ALWAYS CONSULT YOUR INVESTMENT PROFESSIONAL BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENT DECISION
May 18, 2024 | Trading Desk Notes For May 18, 2024
Gold and copper hit all-time highs this week; silver rallied to 12-year highs June Comex gold futures closed at an all-time high on Friday at ~$2,420, up ~$80 from Monday’s low. The Gold Miners ETF closed at a two-year high. Comex copper rallied above $5 a pound to close higher than the previous record set in March 2022 […]
May 18, 2024 | Tech Talk for Saturday May 18th 2024
The Bottom Line The “bulls” regained control of U.S. equity markets last week. S&P 500 Index, Dow Jones Industrial Average and NASDAQ Composite Index broke to all-time highs. Leadership was provided by technology sector: Technology SPDRs (Symbol: XLK) moved above $212.00 to an all-time high. A speculative spike in the “Meme stocks” also contributed to […]
May 17, 2024 | Retail Sales Falling in the US – a Softer Tone
Retail sales in the US fell short of expectations this month, according to data compiled by the Commerce Department. Retail spending decreased 0.6% from April to March, undermining forecasts of a 0.4% decrease. Yet, Americans are spending MORE on the essentials such as groceries. How is this a shocking admittance to anyone? Even online sales […]
May 17, 2024 | The Biden Tariffs Against China Imports are a Mistake
The Biden administration has announced increased tariffs on goods imported from China in several categories, including electric cars, batteries and solar panels. The announcement cites “China’s unfair trade practices” especially in technology transfer, intellectual property and innovation. Will these tariffs achieve Biden’s goals? The tariffs are designed to protect American workers and businesses from China’s […]
May 17, 2024 | Why The Gold Rush Is Just Beginning, In Six Charts
Gold blew through $2400/oz this morning: And the world’s central banks continue to add gold to their monetary reserves. Note that the real action coincided with the outbreak of the Ukraine war, when the US started slapping sanctions on everyone in sight. De-dollarization is a trend with legs. A case can be made that China alone is […]
May 17, 2024 | Danielle on Thoughtful Money
Danielle was a return guest on Thoughtful Money with Adam Taggart. You can watch a video clip of the segment here. If you haven’t seen the 2022 film Dumb Money, it’s worth a look. Here’s the trailer link. Evidently, the capital wipeout from 2021 through 2023 was not enough to kill the gambling fever, see Is the […]
May 17, 2024 | The Most Splendid Housing Bubbles in Canada: Spring Rally Fizzles, Prices -14% from Peak in Feb 2022, Below Sep 2021
Home prices in Canada were unchanged for the second month in a row in April from March, after a series of declines, seasonally adjusted, according to the Composite MLS Home Price Index from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) on Wednesday, as prices of single-family houses inched up 0.1% for the month, while condo prices […]
May 16, 2024 | WTI Breaches US$77/B on Weaker US Demand and Growing Inventories
Market bulls jumped all over the bond and stock markets on the tepid CPI report today. They have renewed the call for the Fed to cut rates at their September FOMC meeting. We suspect this is premature as PPI data was disconcerting and blew past forecasts. The CPI today came in at 3.6% year-over year, […]
May 16, 2024 | The Dow Hits First Target 40,000 – What’s Next?
COMMENT: It is baffling why you are not on the front page of the WSJ, Barons, London FT, NY Times, and every financial newspaper claiming to be interested in markets. In the ’80s, when the Dow was 1,000, you forecast it would reach 6,000 by 1996. On the day of the 1987 low, you […]
May 16, 2024 | Energy Evolution Booming for Economic Reasons
Despite naysayers who continually miss forests for trees, energy technology is rapidly evolving globally and “S” curve adoption is proceeding apace. With a shrinking population and rising unemployment, China sees the imperative of improving efficiency and lowering operating costs through technology. To this end, the country is leading the world in the production of electric […]
May 15, 2024 | Assassination Attempt May be Because He Cut Aid to Ukraine
The Prime Minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico, has suffered an attempted assassination. The rumor is that the assailant was pro-Ukraine. Fico’s renewed leadership as prime minister began with his halting of military aid to Ukraine in January, and just last month, he pushed through plans to crap public broadcaster RTVS. Some have accused the […]
May 15, 2024 | China Ready To Write Down Real Estate Values. Who’s Next?
Governments worldwide are looking for ways to “ease the real estate crisis” now sweeping much of the developed world. The most popular ideas seek to prop up prices while enabling new buyers to obtain even more credit. After decades of epic malinvestment in real estate, China is at the forefront of the spreading property crisis. […]
May 14, 2024 | Breakthroughs, Part 1: Three Potential Threats To Oil, Gas, Uranium
This is the first in a series about breakthroughs in energy and other sectors that might affect some of our basic investment themes. Heading in, keep two things in mind: The vast majority of breathlessly hyped developments in science and engineering never make it out of the lab. Scaling up turns out to be too […]
May 14, 2024 | Swiss Army Knife to Remove Blade – Worldwide Ban of Knives
Those shouting for the removal of the Second Amendment in America do not realize that violent crime is STILL on the rise in other nations. The difference is that they are using either knives, bombs, or illegally purchased firearms to carry out the crime. Banning gun ownership will not change human nature; in fact, […]
May 14, 2024 | Household Debt, Delinquencies, Collections, and Bankruptcies: The Free-Money Era Is Over for our Not So Drunken Sailors
Total household debt outstanding ticked up by $184 billion, or by 1.1%, in Q1 from Q4 to $17.7 trillion, on declines in credit card balances, other revolving balances, and student loan balances, according to the Household Debt and Credit Report from the New York Fed today: Mortgage debt: +1.6%; to $12.4 trillion HELOC balances: +4.4%; […]
May 13, 2024 | Why The USA is Collapsing
Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh spoke at a judicial conference for the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears appeals from Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Justice Kavanaugh said that unpopular rulings tend to become the fabric of constitutional law, pointing to the unpopular decision at the time in Brown v. Board of Education, which held […]
May 13, 2024 | Canada Needs Bold New Focus on Net Income Enhancement
More malinvestment in propping up asset prices and the status quo is the opposite of what’s needed. The focus has to be on investments and incentives that increase longer-term efficiency and net income (with full cost accounting for the waste and harm created by different business models and revenue streams). Andrew Grantham, senior economist at […]
May 13, 2024 | Happy Monday morning!
Happy Monday morning! The labour market in Canada has weakened but hasn’t cracked, at least not yet. The economy added 90,000 jobs in the month of April, far surpassing all forecasts while also marking the largest employment increase in more than a year. What a pickle for the Bank of Canada. Rate cut expectations continue […]
May 12, 2024 | China Dethroned as Germany’s Largest Trading Partner
The United States has surpassed China to become Germany’s largest trading partner. Trade between the US and Germany came in at $68 billion (63 billion euros) during Q1, compared to about 60 billion euros between China and Germany. If we look at these figures, they pale in comparison to the aid packages we are […]
May 12, 2024 | Wall Street Journal Boosts Gold FOMO
The Wall Street Journal just published a long article (reposted via MSN) lamenting the fact that everyone suddenly wants gold. So thanks, WSJ, for the FOMO boost: Inside the 21st Century Gold Rush (MSN) – Eric Vazquez, a lineman for a power company in southwest Florida, says he’s holding a lot more gold than most […]
May 12, 2024 | Don’t Be Fooled by Gold’s Stealth Bull
Although there is no publicly traded company called Pirate’s Treasure, the impressive price history displayed in the chart above is real enough. The Canadian company holds royalties to five gold mines that could conceivably rank among the largest in the world someday, according to ‘Spartacus’, a Rick’s Picks regular known for his street savvy, his encyclopedic knowledge […]
May 12, 2024 | Danielle on CBC Weekend Business Panel
The CBC News Network Weekend Business panel takes a look at the top stories of the week. Here is a direct video link.
May 11, 2024 | Trading Desk Notes For May 11, 2024
Despite a quiet, low VOL week, the leading stock indices continued to rally, with the European benchmark index closing at all-time highs. Last week was chockablock with data and event risk; price action was wickedly choppy, and stocks rose. This week was so quiet that you sometimes wondered if the markets were open – and […]
May 11, 2024 | Why Does the Government Borrow Its Own Currency?
The problem with people’s attitudes toward the national debt is that everyone has forgotten why we borrowed in the first place. The theory was that if you borrowed rather than printed money, you were NOT increasing the existing money supply, and therefore, in theory, it would not be inflationary. However, the Democrats forgot […]
May 11, 2024 | Tech Talk for Saturday May 11th 2024
The Bottom Line All-time highs at the close on Friday for the Europe, Africa and Far East Index (EAFE Index) and its related ETF: EFA! Strength in the Index was bolstered by an all-time high set by Europe iShares (IEV) and by strength in Chinese and South African equity indices. Honorable mention is given to […]