Thanks to everyone who has participated in the survey! I received a suggestion asking to talk more about what is driving markets in the short-term. For example, why were stocks down yesterday. Here’s a short video looking at the investment capital flows over the past few weeks. It shows that we had a very strong…
New Buys
I bought a new stock last week, and added a little more this week – Howard Hughes Corp (HHC). They’re a real estate development/management company that targets properties in higher-end areas like New York City, Honolulu, Houston and Las Vegas. The company has evolved over time from an initial master planned community purchased by Howard…
Market Round Up
Stocks & the Japanese yen I’ve had my eye on the Japanese yen the past few days. For years, the yen has been at the center of the “carry trade,” where traders will borrow in yen at near zero interest rates to leverage their investment in markets that are moving higher – like stocks. The…
Thoughts of the Week
Ags The USDA releases their world supply and demand outlook today for all agricultural commodities. We generally see big price swings off this release. We’re also in the middle of planting season for most of the US. It’s interesting that my concerns of soil being too dry and not holding enough nutrients flipped to where…
Gold
I’ve been waiting for today’s flush in gold. When a market sets a point of support or resistance, it’s all but certain that it will break that to run stop orders sitting right on the other side of that level. I’ve also been expecting a major flush below $1,500/oz. given it’s such a nice, round…
Sunspots & Food
Earlier this week, NASA observed a massive sunspot grow to 6 times the diameter of the Earth! Why should anyone other than space-loving nerds care? Because these are directly linked to solar flares which affect our atmosphere and climate. If you missed my earlier post on Sunspots and their 11 year cycle, you can check…
Energy
There was a great article on Bloomberg today (click here to read it) talking about the current Panama Canal expansion project. Yet another positive sign for the US energy industry. I really think this is going to be one of the biggest investment stories of this decade, not to mention hugely positive for the US…
What’s Going on with Gold?
Is the bull market in gold over? I’ll just jump right out and say no, I don’t think so. At this point, gold is basically just another currency. As long as countries feel it’s necessary to print boatloads of money every month, gold should continue to rise. In this video, I discuss why I think…