Gold bugs were simply swamped with an avalanche of sell orders on Tuesday, with spot gold losing 3.3 percent. This was probably in the making. Ever since spot gold peaked at $1,377.5/ounce on July 6 this year, it had been … Continued
There is not much correlation between the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index and year-over-year change in personal consumption expenditures – mere 0.12 going back to January 1978 (chart here). Nor is there any between consumer sentiment and XLY, the … Continued
In the August expiration, the amount of call open interest in VIX heavily outweighs that of puts. Put open interest, represented by the red bars in Chart 1, is decent in near-the-money or slightly-in-the-money strikes, but pale in comparison to … Continued
Tomorrow, April’s new home sales come out. March was down 1.5 percent month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 511,000 units. The cycle peaked at 545,000 units in February last year – a seven-year high. The median price in … Continued
U.S. housing is stuck. That is pretty much the impression one gets looking at April’s housing starts that were out yesterday. Starts rose 6.6 percent month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.17 million units. The cycle high 1.21 … Continued
From up 30.2 percent between February 11th low and April 21st high to down 7.3 percent since that high, ITB, the iShares U.S. home construction ETF, has had its share of ups and downs. There is likely a crossover in … 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
In the prior reporting period (Jan 15-29), short interest on XLE, the SPDR Energy ETF, collapsed just north of 17 percent to 40.7 million (Chart 1). During the period, the ETF dropped 8.1 percent through the January 20th intra-day low, … Continued
To say that SPY, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF, has been volatile in recent weeks is an understatement. Intra-day, between the December 29th high and the January 20th low, the ETF shed nearly 13 percent… in 15 sessions. Like that. … Continued
SPY, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF, has essentially gone sideways since January 20th. That was the first low of the year after a 12-session, 11-percent waterfall drop. A subsequent eight-session rally had the ETF rally to $194.58, before it again … Continued