Investing

Keynes and others may have referred to gold as a barbarous relic, but many investors continue to track it.  In early January, we warned that gold appeared to be breaking out of a short-term bottoming pattern. It had taken out...

Sterling has neared the 50% retracement of the 11.5-cent decline since mid-December.  It is near $1.4660.  After easing ahead of the BOE announcement, sterling sold to $1.4530 on the initial headlines that showed the BOE was cutting its growth, inflation,...

The Bank of Japan surprised investors by introducing negative rates last week.  Leave aside the fact that the negative rates do not go into effect for more than another week, and even when in effect, will apply to a relatively...

The yen is the strongest currency today.  Many are still referring to it as a safe haven.  However, this strikes us as a misuse of the concept.  Investors are not flocking to the yen to find quiet place to ride...

The latest CFTC Commitment of Traders report covers the five sessions through January 26, the day before the FOMC concluded its two-day meeting and three days before the BOJ's announcement.  Speculators hardly changed their positioning during the period.  There were...

There is a mixed tone in the global capital markets today.  Asian shares were mixed with declines in the Nikkei (-.07%) and Shanghai (-2.9%) being offset by modest gains elsewhere.  European bourses are also mixed and the Dow Jones Stoxx...

This Great Graphic, composed on Bloomberg shows a potential head and shoulders bottom pattern in the Australian dollar.  The left shoulder was set in the first part of the month near $0.6930.  The head was carved out in four sessions...

The first two and a half weeks of the New Year saw persistent selling of equities, commodities, and emerging markets.  In the foreign exchange market, the dollar-bloc and sterling were crushed.  The yen was the single biggest beneficiary, and speculators...

On the last day of November, at the conclusion of its five-yearly review of the composition of the Special Drawing Rights (SDR), the IMF elevated the renminbi to its SDR basket. The RMB is now one of five major ‘freely...

360b / Shutterstock.com 360b / Shutterstock.com The recent death of David Bowie brought an enormous wave of eulogies focused on his revolutionary career in rock music. Many of the laudatory discussions concerning Bowie's countless musical and performance innovations mentioned his...

Speculative activity in the CME currency futures picked up in the latest reporting period. There were six significant gross position adjustments, which in our work is more than 10k contracts.  The gross short speculative euro position fell by 17.9k contracts,...

The US dollar remains strong against most currencies.  The exceptions are the Japanese yen, Swiss franc and euro though the franc and euro pulled back in the US afternoon before the weekend.  The greenback is still appreciating on a trade-weighted...

Much of Latin America has seen an unusually long period of relative political stability since the early 2000s. With the exception of Cuba, democratically elected governments seem embedded throughout the region. The political rules of the game largely seem to...

Sterling fell 4.25% from the high on December 28 to yesterday.  It has been confined to yesterday's range today.  After finishing below the lower Bollinger Band yesterday, it has moved back into the band today. The Bank of England meets...

So far, it has not been a happy new year for equity market investors. The Australian equity market lost A$100 billion in market value in the first week of trading, mirroring a dire global trend. If we are to believe...