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
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
Versus large-caps, small-caps inherently suffer from shorter operational history, less access to capital, lower trading liquidity, lack of support from most mutual funds, lack of familiarity, lack of/less Wall Street research, and what not. Understandably, they are regarded as risky. … Continued
Off February 11th lows through recent highs, U.S. stocks rallied handsomely, ranging from nearly 23 percent on the Russell 2000 small cap index to nearly 17 percent on the S&P 500 large cap index. Probably enough to take care of … 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
Yet another fortnight and yet another show of strength by equity bulls. During the March 31st-April 15th period, the S&P 500 large cap index rallied one percent, the NYSE composite 1.5 percent and the Nasdaq composite 1.4 percent, among others. … 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
With five sessions to go in April, the Nasdaq 100 index (4474.19) is down 0.2 percent, while the Russell 2000 small cap index (1146.69) is up 2.9 percent. Last week made a big difference, as the former was down 1.5 … Continued
The magnitude of the equity rally the past couple of months has surprised many. Off the February 11th low through Thursday’s high, the S&P 500 index rallied 15 percent. This, despite the fact that equity flows into U.S.-based funds have … Continued
From the euro’s perspective, March 10th was an interesting session. Mario Draghi, ECB president, pulled out his big bazooka that day. All interest rates were cut. The existing QE was expanded from €60-billion/month in purchases to €80 billion. And the … Continued