed to John Maynard Keynes, the British economist, although some dispute it. Regardless who said it, it is a nice quote. More … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of March 8, 2016. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: The FOMC meets next week, and it is a given. They will stand pat on interest rate, but the dot plot likely sees … Continued
In the latest reporting period, SPY, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF, shorts stayed put. In fact, at 280.4 million, short interest fell a tad period-over-period – now at a two-month low (Chart 1). Odds favor shorts are about to get … Continued
Major U.S. indices are struggling at major resistance. Here are the levels indices were aiming to take out: Dow Industrials, 17000-plus; S&P 500, 1990; Nasdaq 100, 4350; Dow Transports, 7700; and Russell 2000, 1080, among others. The Industrials sought to … Continued
Since the February 11th low up until this Monday, if we just use small-caps to measure the pulse of investor mood, it has been risk-on. From that low through the intra-day high this week, the Russell 2000 rallied north of … Continued
CNBC.com ran an interesting story last Thursday (March 3rd) on resurging home flipping in the U.S. Turns out, according to RealtyTrac, nearly 180,000 family homes and condos were flipped in 2015, making up 5.5 percent of all sales. This was … Continued
U.S. stocks have come a long way since February 11th. Intra-day, off that low through last Friday’s high, here is how much major U.S. indices have rallied: Dow Industrials, 10.1 percent; S&P 500 large cap index (Chart 1), 11 percent; … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of March 1, 2016. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: Unbelievable! The Japanese government is getting paid to borrow money for a decade. For the first time ever, Japan sells 10-year bonds at … Continued