Dec 28, 2009

Daily Markets - Financial News & Opinions

Daily Markets - Financial News & Opinions

Gold, Silver And Natural Gas Trading Near Resistance Levels

Posted: 28 Dec 2009 05:01 AM PST

Another holiday trading extravaganza!!!

Last week the market fell into its regular holiday tradition of light volume, as institutions and big traders enjoyed the holidays thus allowing prices to drift higher. We still have one more week of light trading volume before this year and holiday season is officially over.

Trading during low volume times is regularly misinterpreted. Many traders figure they should not be trading this time of the year but from my experience, the last two weeks of … [visit site to read more]


An Overview Of The Global Economy

Posted: 28 Dec 2009 04:05 AM PST

The US economy expanded at a slower rate than previously reported in the period from July to September. Latest data indicates the economy grew at an annualised rate of 2.2% down from the 2nd revision of 2.8% and significantly lower than the preliminary report which predicted Q3 growth of 3.5%.

The disappointing revision came as a surprise to most economists who expected no change to the 2nd report. Lower corporate inventories, weak construction spending and reduced consumer activity prompted … [visit site to read more]

Holidays In New Zealand, Australia And UK Keep Forex Trading Subdued

Posted: 28 Dec 2009 03:03 AM PST

FX markets are little changed from last week, as participants seem content to let the year wind down. The Asian session was thinned by holidays in Australia and New Zealand, but overall risk correlated trade faired well. The EURUSD has been range trading between 1.4355-1.4405 while USDJPY is trading in an increasingly tight range between 91.40 and 91.65 (barring a spike to 91.77 earlier in the session). Volumes were inconsequential and we are seeing a drop in liquidity continues across all … [visit site to read more]

Sometimes You Can’t Save The World

Posted: 28 Dec 2009 03:01 AM PST

There have been a number of diatribes in the blogosphere about why Bernanke shouldn’t be re-confirmed as Fed Chairman. Examples include Simon Johnson’s Should Bernanke be Reconfirmed? and comments from Cunning Realist such as Bernanke responds, Man of the Year and An Inadequate Answer.

Who bells the cat?

There was once a children’s story about the mice getting together and deciding that it would be great idea that the cat should wear a bell. The problem was, who bells the … [visit site to read more]

Forex Trading Review For 28 December

Posted: 28 Dec 2009 01:54 AM PST

USD Dollar (USD)

The Dollar finished mixed versus the majors after a low volume session on Thursday ahead of Christmas Eve. Core Durable Goods Orders came out 2% better than 1% expected. Initial Jobless Claims came out 452K better than 470K expected. The bigger than expected drop in jobless claims helped stocks reaching new 15-month highs in the U.S. The Dow Jones rose 0.51% and the NASDAQ 0.71%. Gold (XAU) rose back above 1100$ mark closing at $1,104 an ounce. Crude oil rose for a 3rd day … [visit site to read more]

2009 - The Year Wall Street Bounced Back And Main Street Got Hit Hard

Posted: 28 Dec 2009 01:01 AM PST

In September 2008, as the worst of the financial crisis engulfed Wall Street, George W. Bush issued a warning: “This sucker could go down.” Around the same time, as Congress hashed out a bailout bill, New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg, the leading Republican negotiator of the bill, warned that “if we do not do this, the trauma, the chaos and the disruption to everyday Americans’ lives will be overwhelming, and that’s a price we can’t afford to risk paying.”

In less than a year, Wall Street … [visit site to read more]

Video: NYC Opposes Natural Gas Drilling In Catskills

Posted: 28 Dec 2009 06:00 AM PST

New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection called on state officials to ban drilling for natural gas in the Catskills watershed. Hydraulic fracturing poses a great risk to the city’s drinking water system. … [visit site to read more]

The Natural Gas ETF (UNG) Was A Big Loser In 2009

Posted: 28 Dec 2009 12:01 AM PST

“Index or passive investing in stocks has evolved to the point that an S&P 500 index fund will generally earn you a return that is very close to the index return.  How does that work with commodity funds?  At least, in the case of the Natural Gas ETF (UNG), the fund has deviated from natural gas prices quite a bit,” Kurt Brouwer Reports From MarketWatch.

UNG makes it clear that it is not investing in natural gas itself.  However, it does seek to track natural gas price … [visit site to read more]

A Comparison Of The Yield Curve And Stock Market Tops And Bottoms

Posted: 27 Dec 2009 11:01 PM PST

According to CNBC, the Yield Curve has reached its steepest curve ever.  According to the article, “the spread between yields on two-year notes and 10-year notes widened on Monday to its steepest level on record.
Specifically, the spread between the yields pushed out to 280 basis points on Monday from 274 basis points late last week.”

Let’s take a quick look at the current “Yield Curve” courtesy of StockCharts.com’s “Dynamic Yield Curve Tool” and then compare this curve to the market … [visit site to read more]

The Potential For Serious Deflation In America

Posted: 27 Dec 2009 10:01 PM PST

Although the American consumer is much more accustomed to inflation and the threat of inflation, I am increasingly convinced that the threat of deflation remains the greater challenge. This battle between macroeconomic deflationary forces versus governmental supported inflationary programs is THE ultimate issue facing our economy in 2010 and beyond.

We hear very little about deflation from Bernanke, Geithner, or other central bankers here in the United States. Why not? If they were to … [visit site to read more]

Bad Policies On Both Sides

Posted: 27 Dec 2009 09:01 PM PST

I’ve think I’ve made it clear that I’m fairly agnostic when it comes to politics. In my view, the problems we face nowadays can’t be blamed on the right or the left, but on bad policies put forth by both sides.

So, when I heard Dan Mitchell, a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, say in the Center for Freedom and Prosperity video that follows the Bush-Obama policies are turning America into a welfare state, while referring to both Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Barack Obama as … [visit site to read more]

Singapore Stock Market Updates For 28 December

Posted: 27 Dec 2009 08:54 PM PST

Morning Highlights
Our Focus For Today Is On Property, Mid Cap, Industrial and REITs Sector
The STI broke a new 2009 high to open up at 2845.16 and continues to go higher.

SIA broke high of 14.50
New Mid Term trade opportunity for ST Engineering

Singapore will release the advance GDP estimates for the 4Q on Jan 4, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said on Monday. (Business Times)

News Updates:

Weekly U.S. initial jobless claims drop to 452,000, down … [visit site to read more]

2009 Global Stock Market Rebound

Posted: 27 Dec 2009 08:21 PM PST

Year-to-date returns for the MSCI Emerging Markets (data … [visit site to read more]

The Trading Week: Dec 27 - 31

Posted: 27 Dec 2009 08:01 PM PST

Although the final trading week of 2009 may be expected to wind down the year on a quieter note, the week ahead will manage to bring notable industrial, housing and consumer-related data from the first and the second-largest economies in the world.

In preparation for the new trading week, here is a list of the Top 10 spotlight economic events that every currency trader should pay attention to.

1.    JPY- Japan Industrial Production, the main gauge of industrial activity measuring … [visit site to read more]

Infrastructure ETFs: Why 2010 Could Bring Rewards

Posted: 27 Dec 2009 07:01 PM PST

Infrastructure spending was a major component of the $787 billion stimulus package passed earlier this year, but President Barack Obama says he wants even more. If he gets his wish, it could put some wind in the sails of related exchange traded funds (ETFs).

The White House is coming out in favor of yet more infrastructure spending on roads, bridges, water systems and other projects.

Although Obama played devil’s advocate, make no mistake: he wants to spend more on what he deems … [visit site to read more]

Gold To End The Decade As Top Performer Among Major Asset Classes

Posted: 27 Dec 2009 06:01 PM PST

While gold bullion is correcting from all-time record levels in early December, US Global Investors shows the yellow metal is on track to close the decade that ends next Thursday as the top performer among the principal asset classes, thanks to an annualized return of 14.3%. Commodities (as measured by the S&P GSCI Enhanced Total Return Index) gained 13.6% per year over the period that started on January 3, 2000.
According to US Global Investors, the decade looks set to be the worst … [visit site to read more]

America’s Ridiculously Large $14 Trillion Economy

Posted: 27 Dec 2009 05:01 PM PST

I took some criticism for the post below comparing the amount of durable goods manufactured in the U.S. in November to the entire annual output of goods and services (GDP) in some other countries. Perhaps I wasn’t clear enough in my comparison, but I was trying to make the point that we lose sight of the ridiculous size of the U.S. economy ($14 trillion of annual output) and one way to put it in perspective is to show that just the manufacturing output (ignoring services and … [visit site to read more]

Three Micro-Cap ETFs Worth Considering

Posted: 27 Dec 2009 04:11 PM PST

Do you remember the childhood wonder of looking at all the colorfully wrapped packages under the Christmas tree, trying to guess what fun was inside? If you were like me, your eyes were drawn to the biggest presents. And if they were too big to wrap, sometimes Santa would just leave them out in the open for us to find in the morning.

After awhile, I figured out that some of the best gifts came in small packages, nestled among the big boxes.

Exchange traded funds (ETFs) are the … [visit site to read more]

Goldman Sachs Files To Create ETFs That Track Market Indexes

Posted: 27 Dec 2009 04:01 PM PST

“Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) is seeking regulatory clearance to create exchange-traded funds, a fast- growing segment of the money-management business. The company filed an application today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to establish ETFs that track market indexes. The initial fund will seek to replicate an index based on the Brazilian, Chinese, Indian and Korean stock markets, according to the New York-based company’s application,” Miles Weiss Reports From … [visit site to read more]

Two Reasons Why Gold Is Set To Decline!

Posted: 27 Dec 2009 04:01 PM PST

As expected, the gold bugs were out in force, giving me a lot of heat regarding my prediction that gold will retreat to $1,000 in the near-term.

Thanks for all of your comments. There were some strong opinions as to why my thesis was incorrect. So allow me to offer my rebuttal and show you why I’m still right!

To quickly refresh your memory… my belief that gold is heading back to $1,000 is based on two arguments: technical and behavioral, let me explain…

Two Reasons Why Gold is … [visit site to read more]
posted by

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)