Analyst/trader Gregory Mannarino says the Federal Reserve just did an about-face on raising interest rates in a matter of weeks. Mannarino contends, “This is incredible and hard to get my head around. This has got to be the flip-flop of all flip-flops. At the last FOMC meeting, Janet Yellen was practically pounding the table talking about how they were going to be continuing to raise rates, that they are going to start unloading their balance sheet here, and then she does an absolute 180. I am sitting there in real time watching it (this past week). My face dropped, and the moment I heard this, I started buying everything I could… I t...
By John Szramiak of Vintage Value Investing cocoparisienne / Pixabay Water is one of the most plentiful compounds on Earth and it is essential for life.However, fresh water isn’t nearly as common as salt water and it is under pressure. As climate change rapidly shifts the weather pattern, fresh water is drying up. At the same time, pollution, garbage and industrial waste are destroying existing water basins. This is especially true in some large, poor countries with desperate need for fresh water including India, China, Bangladesh and Mexico. Even in the US, the Colorado river which supplies fresh water to 40 million people in the Southw...
A new “BUY” signal has just triggered on the World Market Index. I last wrote about this index on June 29th. Price punched through 1900 (which will now need to hold as major support), the RSI has broken its latest downtrend and is back above 50, and there are new bullish crossovers on the MACD and PMO indicators, as shown on the following Daily chart. While the SPX has broken above near-term resistance of 2450 and closed at another all-time high, it’s a nano-breath away from also triggering a new “BUY” signal. If price remains above 2450, if the RSI remains above 50, if the recent bullish crossover ...
Putting out something outstanding is difficult for most people. When it comes to sell-side strategists, the burden of having to be both rigorous and some semblance of articulate is usually too much and when you throw in time constraints, you’ve got a recipe for notes that are bland, that state the obvious, or worse, both. True, there are some folks who do manage to deliver outstanding analysis, but you only hear from those folks every so often. The time between notes is likely at least in part attributable to the fact that for mere mortals, putting together something that’s all at once eloquent, accurate, and relevant takes a while. Thatâ...
GBP/USD reversed directions last week, gaining 200 points. The pair closed at the 1.31 line. This week’s highlights are CPI and Retail Sales. Here is an outlook for the highlights of this week and an updated technical analysis for GBP/USD.  In the UK, Brexit jitters increased as all three PMIs reported softer growth in May and missed estimates. The latest political scandal involving Donald Trump Jr. has hurt the dollar, and Yellen’s concern about low inflation also weighed on the greenback. Updates: GBP/USD graph with support and resistance lines on it. Click to enlarge: Rightmove HPI: Sunday, 23:01. This indicator is a gauge of ...
In a dramatic appeal for rationality at the Fed, Bank of America’s global FX strategy team released a note titled “take that punch bowl away”, which laments that while central banks backtracked from their hawkish recent rhetoric this week, it warns that “they will be sorry if they allow bubbles” and predicts that vol will increase this fall adding that the bank remains “cautious and selective in EM FX, despite the Fed-triggered rally this week.” The note comes 24 hours after BofA’s chief strategist Michael Hartnett warned that “the most dangerous moment for markets” will likely co...
EUR/USD The EUR continues the overall consolidation that we have seen for 2 ½ years, but we are getting very close to the top of that range, the 1.15 level. In this point, I suspect that we are going to try to break out but we need to see at the very least a daily close above that level to feel reasonably confident that we are going higher. In the meantime, I believe that short-term pullbacks will more than likely offer value. USD/CAD The US dollar fell precipitously against the Canadian dollar during the week, as we are now approaching the 1.26 handle. The major support doesn’t reappear until 1.25, so I think that this is going to continu...
The focus shifts in the week ahead from Yellen’s testimony and disappointing data to the ECB meeting which is expected to result in a further modest adjustment in its risk assessment. While the focus shifts, the pressure on the dollar will likely remain. It fell to new lows for the year last week against the euro, sterling, Swedish krona, and the Canadian and Australian dollars, among the majors.   Among the emerging market currencies, the dollar fell to new lows for the year against the central European currencies (forint, zloty, and koruna) as well as the Singapore dollar and Mexican peso, among the actively traded emerging market...
The two main benefits of owning common shares of a publicly-traded corporation are: Your claim on earnings Your claim on assets Accordingly, a company’s ability to use its assets to generate earnings is very important. How do we measure this? There are a number of financial metrics that investors use to measure a company’s profitability. These include: Gross Profit Margin Net Profit Margin Return on Assets Return on Equity Return on Invested Capital All else being equal, higher profitability metrics should result in superior long-term total returns. This means that investing in highly profitable businesses has merits as part of a holis...
The Canadian dollar rally continued last week, as USD/CAD dropped 250 points. The pair closed at 1.2633, its lowest weekly close since April 2016. This week’s key events are CPI and Core Retail Sales. Here is an outlook on the major market-movers and an updated technical analysis for USD/CAD. The Canadian dollar sparkled last week, buoyed by a rate hike from the Bank of Canada. The BoC raised rates from 0.50% to 0.75%. This was the first rate hike since July 2015. In the US, the latest political scandal involving Donald Trump Jr. hurt the dollar, and Yellen’s concern about low inflation also weighed on the greenback. Updates: USD/...