Is It Just Me Or Is Janet Yellen Incompetent

Posted on by The INO.com Team

In all the years I've been tracking the Fed and the previous chairmanships, Janet Yellen is coming across as being totally out of her league and just plain incompetent. Now before anyone says that's a sexist remark, I would say the same thing about her predecessor "Helicopter Ben." Whose big idea was to do everything the opposite way of what they did in the "Great Depression" and that is, to print money, print money and print even more money. The bottom line is the Fed has no idea how to get out of this quandary that they created themselves and for the country.

What's going to happen no one knows for sure, but one thing is certain, the markets will tell us where they want to go eventually. The other thing that's certain is that the Trade Triangles will get it right. I'm 100% confident in saying that.

Let's just take it and look at where the markets closed last Friday. Continue reading "Is It Just Me Or Is Janet Yellen Incompetent" →

Opportunities In Pipelines

Posted on by Adam Feik

Adam Feik - INO.com Contributor - Energies


I wrote a few weeks ago about investing in Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs) and pipeline companies, and some of the nuances involved. Starting with the fact that there ARE some major differences between MLP funds and pipeline funds, so investors need to know what they're getting.

As I stated in that article, I believe the US oil & gas boom means pipelines and energy infrastructure are going to remain in high demand for the foreseeable future – despite Hillary Clinton's Tuesday announcement of her opposition to Keystone XL. Plus, I generally regard pipelines as being a historically defensive area of the stock market, comprised of relatively steady, fee-for-service businesses. Hence, today I present a continuing analysis of a couple ways to play the midstream energy industry – whose stocks may be receiving undue punishment in the midst of the oil crash of the past 15 months.

To be clear, the midstream industry's haircut to date, while noteworthy, has not nearly so bad as the carnage in oil or the rest of the energy sector. As the graph below shows, pipeline stock prices are down about 16% since June 20, 2014, compared to nearly a 38% decline for the overall energy sector, and a 63% crash in oil prices.

EMLP vs. XLE vs. DBO

Graph from Yahoo! Finance. EMLP is First Trust North American Energy Infrastructure Fund, shown here as a proxy for pipeline stocks. XLE is the Energy Select Sector SPDR, shown here as a proxy for energy sector stocks. DBO is the PowerShares DB Oil ETF, shown here as a proxy for oil prices.

Actually, ALL the of pipeline stocks' decline in the last 15 months has come since roughly May 5th this year (shown on the graph above with a dotted vertical line), which is the date oil prices bumped up against its most recent top and began melting down again. Pipeline stock prices had been flat throughout oil's collapse for the prior 10+ months; but since that May 5th peak, pipelines (as measured by EMLP) are down 18.75%, the broad energy sector (XLE) is down 23%, and oil is down 24%. See graph below. Continue reading "Opportunities In Pipelines" →

Gold Update: Bulls Have The First Confirmation

Posted on by Aibek Burabayev

Aibek Burabayev - INO.com Contributor - Metals


One month ago I dared to call my Gold update "Major reversal," but I have enough reason for that. Today I prepared a short term daily chart with the focus being on the first bullish move and its correction.

GOLD (FOREX:XAUUSDO)
Chart courtesy of Tradingview.com

Like a tree starting from a sprout, the new trend starts from the first counter trend move that has its threshold at the end of July. Gold's price has gained a weighty 9% (almost $100) in one month and has stalled at the $1170 level ahead of resistance. The gold market has been treading water within the 1077/1110 range for two weeks in a row and it looked like another consolidation was going to happen before the new drop down. But, surprisingly the price broke the upper bound and quickly cut through the $1100 level. It then had a small four-day break before it made the final jump to the $1170 level. This is the first serious counter trend move which I have labeled as the large green AB segment. Continue reading "Gold Update: Bulls Have The First Confirmation" →

3 Stocks That Are Headed South

Posted on by The INO.com Team

Wednesday is often referred to as hump day, meaning that it is the middle of the week and just a few days to the weekend. Today could also be referred to as "dump day" as early indications are that investors are dumping stocks across the board.

Today I have three stocks that I think could move significantly lower from where they're currently trading.

The first one is Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) which gave a weekly sell signal yesterday and looks to be in trouble to the downside.

The next stock is the fashion house/label of Michael Kors Holdings LTD. (NYSE:KORS). This stock also flashed a weekly sell signal yesterday and looks to be headed to the downside. I will be looking at where you should sell this stock, were you should put your stop and how far down I think the stock can go. Continue reading "3 Stocks That Are Headed South" →

Are These The Greatest Success Stories In Europe?

Posted on by admin

By: David Sterman of Street Authority

It's been five years since the Financial Times first made use of one of the less flattering economic acronyms: PIIGS. Back then, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain were seen as economic basket cases, and it was widely assumed that one or several of them would eventually default on their massive debt burdens.

While such an event has yet to pass, Greece remains quite sickly, and Portugal and Italy continue to wrestle with profound economic dislocation. To varying degrees, these countries have failed to embrace the badly-needed economic reforms that are essential to sow the seeds of a lasting economic recovery.

Yet despite heavy odds, Ireland and Spain are clearly on the comeback trail. Thanks to broad-based reform packages, their economies have begun to turn the corner. And with the aid of a very competitive currency, their futures are looking far brighter than most would have suspected just a few years ago. For investors, exposure to these dynamic turnaround stories can be had through a pair of country-specific exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Ireland Is Back In Business

Ireland and its citizens are remarkably resilient. They have been through myriad crises over the past two centuries, and always manage to bounce back. Most recently, they saw the country's economy crash and burn in the economic crisis of 2008-2009. Irish banks eventually grew so weak that a wave of bankruptcies were a real possibility. By 2012, unemployment in the country had risen to nearly 15%. Continue reading "Are These The Greatest Success Stories In Europe?" →