Category: INO.com Contributors

Fed Paves The Way For Broad Dollar Rally

Posted on by Lior Alkalay

Lior Alkalay - INO.com Contributor - Forex


The last FOMC meeting for 2016 has concluded, and the outcome is a slightly more hawkish tone than investors initially expected. The Fed has hiked the federal fund’s target rate by 25bps to 0.75% for the second time in two years. However, this hike was largely in line with the consensus expectations.

What caught investors by surprise was the revision of the Fed’s projection for rates in 2017. A revision that demonstrates that the median of estimates by the Federal Reserve members point to not two rate hikes, as in the September meeting, but three. Experience suggests that investors should take the Fed’s revision with a pinch of salt. After all, it was only this year that we witnessed the Federal Reserve revise its rate projections down, a move that followed an increase earlier in the year. And yet, judging by the reaction of Treasuries and the dollar, this revision is taken with some gravity. In fact, it paves the way for another dollar higher. The question is why? Continue reading "Fed Paves The Way For Broad Dollar Rally" →

Non-OPEC Deal Delivers "Voluntary" Oil Production Cuts

Posted on by Robert Boslego

Robert Boslego - INO.com Contributor - Energies


Ministers from eleven Non-OPEC oil producing countries, led by the Russian Federation, met at OPEC’s headquarters in Vienna on December 11th. It had been reported for weeks that they would agree to cut their oil production by 600,000 b/d.

What they actually agreed to was a watered-down version of that. It turned out that they did not get to 600,000, that much of the “cut” was due to a natural decline in certain countries, such as Mexico, that Russia’s 300,000 b/d cut would be gradual over the first six months of 2017, and that it was all voluntary.

The key portion of the press release reads as follows: Continue reading "Non-OPEC Deal Delivers "Voluntary" Oil Production Cuts" →

Preview Issue #6: Favorable Healthcare Political Backdrop and Eli Lilly Disappoints

Posted on by Noah Kiedrowski

INO Health & Biotech Stock Guide

Preview Issue #6 - December 13th, 2016

BIOTECH, HEALTH & PHARMA NEWS

The Political backdrop changed in ways virtually no survey had predicted and come 2017 the United Sates will inaugurate Donald Trump as the new president. As a sense of certainty took a few hours to digest as the presidential news flowed into the markets, essentially uprooting the pricing-in of a Clinton victory, pre-market trading was volatile with the Dow dropping over 700 points. This paradoxical presidential outcome quickly brought the Dow back to breakeven and ended the day up ~300 points. This post Trump victory has continued to rally the markets with what is now being coined as the “Trump Rally” as the Dow has broken all-time highs to power past the 19,000 benchmark. This rally has disproportionally benefited healthcare related stocks ranging from pharmaceutical companies to pharmacies and the wholesalers in-between. Continue reading "Preview Issue #6: Favorable Healthcare Political Backdrop and Eli Lilly Disappoints" →

Silver Monthly: Exotic Pattern

Posted on by Aibek Burabayev

Aibek Burabayev - INO.com Contributor - Metals


It’s always such luck to find something when you really need it. I didn’t update the monthly chart for silver from July as we need to give time to the market for visible changes. I am very thankful to regular readers who comment on my posts and doing so; they give me a feedback with a clue of what you really need or what is your biggest concern. Last week one of the readers asked why I put short term setups with a bullish view. I answered that as long as the market broke above the medium-term downtrend, we can watch the upside. Today I would like to update the monthly chart as it is always better to see once than to read/hear about it many times.

This time I changed the usual order of charts. I would like to start from what we all didn’t see. The exotic pattern was detected, and I am glad to share it with you below. Continue reading "Silver Monthly: Exotic Pattern" →

A Fed Rate Hike Next Week Is A Lock - Right?

Posted on by George Yacik

George Yacik - INO.com Contributor - Fed & Interest Rates


An interest rate increase at next week’s Federal Reserve meeting would seem to be a foregone conclusion. The Fed would look downright foolish if it didn’t raise rates. But can we take anything for granted when it comes to the Fed making rate decisions?

On the surface, you would have to guess that there is almost no chance the Fed will leave rates alone at next week’s meeting. Indeed, that’s what the bond market and the federal fund's futures market are saying.

The three-month Treasury bill is currently trading at 0.50%. That’s nearly triple the 0.17% it was trading at on September 20, which was also its lowest point this year. It’s also more than double the high end of the Fed’s current fed funds range of 0% to 0.25%. Given that comparison, the Fed would look seriously out of touch with reality if it didn’t raise rates at least 25 basis points this time around. If anything, the Fed is now playing catch-up, not leading the markets. In any event, rates are going up regardless of what the Fed does or doesn’t do. Continue reading "A Fed Rate Hike Next Week Is A Lock - Right?" →