from Talk Digital Network
Investors Shouldn’t Fear This Pullback, They Should Embrace It
by Kevin Marder
Market Watch
Concerted selling in the Nasdaq Composite reared its head for the first time in five weeks Tuesday, with most market participants little fazed by the proceedings. Crude oil, once again below $40, poses an obstacle for a further move forward.
If this is the beginning of a 3%-5% Nasdaq reaction, or something more, the question becomes how far down will a retracement go. A good rule of thumb says that a normal retracement of an advance is between one-third and two-thirds of the advance.
This roughly coincides with the 38.2% and 61.8% pullback levels related to Fibonacci price retracements. The Nasdaq chart below shows that the 38.2% level rests just below the April and June highs which were widely watched pivot points before being taken out.
Market Talk – August 3rd, 2016
by Martin Armstrong
Armstrong Economics
Japan remains unloved opening down 1% and then drifting even lower as exporters led the way. The JPY has seen the safety bid for the majority of the week whilst the Nikkei has lost around 4% so far. Finally we saw a little support return for JGB’s since the news but then they have seen yields rising (or I should say, less negative) since the end of July. HSI sadly joined the equity sell-off today having missed trading yesterday due to the typhoon hit. The Shanghai Index spent the majority of the day in positive territory and even closed around the days high levels but not really a significant positive closing just 0.3% firmer.
An Angry White House Snaps Over Secret Iran “Hostage” Payment: “Why Is That Relevant”
from Zero Hedge
Having been exposed for giving $1.7 billion of US taxpayer money to Iran – coincidental (we are told to believe) with the release of 4 Americans and the signing of the US-Iran nuclear accord – The White House is coming out swinging.
Trump didn’t waste any time:
“Our incompetent Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was the one who started talks to give 400 million, in cash, to Iran. Scandal!” he tweeted.
And then, as RealClearPolitics reports, White House spokesman Josh Earnest today accused critics of the Iran nuclear deal of “lying to the American public” for questioning whether a $400 million cash payment to Iran could have been used to fund terrorism.
Read that again! But Earnest then went on to say that while admitting the cash was handed over, it was also possible it was used for nefarious activities…
Why These Huge Bank Stocks Could Go to Zero
by Justin Spittler
Casey Research
Europe’s banking system looks like it’s about to implode.
As you probably know, Europe has serious problems right now. Its economy is growing at its slowest pace in decades. Policymakers are now more desperate than ever and are on the verge of introducing more “stimulus” measures. And Great Britain just voted to leave the European Union (EU).
These are all major concerns. But Europe’s biggest problem is its banking system.
Over the past year, the Euro STOXX Banks Index, which tracks Europe’s biggest banks, has plummeted 46%. Deutsche Bank (DB) and Credit Suisse (CS), two of Europe’s most important banks, are down 63%. Both are trading at all-time lows.
Money and Inflation; In Evidence
by Jeffrey P. Snider
Alhambra Partners
By experience of different kinds and settings of balance sheet expansion in the United States, Europe, and Japan, we can only conclude that monetary policy with these intentions has no effect, direct or otherwise, on inflation in each of these jurisdictions. The varied forms and exact nature of central bank execution allows us a broad and nearly comprehensive examination of these effects. No matter what monetary policy setting with regard to balance sheet size, inflation is at best random and at certain times indicative of other independent factors beyond monetary policy (that should, by predominate theory, be attributable to secondary effects of controlled inflation) .
Venezuela in Chaos with Work Camps and 1,000% Inflation – Coming Soon to the West?
by Jeff Berwick
Dollar Vigilante
We’re keeping track of Venezuela and have written about its deepening disaster numerous times, including HERE. In fact, I personally visited a few months ago to see the disaster with my own eyes.
Every time we look at this poor country, things are getting worse. The rate of price inflation is soaring toward 1,000 percent, with looting and shortages of critical necessities such as medicine and food. Hyperinflation is well underway. June monthly figures put inflation around 22%, with inflation at 488% for the year but I know from personal experience that the government numbers, as with all governments, are heavily lied about.
Now comes a new disaster for Venezuela’s beleaguered citizens: Forced farm work to grow food that Venezuela lacks. That “effectively amounts to forced labor,” according to Amnesty International, which derided the decree.
Artist Suspended from Instagram After Posting Parody Art of Hillary Clinton
by Michael Krieger
Liberty Blitzkrieg
Here’s another disturbing act of what appears to be blatant political bias by the Facebook behemoth (Facebook owns Instagram).
From 9 News in Australia:
Controversial Melbourne street artist, Lushsux, has been removed from Instagram following a provocative mural of Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.
Lushsux reportedly awoke this morning to find his account had been wiped from the popular social media site.
He had more than 100,000 Instagram followers and has been painting for around 16 years.
CalPERS Pension Promises: Myth, Reality, What’s Next?
by Mike ‘Mish’ Shedlock
Mish Talk
On July 13, the Fresno Bee reported California’s big pension fund sees flat earnings for a second year.
CalPERS still maintains that its long-term track record of 7.5% returns is intact. Is it?
Reader W.C Varones sorts it out in his article CalPERS Deliberately Deceives Public by Cherry-Picking Dates.
Cherry-Picking Dates by W.C Varones
You probably know that CalPERS recently reported yet another year of investment results that fell far short of its absurd promises.
A Quick Note on the Silver Market, Plus Take a Look at How Crazy Things Have Gotten in the Stock Market
from King World News
With the Dow still trading close to all-time highs, take a look at how crazy things have gotten in the stock market. Also, below is a quick note on the silver market.
From Jason Goepfert at SentimenTrader: “This is just a quick note to point out an extreme in the just-released survey of active investment managers by NAAIM. The average manager is now 101% long, meaning they have leveraged their portfolios on the long side in stocks.
They are also confident. We’ve written about their confidence level in the past, looking at the standard deviation in responses as well as the difference in exposure between the most short and most long manager.
Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts – Hang On
These markets are certainly seeming to be winding up for a move.
That goes for most markets, and not just the precious metals.
This week we have an eye on the Non-Farm Payrolls Report, but also on the policy announcement from the Bank of England.
Let’s see what happens.
Gold deliveries keep moving along, but the activity in the warehouses is sleepy.
No One Can Be Sure That Fed Doesn’t Meddle with Futures or ETFs
by Blanca Vera Azaf, El Nacional, Caracas
GATA.org
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
Financial letter writer and technical analyst Steve Saville contends today that the Federal Reserve couldn’t possibly be intervening directly in the stock market by purchasing stock index futures or exchange-traded funds because evidence of such transactions would show up on the Fed’s public books:
http://tsi-blog.com/2016/08/does-the-fed-support-the-stock-market/
There are a few problems with this assertion, quite apart from Saville’s failure ever to put a critical question to a central bank.
Clint Eastwood Unleashed: “We’re Really a Pussy Generation… F*ck!n8 Get Over It… Sad Time in History”
by Mac Slavo
SHTF Plan
The following requires no further commentary.
Actor, former mayor and true American legend Clint Eastwood nails it perfectly:
Excerpted from The Wrap via Drudge Report:
[Trump’s] onto something, because secretly everybody’s getting tired of political correctness, kissing up.
We’re really in a pussy generation. Everybody’s walking on eggshells. We see people accusing people of being racist and all kinds of stuff. When I grew up, those things weren’t called racist.
The Economic Collapse in Venezuela is So Bad That People Are Slaughtering and Eating Zoo Animals
by Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse Blog
If you were hungry enough, would you kill and eat zoo animals? To most of us such a notion sounds absolutely insane, but this is actually happening in Venezuela right now. This is a country where people are standing in lines for up to 12 hours hoping that there will be food to buy that day, and where rioting and looting have become commonplace. So even though the U.S. economy is in dreadful shape at this moment, we should be thankful for what we have, because at least we are not experiencing a full-blown economic collapse yet like Venezuela currently is.
Black stallions can be some of the most beautiful horses on the entire planet, but things are so desperate down in Venezuela this summer that everything looks like food to some people at this point. What happened at the Caricuao Zoo on Sunday is so horrible that I actually debated whether or not to share it with you. Desperate people do desperate things, and when people get hungry enough they will do things such as this…
Dear Millennials, We Found the Best Housing Markets for You! But, There’s a Catch…
from Zero Hedge
For most millennial college grads the idea of buying a home right out of college is a bit far fetched. Many millennials have taken to moving back in with mom as we pointed out in a post entitled ““We All Work As A Team” – Millennials Explain How It’s Going Living ‘Rent-Free’ At Home.” The trend actually so pervasive that home builders are even designing new homes with a master suite in the basement for returning millennials to have their own little “safe space.” According to a local builder in the Chicago area:
Harvey Organ’s Daily Gold & Silver Report – 2016.08.03
Record open interest in silver as longs willing to take on our criminal bankers/open interest on comex gold also rises/gold and silver whacked as expected/All Italian banks halted and are down between 10 and 20% today/Real estate bubble bursts in Vancouver due to the 15% foreign tax as foreign buyers walk away/Oil rises in unexplained fashion sending the Dow higher
by Harvey Organ
Harvey Organ’s Blog
Gold:1356.10 down $8.30
Silver 20.44 down 22 cents
In the access market 5:15 pm
Gold: 1358.20
Silver: 20.40
One Step Closer to the New World Order
by Brian Maher
Daily Reckoning
Jim Rickards’ fellow panelists chuckled and guffawed when he talked about special drawing rights (SDRs) at a 2012 conference at the Milken Institute. They’re not laughing now…
“IMF and China Accelerate Creation of New Global Reserve Currency,” blared a recent headline from The Epoch Times.
China has long fussed that the SDR should replace the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
And this month, it could become one step closer to reality…
For the uninitiated: The SDR is a sort of “super money,” or global reserve currency, issued by the IMF to circulate among central banks.
Michael Shermer: The Importance of Skepticism
Without it, we’re slaves to our beliefs
by Adam Taggart
Chris Martenson’s Peak Prosperity
As humans, the way we process and react to information is influenced by both the biology of our brains as well as our social and cultural norms. We’ve talked many times here at PeakProsperity.com about the influence — conscious and subconsious — that our beliefs exert on our actions. Our past podcasts on behavioral economics have delved into this in detail.
But just because we believe something, that doesn’t make it true. Which is why the scientific process is so important: when followed without bias, it enables us to understand reality as it truly is. And such accurate understanding of the facts allows us to make more useful decisions.
In this week’s podcast, Chris speaks with Michael Shermer, monthly columnist for Scientific American and founding publisher of Skeptic magazine, about the importance of cultivating a questioning mindset:
No, Donald, America’s Bridges Are Not Falling Down
Madison County’s Bridges To Nowhere And The Perennial Myth Of Crumbling Infrastructure
by David Stockman
David Stockman’s Contra Corner
There is a good reason why Donald Trump’s campaign has been light on policy details. To wit, it seems that every time he gets specific he manages to serve up a steaming pile of hogwash.
So when he told Fox News that he would double-down on Hillary’s $275 billion infrastructure boondoggle, The Donald was right on cue. And in pulling his new $500 billion infrastructure program straight out from under his comb-over, he also demonstrated he has no idea what he is talking about.
Donald Trump on Tuesday proposed a plan to rebuild U.S. infrastructure that costs “at least double” the amount that Hillary Clinton has floated, in what would amount to a massive new government program……