CMG has added 96% in 2019 alreadyFood chain Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) is starting the week off on the right foot, thanks to a fresh dose ofanalyst praise. Ahead of earnings, which are slated for release after the close tomorrow, Oct. 22, brokerage firm BTIG hiked its price target to $890 from $845. The analyst said margins and comparable-store sales could hit "historic levels" andex...Read More

Put buying has easily surpassed call buying in recent weekseBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) is trading up 1% today at $39.20, even though Deutsche Bank this morning downgraded its rating on the e-commerce name to "hold' from "buy," while trimming its price target to $42 from $46. The brokerage note said eBay needs to differentiate its business if it wants to be able to challenge competitors like Amazon.com...Read More

There's a lot of pessimism surrounding HPE sharesThe shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co (NYSE:HPE) are up 3.3% to trade at $15.85 this morning, after BofA-Merrill Lynch issued a rare double upgrade on the tech firm. The brokerage firm upped its rating to "buy" from "underperform," and set a price objective of $19 from $13. The brokerage firm waxed optimistic about the company's free cash flow...Read More

The FDA just approved the drug stock's topical Amzeeq treatment Shares of the dermatological concern Foamix Pharmaceuticals Ltd (NASDAQ:FOMX) are looking to start the week higher, after the firm said it received approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its topical acne treatment Amzeeq -- a reformulated version of the antibiotic minocycline, which has limited use due to some aver...Read More

A number of major companies are scheduled to report earnings this weekDow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) futures are trading above fair value this morning, as Wall Street prepares for a huge week on the earnings front. While the schedule is somewhat light today, traders also have trade talks between the U.S. and China to monitor, with White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow telling Fox Business...Read More

The sentiment backdrop favors an SPX breakout, even as the index trades near the top of its range"...the SPX enters options expiration week just below another layer of historical resistance: the round 3,000 millennium mark, which is just below the SPX's 20% year-to-date (YTD) gain at 3,008. Bonds, as represented by the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT - 140.44), experienced a sharp retreat...Read More

Clive MaundThe normal and natural business cycle where periods of growth were punctuated by healthy recessions has been all but eliminated by government and Central Bank interference. The recessionary phases which saw bearmarkets and retrenchment were a part of the cycle that is essential for the maintenance of a healthy economy, because it involved the correction of excess and the elimination o...Read More

StrengthsThe best performing metal this week was palladium, up 3.26 percent as its one-week lease rate reached the highest since January, indicating physical supplies are tight. Gold traders and analysts in the weekly Bloomberg survey were mostly neutral on the metal's price outlook as the market awaits the upcoming Fed meeting. Gold did advance on Wednesday after an unexpected drop in U.S. reta...Read More

There is still a chance of Brexit by 31st October. This is the reason why cable has not crashed and gold has not zoomed. US-China trade talks will be closely watched as the month progresses. Crude oil and industrial metals will be very volatile. IMF has also said that gold and silver are hedges against inflation. After a long time, silver has been invoked as an inflation hedge. Invest in silver...Read More

GraniteShares Gold Trust (BAR) has delivered a flattish performance over the past week, despite a marked deprecation in the dollar, contrary to our expectations.We attribute the lack of upside in BAR to a speculative de-grossing, after the speculative community held for some months a significantly net long position in Comex gold.But the stability of gold ETF buying, despite the rebound in global...Read More

Global central bank policy has become more supportive for gold.Falling bond yields and inflation rate outlook point to higher gold prices.Gold mining stock improvements are also starting to show up.Throughout the year, reports of gold's demise as a top-performing asset and safety vehicle have proven to be premature. Whenever gold suffers even the slightest of setbacks, the bears have attempted to...Read More

Brazilian import volumes of flat steel products dipped by 22.51% in September 2019 while long steel imports almost doubled, soaring by 96.86%, according to figures from the country's economy ministry.Imports of hot-rolled coil (HRC) from China were only 619 tonnes last month, compared with 15,589 tonnes a year before.Meanwhile, China exported only 2,827 tonnes of cold-rolled coil (CRC) to Brazil,...Read More

Building on recent work on the topic, this article examines rolling returns of Gold, Stocks, and Bonds from the early 1970s to the current period.Over shorter horizons, Gold can outperform stocks 30%-40% of the time, but as that horizon expands to decades, Gold almost always underperforms both stocks and bonds.Gold is likely best deployed tactically in risk-off environments for stocks. Given its l...Read More

Brazilian import volumes of flat steel products dipped by 22.51% in September 2019 while long steel imports almost doubled, soaring by 96.86%, according to figures from the country's economy ministry.Imports of hot-rolled coil (HRC) from China were only 619 tonnes last month, compared with 15,589 tonnes a year before.Meanwhile, China exported only 2,827 tonnes of cold-rolled coil (CRC) to Brazil,...Read More

Risk sentiment in the market has improved remarkably in a short span of time.Productive US-China trade talks, strong corporate earnings, and a UK-EU Brexit deal have brought back investor risk appetite.Gold is firmly bullish, with its technical charts flashing strong Buy signals.An attractive buy entry point into gold would be now, when the market has turned risk-on and when complacency might just...Read More

Turkish steel producers skipped the first working day of the week, with no deep-sea bookings concluded and prices steady, sources said on Monday October 21.As a result of lack of fresh trades, the daily scrap indices remained flat at the beginning of the week.Fastmarkets' daily index for steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), Northern Europe origin, cfr Turkey, was...Read More

The three-month lead price on the London Metal Exchange was the standout performer on Monday October 21, closing at its highest level since July 2018 and breaching $2,200 per tonne despite moderate turnover. Lead futures on the LME closed at $2,211 per tonne this afternoon, a climb of more than 1.5% against Friday's close of $2,172 per tonne, while some 2,850 lots had been traded by the close, whi...Read More

Gold trades just under $1500 per ounce and continues to correct.Phase one of the trade deal is not a done deal.Brexit looks promising, but still could be a political nightmare.Iran and the Middle East - a hornet's nest.Falling rates are bullish for gold - GDXJ is a leveraged play on gold's upside.Gold broke out above its critical level of technical resistance in June. The price of the yell...Read More

Primary aluminium stocks at the three main Japanese ports (MJP) of Osaka, Nagoya and Yokohama rose by 0.1% month on month in September 2019, according to data released by major Japanese trading house Marubeni Corp on Monday October 21. Aluminium stocks at the three ports totaled 326,700 tonnes on September 30, up 600 tonnes from the end of August, marking the fourth consecutive monthly stock incre...Read More

Fed's action to weaken the U.S. dollar.This is a brief but very important update to my previous post of July 18, 2019, "U.S. Dollar Stronger For Longer".Everyone back into the gold market.Fed's new QE to push US$ down and gold up If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is probably a duck. Thus despite the protestations to the contrary by Chairman Powell,...Read More