Fear tends to manifest itself much more quickly than greed, so volatile markets tend to be on the downside. In up markets, volatility tends to gradually decline. Philip Roth Be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy when others are fearful. Warren Buffett The new year hasn’t gotten off to a great start for growth stocks or any of the other speculative assets that have drawn so much attention over the last couple of years. Bitcoin is down 25% since the...
Read More »What’s The Real Downside To Some of These Key Commodities?
Last night, Autodata reported its first estimates for September auto sales in the US. According to its own as well as those compiled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (the same government outfit which keeps track of GDP), vehicle sales have been sliding overall ever since April. For a couple months in the middle of Uncle Sam’s helicopter-fed frenzy, the number of vehicle units had surged to a high of more than 18 million (seasonally-adjusted annual rate) in both...
Read More »Former UBS Trader Arrested, Charged With Rigging Gold Prices
Three years after we first identified the former head of UBS's gold desk in Zurich as someone directly implicated in the rigging of precious metals prices, Bloomberg reports that Andre Flotron, a Swiss resident, was arrested while visiting the U.S., according to people familiar with the matter. Having been "on leave" since 2014, it appears Andre's hope that he was gone but "keen to return in due time" are now up in smoke. As Bloomberg reports, Flotron was...
Read More »Precious Metals Outperform Markets In August – Gold +4 percents, Silver +5 percents
All four precious metals outperform markets in August Gold posts best month since January, up nearly 4% Gold reaches highest price since US election, climbs due to uncertainty and safe haven demand S&P 500 marginally higher; Euro Stoxx, Nikkei lower for month Platinum is best performing metal climbing over 5% Palladium climbs over 4% thanks to seven year supply squeeze Fear, uncertainty and political sanctions are...
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