Category: General

Weekly Futures Recap With Mike Seery

Posted on by The INO.com Team

We've asked Michael Seery of SEERYFUTURES.COM to give our INO readers a weekly recap of the Futures market. He has been Senior Analyst for close to 15 years and has extensive knowledge of all of the commodity and option markets.

Michael frequently appears on multiple business networks including Bloomberg news, Fox Business, CNBC Worldwide, CNN Business, and Bloomberg TV. He is also a guest on First Business, which is a national and internationally syndicated business show.

Gold Futures

Gold prices had a volatile trading week basically finishing unchanged to settle around 1,298 in the June contract after having a tremendous reversal selling off down to 1,272 when the monthly unemployment number was released adding 280,000 jobs which is bullish the economy and bearish gold but then turned on a dime with the Ukrainian problems escalating sending gold finishing up $14 this Friday right near session highs as prices have been consolidating in recent weeks. I’ve been sitting on the sidelines in the gold market for quite some time as this market remains choppy and it might be bottoming at the current price levels as gold rallied $200 to start the year but now has given back over $100 so were at about the 50% retracement so if your bullish gold I would buy a futures contract at today’s price while placing my stop at the 10 day low which is also the 10 week low of 1,268 an ounce risking around $3,000 per contract. I’ve lived through many of these political escalations including one last August with Syria and they always seem to fizzle away so we will see if today’s rally will do the same but sit on the sidelines and see what develops. The one thing gold does have going for it is trading above its 20 and 100 day moving average which is telling you that the trend might be turning higher as prices could be bottoming out.
TREND: MIXED
CHART STRUCTURE: EXCELLENT

Continue reading "Weekly Futures Recap With Mike Seery" →

Think Small Banks For Big Profits

Posted on by The INO.com Team

By: Tim Melvin

The banking industry avoided the attention of activists, for the most part, as the industry was still recovering from the financial crisis and the regulatory outlook was very uncertain.

Buyers were unwilling to step up to the plate, absent some clarity of what the future would like from a regulatory point of view. But according to a recent Harvard Law School forum, that is all about to change.

A post from William Sweet, partner and head of the Financial Institutions Regulation and Enforcement Group at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP stated that, “with resolution of some of these uncertainties, and some improvement in the bank M&A environment (which is becoming more active among smaller community banking institutions), banking organizations can expect greater attention from activist investors.

This could be a real boon for investors in the smaller community banks and thrifts. In a presentation at the recent Value Investing Congress in Las Vegas, Richard Lashley of activist investing firm PL Capital pointed out that industry fundamentals have almost returned to pre-crisis levels, but the stock prices of the smaller banks are still very cheap when compared to tangible book value. Continue reading "Think Small Banks For Big Profits" →

Pigs no Longer Fly; What Are the Implications?

Posted on by admin

Along with the highly publicized loss of leadership from big tech, the US stock market is now in danger of losing another, and possibly more important leader, the piggies or banking sector.

While the weekly chart of BKX has not yet broken down, it is very close to doing so after sporting a negative RSI divergence for the better part of the last year. We should not jump the gun with bearish scenarios, but as always we want to be among those looking forward and ready, just like in 2007, which was the last time BKX-SPX began to roll over in earnest.

bkx

NFTRH has followed the BKX-SPX (leadership) ratio every step of the way during the current leg of the cyclical stock bull market. Most recently we noted that BKX-SPX failed to make higher highs on two occasions. This put the ratio – and by extension the stock market – on alert as we watched for a lower low.  Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to a lower low. Continue reading "Pigs no Longer Fly; What Are the Implications?" →

One Sentiment Gauge in Europe Reaches Epic Proportion

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A visual history of complacency and fear as seen by the 10-year spread over German Bunds

By: Elliott Wave International

The one-two punch 2014 winter storms that battered the southeastern United States left $13.5 million in damages in Georgia alone and thousands of residents displaced due to burst pipes and power outages. I am one of the displaced. Three months after the flood, I'm still living out of suitcases in a hotel while my apartment gets rebuilt.

I'm ashamed to admit before Icepocalypse, I had the least comprehensive homeowner's insurance. Why bother, I thought. This is Atlanta. The only blizzard this city's seen in the last decade is on the dessert menu at Dairy Queen.

But now, you better believe the first thing I'm going to do when I move back in is upgrade my policy to cover all and any acts of man and God -- fire, tornado, sharknado, alien invasion, you name it.

It's human nature. You can never truly prepare for the worst until you experience it first-hand. Then, and only then, do you go above and beyond to protect your health and welfare. Continue reading "One Sentiment Gauge in Europe Reaches Epic Proportion" →

Chart of The Week - Corn

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Each Week Longleaftrading.com will be providing us a chart of the week as analyzed by a member of their team. We hope that you enjoy and learn from this new feature.

As we begin the 2014 planting season, our attention turns to the September 2014 Corn Options. September Corn futures (CBOT:ZC.U14.E) have started out well, supported by a report last week that the crop is already slightly behind in planted acreage (6% vs. 9% estimated). Opening the new week, we see a cool and rainy forecast across the Midwest along with severe weather. We are currently seeing up to 5 inches of rainfall expected over half of the Midwest.

Due to the weather forecast, the planting pace is likely to slow down dramatically this weekend and next week. The 10-year average plating pace for Illinois by April 28th is a little under 40%, while Indiana and Iowa are both about 30%. Historically speaking, we are well behind as plantings could reach near 20% for Monday's update but stall at this figure for the week due to weather delays. The recent weather has added support to the Corn futures, and any further delays should make the price rally considerably.

Since the start of the new year we have been in a strong up-trend in the Corn market. Continue reading "Chart of The Week - Corn" →