The USD/CHF pair sold off the past week leaving risk lower in the new week. On the downside, support lies at the 0.9700 level. A turn below here will open the door for more weakness towards the 0.9650 level and then the 0.9600 level. On the upside, resistance resides at the 0.9800 level where a break will clear the way for more strength to occur towards the 0.9850 level. Further out, resistance comes in at the 0.9900 level. Above here, if seen, it will turn attention to 0.9950. All in all, USD/CHF faces further corrective pullback pressure....
There was a little more action in the markets today than I might have otherwise expected, especially in the afternoon session. Stocks were weak, being led lower by the big cap techs. And the SP 500 got into the act, selling off rather handily in the closing hour. We will have to keep a close eye on the performance of stocks in the first week of January, and then January as a whole. I am of the school that tends to try and make some conclusions about the rest of the year from the first month, where appropriate. And gold and silver delivered a nice little rally, with gold sticking a close firmly above 1300 and silver grabbing the 17 handle by a...
The price of Ripple, the cryptocurrency that Japanese banks are warming to, is not stopping after the big break above $1.50. At the time of writing, XRP/USD is trading at around $1.93 according to the Bitsmap exchange. The high so far has been $1.95. Ripple at $2 is getting close less than a week after the price hugged the $1 level. We noted three reasons for the Ripple rally and the biggest driver is the potential adoption by Japanese and perhaps other Asian banks. Credit card companies in Japan are being encouraged to adopt it to facilitate faster transactions. With a lengthy and costly process to complete a bitcoin transaction becoming ...
The S&P 500 closed out 2017 with a gain of 19.42% and 62 record highs. Week-over-week saw a loss of 0.36%, showing a lack of a “Santa Rally”, but we still have the first few trading days of the year to find out. We will see if the passage of the tax bill causes any gains in the first few days of 2018. The U.S. Treasury puts the closing yield on the 10-year note at 2.43%. Here is a daily chart of the S&P 500. Today’s selling puts the volume 36% below its 50-day moving average. Here’s a monthly snapshot of the index going back to December 2008. A Perspective on Drawdowns Here’s a snapshot of record highs ...
Some monthly charts of interest in the commodity sector, including precious metals. CRB Index dwells below key resistance. A break of 200 would target around 250 in 2018. CRB/SPX Ratio shows the utter devastation of the Goldilocks era of Central Bank inflation with no apparent consequences. This is not likely to last. WTI Crude Oil sits below resistance at 62-63, with a target of 75. NatGas is a basket case non-starter. The first step would be to break the red dashed line. After that, lots of overhead. Industrial Metals have been a favored area for a would-be inflation phase in 2018. The chart explains why. Copper broke through ...
For investors seeking momentum, Vanguard Total International Stock ETF (VXUS – Free Report) is probably on radar now. The fund just hit a 52-week high, and is up about 24% from its 52-week low price of $45.67/share. But are more gains in store for this ETF? Let’s take a quick look at the fund and the near-term outlook on it to get a better idea on where it might be headed: VXUS in Focus This fund offers broad exposure across developed and emerging non-U.S. equity markets. European firms take the largest share at 43.2%, followed by Pacific (30%) and emerging markets (19.8%). VXUS has key holdings in financials, consumer discreti...
Over the last decade, the most influential central banks around the world have printed electronic currency credits to acquire $14 trillion in assets. The effect on stocks, bonds and real estate? Remarkable price gains as well as records galore. On the other hand, quantitative easing (QE) activity by the U.S. Federal Reserve, People’s Bank of China, European Central Bank and others has created a variety of implausible circumstances. The Swiss National Bank has become one of the largest shareholders in Apple (AAPL) with nearly 20 million shares on its books. The Bank of Japan owns three-quarters of the Japanese exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in...
Over the last decade, the most influential central banks around the world have printed electronic currency credits to acquire $14 trillion in assets. The effect on stocks, bonds and real estate? Remarkable price gains as well as records galore. On the other hand, quantitative easing (QE) activity by the U.S. Federal Reserve, People’s Bank of China, European Central Bank and others has created a variety of implausible circumstances. The Swiss National Bank has become one of the largest shareholders in Apple (AAPL) with nearly 20 million shares on its books. The Bank of Japan owns three-quarters of the Japanese exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in...