Today's payrolls report showed 263,000 new jobs for AprilDow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) futures are soaring in early trading, after a better-than-expected April jobs report. Specifically, the Labor Department said 263,000 new jobs were added last month, topping expectations for an increase of 190,000, while the unemployment rate fell to a 49-year low of 3.6%. Futures on the S&P 500 Index (SPX)...Read More
By: RambusI was going through some old long term charts I haven't posted in many years to see if there was anything of interest to post tonight. With long term charts things don't change very fast and the big picture can stay viable for years. I have literally hundreds of charts for the different PM stock indexes that I've built through the years that are tucked away in different chart lists tha...Read More
By: David HaggithThe highest summit of irrational exuberance ever not seen by those engaging in it makes the perfect peak for the greatest global economic collapse ever not known by those who fell into it.Some days the level of denial in the stock market twists my head into a knot not because I am surprised at lemmings jumping over a cliff because they know all the other lemmings are going t...Read More
We Have a ProblemNo SolutionsFriends Don't Let Friends Buy and HoldDallas, SIC, and ConversationsMy recent letters described what I think the future will look like. I hasten to add, it isn't what I think the future should look like or what I want to see. Almost the entire developed world has painted itself into a corner.It won't necessarily be terrible. I don't expect another Great Depression...Read More
PLNT stock is lower after the company's rare revenue missPlanet Fitness Inc (NYSE:PLNT) is bracing for a 4.5% drop out of the gate, after the fitness center operator reported a first-quarter revenue miss -- its first in at least eight quarters. Specifically, revenue rose 22.7% in the first three months of the year to $148.8 million, below the $153.4 million expected by analysts. PLNT's adjusted fi...Read More
These record US stock-market levels are very dangerous, riddled with extreme levels of euphoria and complacency. Largely thanks to the Fed, traders are convinced stocks can rally indefinitely. But stock prices are very expensive relative to underlying corporate earnings, with valuations back up near bubble levels. These are classic topping signs, with profits growth stalling and the Fed...Read More
By: Dave KranzlerNotwithstanding today's absurdly phony and propagandistic employment report, it's becoming more apparent by the week that the Fed and the U.S. Government are once again preparing to print more money. I don't know when the Fed will revert to more QE but I would argue that the intense effort by the banks to use the Comex as a conduit to control the price of gold is a probable sign...Read More
By: Ira EpsteinLow $1,260's support on gold...Read More
"Who would be free themselves must strike the blow..."By their right arms the conquest must be wrought."So wrote Lord Byron of Greece's war of independence against the Turks, though the famed British poet would ignore his own counsel and die just days after arriving in Greece to join the struggle.Yet Byron's advice is the wise course for the United States, and for the people of Venezuela who see...Read More
Sometimes we're blessed not to possess insider information. Several pointed examples surfaced in the last few days. If we had known, for instance, that Fed Chairman Powell would tell the world on Wednesday that the U.S. economy is holding steady as a rock and that no changes are contemplated in monetary policy, we'd have jumped on call options a day earlier. Lo, the Dow began a 500-point plunge...Read More
The pig iron market in the United States was under pressure from lower prices for high-phosphorous material from Brazil, while supplies of low-phosphorous material continued to be restricted, Fastmarkets heard on Friday May 3."The only thing really dragging pig iron [prices] down is the weak domestic [pig iron] market in Brazil and the lack of markets for high phosphorous material," one buyer in t...Read More
Investing.com - Gold prices traded near flat on Friday in Asia as traders remained cautious after the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision to keep interest rate decision unchanged.Gold futures for June delivery, traded on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, was largely unchanged at $1,272.85 per ounce.The yellow metal recorded its biggest one-day percentage decline in more than two...Read More
In 2018, global gold mining companies' average all-in sustaining costs (AISC) fell 6% across the board as miners reacted to a gold price in steady decline for most of the year.The AISC metric serve as a benchmark of a mine's operating efficiency. They provide a more comprehensive look at mine economics than the traditional "cash costs" approach that many companies may interpret arbitrarily - and i...Read More
The dip in tin prices over the past two months reflects technical factors and a drop in semiconductor sales but a rebound is hard to envision despite an largely solid fundamental backdrop.Weakness in the global semiconductor sector has contributed to an 11% drop in the LME three-month tin price since mid-April - the sharpest fall across the base metals.The three-month price fell just 2.9% in 2018...Read More
Aluminium's three-month price on the London Metal Exchange fell over 1% at the close of trading on Friday May 3, with downward pressure emerging amid more than 230,000 tonnes of inflows over the week, while continued US dollar strength deters investors. Aluminium registered just over 10,000 lots traded at the close this afternoon, the lowest count since April 25, with thin volumes persisting due t...Read More
This recent drop in copper prices is not reflective of the current tight supply and demand fundamentals and a rebound could take place as soon as next week, Codelco's chief commercial officer Roberto Ecclefield told Fastmarkets on Friday May 3."Once China re-opens on Monday, we should see copper prices rebound," Ecclefield said in an interview. "The current price doesn't reflect fundamentals."Mark...Read More
The dip in tin prices over the past two months reflects technical factors and a drop in semiconductor sales but a rebound is hard to envision despite an largely solid fundamental backdrop.Weakness in the global semiconductor sector has contributed to an 11% drop in the LME three-month tin price since mid-April - the sharpest fall across the base metals.The three-month price fell just 2.9% in 2018...Read More
Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Email | Stitcher | RSSChris Marcus joins us for Metals & Markets this week, and we take a deep dive into the silver price manipulation saga and a whole lot more...Chris Marcus of Arcadia Economics interviewed by James Anderson for SD Bullion Silver and gold had a somewhat volatile week in fiat price action.With both monet...Read More
SD Friday Wrap: Coulda, shoulda, woulda. Silver had all the ingredients for an explosive move, but it turned out to be a dud. Here's why...I think we've seen the bottom in silver.With a low print of $14.57 yesterday, that's close enough to my downside target to go ahead and make the call.Of course, I was also calling for an explosive move to the upside, and I was wrong, but, generally speaking, wi...Read More
The last time the silver's bid-ask spread spiked up was April, 2006, and the price of silver was rising. What's going on right now? Here's Keith Weiner...by Keith Weiner of Monetary MetalsThe bid-ask spread of both (spot) gold and silver has blown out. Both, on March 1. In gold, the spread had been humming along around 13 cents-gold is the most marketable commodity, and this is the proof, a bid...Read More