There is a lot of excitement among non-commercial futures traders about spot gold’s prospects. In the 12 weeks since February 9th through May 3rd, they nearly tripled net longs in gold futures – from 98,428 to 271,648 contracts – to … Continued
After sharp rallies off of February 11th lows, major U.S. indices have hit the wall, with some technical damage to boot. Between February 11th and April 20th, the S&P 500 large cap index rose 16.6 percent. Between February 8th and … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of May 3, 2016. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: Last week, the Bank of Japan shocked markets by not adding to its stimulus program. The yen jumped 2.4 percent. This week, the … Continued
Last week, the euro rallied two percent. There was some positive news on the fundamental front. Eurozone bank lending grew 1.1 percent year-over-year in March, slightly faster than February’s one-percent growth. Eurozone GDP expanded 0.6 percent in 1Q16 – the … Continued
The S&P 500 large cap index lost 1.3 percent last week. Intra-day, off the April 20th high through last Friday’s low, it is now down 2.8 percent. The index retreated after unsuccessfully trying to break out of a declining trend … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of April 26, 2016. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: Two different central-bank meetings, and two different market reactions this week. Haruhiko Kuroda, Bank of Japan governor, has a habit of surprising the … Continued
The April 21st European Central Bank (ECB) governing council meeting was anti-climactic. The deposit rate on lenders’ reserves parked at the central bank was maintained at minus 0.4 percent. As well, Mario Draghi, ECB president, continued his oft-repeated ‘all policy … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of April 19, 2016. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: That this is even being discussed in the press and among economists is a sign of how insane things have gotten in central … Continued
Quite an anti-climax! Sunday’s Doha oil talks, that is. Even more so is how markets reacted on Monday. The much-hyped and much-hoped-for agreement for an output freeze/cut failed to materialize. Crude oil had rallied strongly into these talks, so a … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of April 12, 2016. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: Glass half full or half empty? Yet again, the IMF issued a downward revision to its prediction for global GDP growth, cutting 2016 … Continued