Stillwater Is Under Pressure As Platinum Can Lose One Digit

Posted on by Aibek Burabayev

Aibek Burabayev - INO.com Contributor - Metals


Chart 1. Platinum Monthly: Roller-Coaster

Platinum Monthly Chart
Chart courtesy of tradingview.com

Platinum booked an almost 50% gain from the bottom at $811 level in January 2016 to the top at $1194 level last month as falling crude oil spurred the demand for cars especially with large engines which in its turn lifted the demand for catalysts. As you can see, there is always a winner if there is a loser.

Those magical days for the metal are gone the same peak month in August, and the price painfully lost $150 from the top as the price was rejected by the upper side of the red multi-year downtrend. This month we can see that the market was trying to climb back to the upside as the candle has a long upper wick but failed to grasp the gains and slid down to the black vertical support. The price has started to drill it already, and it’s highly probable that we can witness the break this month. The break and close below $1020 would confirm the break. The next stop could be only at the June’s low at the $952 mark where the metal would lose one digit and will only have a 3-digit price. Continue reading "Stillwater Is Under Pressure As Platinum Can Lose One Digit" →

Top Five Reasons Why the Fed Won't Raise Rates This Month

Posted on by George Yacik

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


Eric Rosengren, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, singlehandedly spooked the financial markets last Friday when he commented that “a reasonable case can be made” for the Fed to start raising interest rates soon, which traders and investors interpreted to mean as early as next week’s FOMC monetary policy meeting.

“If we want to ensure that we remain at full employment, gradual tightening is likely to be appropriate,” Rosengren said. “A failure to continue on the path of gradual removal of accommodation could shorten, rather than lengthen, the duration of this recovery.”

While I certainly don’t have any issue with what Rosengren said – I think the Fed should have started raising rates two years ago – I’m a little puzzled what exactly he said that put the markets to flight. He didn’t seem to say anything that other Fed officials, including Janet Yellen, hadn’t also said periodically recently, plus he didn’t offer any imminent schedule for raising rates. Yet that was apparently enough to get stock and bond traders to bail. Continue reading "Top Five Reasons Why the Fed Won't Raise Rates This Month" →

World Oil Supply-Demand Balance in 2017 Depends on Limited OPEC Production Increase

Posted on by Robert Boslego

Robert Boslego - INO.com Contributor - Energies


The Energy Information Administration (EIA) recently released its September Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) and its projects that world supply and demand will finally balance by late 2017. However, that depends on OPEC production rising a very small amount.

Base Case Scenario

Specifically, the EIA reported that OPEC crude production averaged 32.7 million barrels per day (mmbd) in August, and it projects OPEC production to average 32.95 mmbd in 2017. Under that scenario, world supply meets demand of 97.8 million barrels per day, and total inventories end 2017 at 3.062 billion barrels, about 350 million barrels higher than normal.

OECD Commercial Oil Inventory

The 2017 demand figure represents a gain of 1.5% from estimated demand in 2016 of 95.88 mmbd, which is a gain of 1.6% over 2015. This assumes a healthy macroeconomic environment. For example, the EIA is projecting that US GDP gains 2.6% in 2017, much better than the 1.5% GDP gain EIA assumes in 2016. Continue reading "World Oil Supply-Demand Balance in 2017 Depends on Limited OPEC Production Increase" →

The Battle Continues Between The Bulls And The Bears

Posted on by The INO.com Team

Hello MarketClub members everywhere. Choppy, choppy, choppy that's the only way to describe the recent market action as the Bears and the Bulls battle each other for domination. It reminds you of the election and the fight between the Democrats and the Republicans. Eventually, there will be a direction and a trend both politically and financially. My job here at MarketClub is to help you determine that trend and get on the right side – I am of course referring to the financial markets and not the politics of today.

MarketClub's Mid-day Market Report

Indexes: All of the major indices still have their long-term monthly Trade Triangles intact. The intermediate trend based on the weekly Trade Triangles is down which is reflecting the choppy action that we have seen the last few days. What is interesting is if you look at the weekly charts and the weekly RSI you can see that all of the indices are above the 50 support line indicating that the trend is likely to resume to the upside. However, there are no guarantees and I will rely on the weekly Trade Triangles to tell me when to get back on the long side of the market again. Continue reading "The Battle Continues Between The Bulls And The Bears" →

The Political Biotech Charade

Posted on by Noah Kiedrowski

Noah Kiedrowski - INO.com Contributor - Biotech


Hillary Clinton is once again going after the pharmaceutical companies in the form of drug pricing attacks. Her latest attack was on Mylan and its aggressive 400 percent price increase over the past decade for its EpiPen drug which uses an auto-injection of epinephrine to treat severe allergic reactions. Mylan acquired the product in 2007, and the price increased from $100 in 2008 to its current cost of ~$600. Hillary Clinton was quoted as stating:

"That's outrageous — and it's just the latest troubling example of a company taking advantage of its consumers," and "It's wrong when drug companies put profits ahead of patients, raising prices without justifying the value behind them."

Even more, after her initial Tweet the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (PACF:IBB) sold off ~5% within minutes and moved from $299 to $279 per share by the next day or 6.7% over a two day period (Figures 1 and 2).

Hillary Clinton EpiPen Tweet
Figure 1 – Hillary Clinton’s remarks pertaining to the EpiPen price increase

Correlation between Hillary Clinton’s tweet and the subsequent sell-off of the biotech cohort
Figure 2 – Correlation between Hillary Clinton’s tweet and the subsequent sell-off of the biotech cohort

Former Vermont governor Howard Dean also came out swinging against the pharmaceutical and health-care industry stating that reform is needed which necessitates "far more sweeping" than what Dodd-Frank did for the financial industry. He further went on to state: Continue reading "The Political Biotech Charade" →