Archive - Sep 2015

This development is an important one for the gold market and is bullish for gold. It shows, once again, that gold is slowly but surely becoming a cash equivalent and as money again.

And monetary policies will be “ineffective”: Natixis

"The 17-year river [of reserve currency buildup and QE around the world] is no longer flowing," warns Appaloosa's David Tepper, and "turbulence" is now the norm. VIX 22 is too low - "expect surging volatility", 18x PE is too high - "margins are set to drop - I have problems with earnings growth and problems with multiples"

Simply put - "Flat stocks is not a bad place to be...unless central banks are on our side again, then every rally should be sold."

So much changes in three days. For proof look no further than just the last three days of Dennis Gartman virtual portfolio recommendations.

Apparently fed up with the persistent spread between the onshore and offshore yuan, China has decided to add one more spinning plate to its collection by intervening in the offshore spot market.

Anyone waking this morning will glance at US equity futures and happily note its unchanged-ness relative to weakness in Asia overnight. But behind the scenes of the last 12 hours was a total and utter farce of price discovery failure. S&P 500 e-mini futures have been halted twice (0551ET anbd 0612ET) in what one market observer exclaimed "looks like manipulation to me." So what exactly happened at 6:12am?

Of course, with Goldman's desk making millions in commissions executing AAPL's weekly, if not daily, buyback orders, the last thing Goldman would dare to do is issue a report that angers Tim Cook. But another problem may be emerging for AAPL: China. As a reminder, China recently became the biggest end-market for iPhone demand and any hints this may be jeopardized could have severe repercussions on the stock price.  Which is why we paid particular attention to the report overnight from China's finance ministry, which accused a China unit of Apple of underpaying taxes in 2013 by 452 million yuan ($71 million), "which comes as China toughens its stance on tax payments by foreign firms."

• Compare: S&P 500 Futures Advance After U.S. Stocks Ignored Global Rally (BBG)
• And contrast: Global Stock Rally Grinds to a Halt (BBG)
• And be very confused: Global Stocks Lower on U.S. Interest Rate Uncertainty (WSJ)
• Hilsenrath: Fed Wavers on September Rate Rise (WSJ)
• Time for more QE: Abe Adviser Says Next Month Good Opportunity for BOJ Easing (BBG)
• Brazil downgraded to junk rating by S&P, deepening woes (Reuters)
• Kiwi dollar tumbles after New Zealand cuts interest rates (Reuters)

It has become virtually impossible to differentiate between actual central bank intervention, hopes of central bank intervention, and how the two interplay on what was once the "market" but is now merely the place where money printers duke it out every day in some pretense of price discovery set by those who literally print money.

For longer than any of us have lived, we have been brainwashed via financial advertising (and our, own, beloved “financial advisors”) to believe that life insurance represents the best way for a responsible wage-earner “to protect his or her loved ones”. 

As of Friday the comex gold "coverage" or amount of paper claims on every ounce of physical, was literally off the chart, soaring to a mindblowing 207 ounces of paper gold claims for every ounce of deliverable gold. This also means that the dilution ratio between physical gold and paper gold has hit a new all-time low of just 0.48%!

We wouldn’t say that it is “never too late” to prepare for potential disaster because, obviously, the numerous economic and social catastrophes of the past have proven otherwise. There simply comes a point in time in which the ignorant and presumptive are indeed officially screwed. We will say that we have not quite come to that point yet here in the U.S., but the window of opportunity for preparation is growing very narrow.

Losses from the US session extended following comments in one of the government's official mouthpieces that "China doesn't need massive stimulus." A BoNZ rate cut (blaming China's devaluation) sent Kiwi tumbling, Ringgit hit a fresh 17 year low against the USD, Japanese stocks collapsed over 650 points so far, and Chinese stocks are opening notably lower. Volume remains de minimus (99% below average) in Chinese futures trading as China devalues the Yuan by the most since Aug 13 and injects another 80 billion Yuan liquidity.

Politicians learned long ago that it's easier to just import non-Americanized voters to vote for you, than, as FutureMoneyTrends notes, to get naturalized citizens who still cherish the idea of America to vote for things like national healthcare systems, higher taxes on business owners, and the catering to every little tribal group that declares themselves a minority. As SHTFPLan's Mac Slavo concludes, with Europe’s immigrant crisis coming to a head and similar events having played out in the United States last summer, it should be clear that what’s happening is an orchestrated detonation of First World nations.

Five Chinese navy ships are currently operating in the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, marking the first time the U.S. military has seen them in the area. Why the sudden interest? Because the Chinese have been studying the cycles. From generational theorists William Strauss and Neil Howe, they have learned that political/cultural cycles last only 65 years, and then they collapse, cycles first observed by Taoist monks and Roman philosophers. And China is exactly 66 years advanced since the Chinese Communist Revolution of 1949. In terms of generational cycles, China is on the eve of destruction. (In terms of the Strauss/Howe theory, so are we.)