Disappointing Jobs Report Doesn't Stop Record Run

Posted on by The INO.com Team

Stocks hit record intraday highs and closed at record highs on Friday, with the S&P 500 and DOW closing higher for the second straight week as traders shook off a disappointing U.S. jobs report. The NASDAQ was able to make it three weeks in a row with a weekly gain.

The DOW closed higher by 248.74 points or +0.8%, at 30,218.26. The S&P 500 gained +0.9% to end the day at 3,699.12, and the NASDAQ advanced +0.7% to 12,464.23.

On a weekly level, the S&P 500 posted a weekly gain of +1.6%, while the DOW gained +1%, and the NASDAQ led the three indexes with a gain of +2%. Continue reading "Disappointing Jobs Report Doesn't Stop Record Run" →

U.S. Crude Oil Production Rises In September

Posted on by Robert Boslego

The Energy Information Administration reported that September crude oil production rose by 286,000 barrels per day, averaging 10.860 mmbd. This follows a 399,000 b/d drop in August and a 2 million barrel per day collapse in May. The September 914 figure compares to the EIA’s weekly estimates (interpolated) of 10.703 mmbd, a figure that was 157,000 b/d lower.

Oil

The primary cause of the rise in production was reversals in the US Gulf Coast from hurricane activity. USG production rose by 315,000 b/d from August, and Texas output fell 60,000 b/d, while Louisiana was unchanged.

Rebounds were largest in North Dakota (61,000 b/d) and New Mexico (19,000). Given the huge reduction in May and this reduction in August, production dropped by 1.609 mmb/d over the past 12 months. This number only includes crude oil. Other supplies (liquids) that are part of the petroleum supply rose by 120,000 b/d from a year ago. Continue reading "U.S. Crude Oil Production Rises In September" →

Metals Ratios Continue To Indicate Inflation

Posted on by Gary Tanashian

And that is welcome for monetary and fiscal policymakers of course since inflation is the only trick they have up their sleeve to bail this mess out once again. And this is no comment on COVID-19. The economy was slowly decelerating last year well before COVID-19 showed up.

The yield curve bottomed and turned up in August of 2019 as manufacturing was slipping, long-term yields were tanking and other economic signals were fraying in the wake of the trade war. So please, no convenient COVID excuses.

See: Yield Curve Hits New 2019 Steepener Today

They were preparing to inflate because the Continuum told them to prepare. COVID-19 dropped the final hammer on the situation and brought the inflation on quicker and more intensely than might have otherwise been the case.

30 year yield

So anyway, on to the lovable Amigos. Continue reading "Metals Ratios Continue To Indicate Inflation" →

Bitcoin Rallying And I Am No Longer Bearish

Posted on by Matt Thalman

If you recall, it was around this time a few years ago, 2017, when Bitcoin became a household name and went on the tear from under $1,000 per coin to more than $17,000 per coin in under one year. The mania of the move came in the latter part of the year and right between the holidays. Fast forward a few years later, and Bitcoin has once again made a surprising move in the latter half of the year and once again set all-new record highs.

I have long been bearish on Bitcoin, but over the years and recent months, I have begun to move more toward the middle in terms of Bitcoin bulls vs. bears and why I have moved towards the middle what I would like to explain today.

My biggest and main issue with Bitcoin from the time I was introduced to it in 2013 is that, like other precious metals, they have no real intrinsic value. Therefore, you can't accurately or even inaccurately value the asset. With that being said, I have never invested in gold, or diamonds, silver, or any other metal, unless you are like my wife and consider "jewelry" an investment. I don't invest in any of them because they aren't like stocks that have value based on what the company plans to do or how much cash they have in the bank. I can value stocks and determine if they are under or overvalued by the market.

Precious metals, like Bitcoin, you can not do that because these things are only worth what they last traded for or what one person or another somewhere in the world is willing to pay for them at this moment in time.

And none of that has changed.

However, in the past few months, we have seen Continue reading "Bitcoin Rallying And I Am No Longer Bearish" →

Gold Is Well-Behaved, But Silver Is Not

Posted on by Aibek Burabayev

Sometimes we cannot rely on the correlation between certain instruments as they suddenly interrupt the link. I added the U.S. dollar index (DXY) chart below to illustrate it.

Silver Dollar Index

Surprisingly, gold's correlation (orange indicator sub-chart) went into a positive territory recently as it reached quite a decent number of 0.49 with an absolute correlation at 1.00.

Simultaneously, silver shows an almost neutral link, although it usually has a negative reading. All three of them dropped, but at a different speed. It indicates that the market has switched to the risk-on mode as safe havens were dumped. This time silver's dual nature showed up as it could shine when the world is a gloomy place, and when the world needs it as an industrial metal.

Now, let's look at Continue reading "Gold Is Well-Behaved, But Silver Is Not" →