The equity rally that began on February 11th has brought bad news to the shorts. Obviously. They have two choices: (1) stay short, which means holding a losing trade, or (2) cover, which will add more fuel to the rally, … Continued
U.S. stocks look vulnerable here. The only question is that of duration and magnitude. Here is why. Off the February 11th intra-day low through the April 1st high, the S&P 500 large cap index rallied nearly 15 percent (Chart 1). … Continued
Oil bulls must have breathed a heavy sigh of relief on Tuesday as crucial support held. But would the U.S. dollar poop the crude party? On its way to collapsing 76 percent since June 2014 through the February 11th low, … Continued
Spot gold is at a critical juncture. Since the metal troughed on December 3rd last year through the March 11th high, it rallied 23 percent. Even before that high, gold had been in a sideways pattern since it spiked 4.1 … Continued
Are we seeing a classic ‘stocks turn ahead of fundamentals’ phenomenon? U.S. equities in general bottomed on February 11th after a brutal sell-off in January. From late-December 2015 highs through the afore-mentioned low, the S&P 500 index dropped 13 percent … Continued
“Manufacturing and net exports have continued to be hard hit by slow global growth and the significant appreciation of the dollar since 2014… Low oil prices have also resulted in large-scale layoffs in the energy sector and adverse spillovers to … Continued
In the latest week, non-commercials cut net longs in gold futures by three percent period-over-period to 169,512 contracts. This was the first weekly reduction in eight weeks (Chart 1). The prior week’s holdings were the highest since February 3rd last … Continued
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
“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