Gold & Gold Stocks

Gold continues to pullback. Remember we got above 1350 briefly and we couldn't break out and now here we are going back down to 1300 but one thing that looks good to me are the gold stocks.

US Dollar Strength: The Current Drivers

The strength of the US Dollar I think again is being driven by the rise in bond yields. The yield on the 10-year US Treasuries is back up to 2.97 percent, still below three percent but I don't think it will remain below three percent for long.

Stocks: Sell In May And Go Away

There is an old Wall Street adage sell in May and go away and the reason for that saying is that seasonally the market tends to produce better returns in the first four months of the year January through April and then historically beginning in May and throughout the summer the market could generally go down and I think the time to buy back in is typically September , October.

you know there's a lot of big down days down in September, October so kind of get out of the market in May, go away and then come back later in the year and buy back what you sold.

Well today was May 1st and it looked like a lot of people weren't gonna wait that long and they were quick to sell.

The Only Thing That Can Stop A Bear Market

I do think there's a good chance that in February we began a long overdue bear market. Technically we haven't gone down 20 percent so Wall Street still calls it a correction and recently we've had a bit of rally which to me looks like the correction in the bear market.

The only thing that would stop the bear market from actually materializing would be a change of policy by the Federal Reserve which I wouldn't rule out because I do expect the Fed to change policy.

I expect the Federal Reserve to reverse the rate hikes and to go back to zero interest rates. I expect the Fed to launch another round of quantitative easing, QE4. So if they do that before we're in an official bear market then we may never have an official bear market so I just don't know how long the Fed is gonna wait before showing its hand.

Stocks: This Is A Bear Market

It looks like the period of relative calm in the markets is over and the next leg down has begun. 

This is a bear market, the upward move was the correction. It was the first correction in this young bear market that technically is not a bear market yet because we're not down 20 percent but that's only a matter of time before people call the bear market what it is.

Global Debt Has Reached Record Levels

Global debt has reached record levels. According to a recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) report, the world has amassed $164 trillion of debt. Three countries account for half of the total global debt – the US, China and Japan.

Petroyuan Clould Be The Death Blow For The U.S. Dollar

As an article at the Gold Telegraph starkly put it, “the rise of the petroyuan could be the death blow for the U.S. Dollar.”

Podcast: The Calm Before The Storm

Peter Schiff discusses the state of the economy and his market outlook on his most recent podcast.

Gold: Ever Tightening Supply

During the Squawk Box interview, US Global Investors CEO Frank Holmes noted that the massive money-printing around the world has made gold an important part of an investment portfolio. Holmes also mentioned the ever tightening gold supply.

Related trading instruments: 

• SPDR Gold Trust ETF (GLD)
• Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX)

Stock Market: Short-Term Pain

Even President Trump came out today and he said the stock market might be in for some short-term pain right but he says it's worth it because we're going to get a long-term gain and of course he's referring to his tariffs or a trade war that we're gonna win this trade war and that's going to deliver the long-term gain. It ain't! We're gonna have short-term pain and then the pain is gonna get worse in the long run.

Gold: A Tight Trading Range

If you look at the gold chart the range is really getting compressed. We're not breaking out but we're not breaking down. It's getting narrower and narrower, we're really consolidating.

Related trading instruments: 

• Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX)
• Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (GDXJ)
• SPDR Gold Trust ETF (GLD)

Stock Market: We Are In A Bear Market

We're in a bear market, it's just not officially acknowledged yet. You know, just like a lot of times you know they don't acknowledge the recession until after you have two quarters of negative GDP growth but clearly you're in the recession for a long time before it's officially admitted. 

There's one caveat if the Federal Reserve comes in and changes the game by taking away the rate hikes or launching QE 4 then we may never make it to a bear market. But if the Federal Reserve continues on its current path and maintains the current pretense then we are in a bear market and it's only a question of time before it is officially acknowledged.

Related trading instruments: 

• SPDR S&P 500 Index ETF (SPY)
• SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA)
• iShares Russell 2000 Index ETF (IWM)
• Nasdaq 100 Index ETF (QQQ)

Stock Market: More Down Quarters To Come

The market action that I've been observing really to me looks like a bear market. 

For the first quarter all the major stock market indexes were down. This was the first time in 10 quarters as we had 9 consecutive positive quarters (I think that's a record).

The US stock market finally broke that winning streak we'll see how investors who thought the US stocks can only go up may react to their first down quarter in ten. But it's not going to be the last down quarter, I think this could be the beginning of several more down quarters to come.

Related trading instruments: 

• iShares Russell 2000 Index ETF (IWM)
• SPDR S&P 500 Index ETF (SPY)
• Nasdaq 100 Index ETF (QQQ)
• SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA)

Theres a Potential Huge Problem With Social Media Stocks (GOOG, FB, TWTR)

There's a potential huge problem with these social media sites, Google (GOOG), Facebook (FB), Twitter (TWTR). You know everybody whose business model is advertising where the user pays nothing, if you want to use Facebook, if you want to use Twitter, it costs nothing! It doesn't cost you anything to have a Twitter account, to have a Facebook account, it's all free! 

Well if it's all free how does Facebook make all this money? Well, they make all the money by selling the data that they collect from all of their users to advertisers or political campaigns or anybody who needs personal information in order to market their product or sell their product. That is the trade-off that everybody makes - you get the service for free but you know that they're using your information.

I think the public, potentially there could be a backlash regarding just how much information the social media companies are actually retaining.

How Bear Markets Operate

What a lot of people don't realize is that the stock market has some of its biggest gains daily gains they occur in bear markets not in bull markets. You have some spectacular rallies in bear markets that is how bear markets operate.

Stock Market: Volatility Is Bearish

We're having more incredible stock market volatility and I've spoken about the pick up in volatility as another sign that things are different that we've had a change because increased volatility usually happens at inflection points especially when we've had a record period of no volatility or minimal volatility all of a sudden were having incredible swings in the stock market.

Video: Will Gold Breakout as Stocks Breakdown?

Latest video market update from peter Schiff.

Topics: stock market, gold, gold mining stocks.

Stock Market: A Perfect Storm

The bond market was still lower despite the Federal Reserve optimism that inflation is going to remain in check but this could set the tone for some more weakness in the stock market. We got other problems going on with the Nasdaq and the FANG stocks and Facebook (FB) and all that seems like it could be a perfect storm brewing in an overvalued US stock market.

The Anti-Dollar Trade

I am totally all-in on this anti-dollar trade and and so this type of sentiment by retail investors on top of all of the other economic indicators market indicators that I am seeing simply cements for me how right I ultimately am on this investment strategy.

Related trading instruments: 

• Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX)
• Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (GDXJ)
• SPDR Gold Trust ETF (GLD)

Thoughts On The Stock Market Bubble

There's no way that if you are investing rationally if you are buying value stocks right and using your brain, there is no way that you're gonna outperform a bubble. Nobody can do that but of course once the bubble pops that's when the outperformance comes in. I mean and if it's a bubble you are guaranteed to outperform it if you just can wait it out because bubbles by definition always pop and when they do they collapse.

Related trading instruments: 

• SPDR S&P 500 Index ETF (SPY)
• iShares Russell 2000 Index ETF (IWM) 
• Nasdaq 100 Index ETF (QQQ) 

Did Kudlow Put In A Floor For Gold Prices?

Larry Kudlow shares his views on gold and the US Dollar.

Related trading instruments: 

• SPDR Gold Trust ETF (GLD)
• Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX)

Markets: Trump, Kudlow, Tariffs

What is Larry Kudlow done most of his life? He's been a TV personality like Trump. Yes he has worked at Bear Sterns for a while but most people know him from CNBC as a commentator and he has a lot of connections, he's regarded on Wall Street and I think this is the president trying to make that overture. This is all about show remember he's a showman.

I think that Kudlow is ultimately going to come out in support of whatever tariffs the president wants to adopt. Maybe they'll pretend that Kudlow had some influence on maybe targeting the tariffs in the right direction. Nothing has changed simply because Larry Kudlow has been has been nominated. It simply to me indicates a kind of a smart move on the part of the President given the agenda that he wants to pursue.

Markets: US Dollar, Gold

Even with today's bad economic data even with the downward revision by the Atlanta Fed the US Dollar was up slightly today. Gold was flat, it didn't really go anywhere. Nobody really perceives what's going to happen.

Retail Sales: Down 3 Months In A Row

Instead of getting a rebound we got another drop, we got another point one percent decline in February. That's a trifecta, that's three months in a row of falling retail sales. That hasn't happened in six years, I mean this is pretty rare. If you're like me and you've been very skeptical of the economy being good this is a validation because Americans are broke!

Bitcoin Is Nothing Like Gold

Bitcoin is nothing like gold despite the fact that you have all this terminology that was deliberately used to make it sound like gold. You mine Bitcoin, right? No,  there's no mines, there's no pitchforks there's nobody out there, there's no mine right? But you create them but they said it's mining and there's miners to make it sound like gold. They make the Bitcoin look like gold, it's color it looks like a coin made of gold. That's done for a reason. To create the false impression that you're buying something like gold.

Bitcoin: We've Seen The Peak In The Bubble Already

The bigger story is gonna be the money that's lost. There's gonna be so many people that are gonna lose a tremendous amount of money in these crypto currencies. There's a pretty good chance that we've seen the peak in the bubble already.

Bitcoin: I Don't Think It's Going To Work

I don't think it's going to work and people say well you just don't understand it. I think I do understand it, I think the reason that so many people are involved in it is because they don't understand it. Now, a lot of those people have made quite a bit of money by not understanding it because they bought it a long time ago and greater fools paid even higher prices and people can confuse that success with understanding.

Manufacturing Jobs Will Be Lost As A Result Of These Tariffs

Trump is right, the trade deficit is a problem but where Trump is wrong is thinking that these tariffs are going to solve the problem. They won't. They will make the problem worse. 

This is the irony of these tariffs. They will result in larger trade deficits not smaller trade deficits and that's even without any foreign retaliation meaning if China, if Europe, if our trading partners do nothing in response to these tariffs the result will be larger not smaller deficits. And manufacturing jobs, the very jobs that Trump is hoping to save, manufacturing jobs will be lost as a result of these tariffs.

The Beginning Of A Much Bigger Downturn

In February's big decline the Dow Jones Industrials Index (DJIA) dropped better than a thousand points on the month and we'll see if this is the beginning of a much bigger downturn. In fact it could easily be the beginning of a bear market.

Related trading instruments: 

• SPDR S&P 500 Index ETF (SPY)
• SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA)
• Nasdaq 100 Index ETF (QQQ)
• iShares Russell 2000 Index ETF (IWM)