Via Energy and Gold.com: Less than 10 days ago the gold miners were being pushed to the brink of collapse as gold waffled in the mid $1100s. This morning after an impressive rally to finish last week the gold miners are back to being on the verge of testing an area of support/resistance which they have traversed… Continue Reading

Via Energy and Gold.com: In the last two weeks gold futures speculators have liquidated a total of 66,897 gold futures contracts which equates to a notional amount of nearly $8 billion: To put this recent gold liquidation into perspective it is the largest 2-week liquidation in gold futures since the April 2013 gold crash: The… Continue Reading

Via Energy and Gold.com: The small cap Russell 2000 Index has exhibited relative strength for several weeks and seemingly makes another all-time high with each new day. Even as the S&P and Dow suffered some notable down days the Russell managed to remain well bid and has spent the last four days of this week making fresh… Continue Reading

Via Energy and Gold.com: Eurozone equity allocations have not been this high since 2006 which happened to coincide with a major peak in relative performance of EU equities vs. the world:   Meanwhile, the German DAX Composite Index hasn’t been this far above its 50-day simple moving average ever! Not even the 2000 dot-com bubble… Continue Reading

Via Energy and Gold.com: I have not kept it a secret that I have been looking for a marginal new low in WTI crude to wash out weak handed longs followed by a violent upside reversal. Today this scenario happened in a most unexpected way following another huge crude inventory build report from the EIA. Crude… Continue Reading

Via Energy and Gold.com: The ultra-strong US dollar (USD) is making its presence felt throughout the globe and is on the verge of wreaking havoc on a much larger scale. A premature Fed rate hiking cycle could be the catalyst to send the USD into overdrive and send global markets tumbling lower – 4 charts that… Continue Reading

The main driver of the US equity bull market and the recent slew of all-time highs has undoubtedly been corporate stock buybacks. Nearly 3/4 of S&P 500 companies (72%) participated in share buybacks during the 4th quarter of 2014 and the total dollar amount of share buybacks was the 2nd largest ever, second only to… Continue Reading

Via Energy and Gold.com: Record inventories and the prospect of further inventory builds in the US are putting WTI crude prices under heavy pressure this morning. Given the likelihood of additional inventory builds over the coming weeks there is a strong risk of a further decline to below $40/barrel. While I believe that a dip… Continue Reading

Via Energy and Gold.com: The gold miners as represented by the GDX have been pushed  to the breaking point with yet another ‘bear flag’ forming just a few percent above crucial long-term support:   To put the situation into perspective, GDX is barely more than 10% above the 2008 panic lows despite the fact that… Continue Reading

Via Energy and Gold.com: The CFTC Commitments of Traders gold report for Tuesday March 10, 2015 is a curious one to say the least. While we saw a roughly $4 billion liquidation of net long exposure by large speculators (to the smallest net long position since last November), small speculators actually INCREASED long positions and barely… Continue Reading

Via Energy and Gold.com: From BAML: This is the 2nd largest quarterly gain for the US dollar since 1970 and the quarter isn’t even over!! This chart really puts into perspective the magnitude of the current US dollar rally. The first Gulf War, The Asian Currency Crisis, and the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy pale in comparison… Continue Reading

Via Energy and Gold.com: Solars are easily the best performing sector of 2015. Here are just a few of the percentage gains we have seen among solar stocks in 2015: CSIQ +32% FSLR +33% SPWR +26.3% TSL +21%   During the past week solars have fallen along with the broader equity market pullback. I believe… Continue Reading

Via Energy and Gold.com: Lets face it, nobody is bullish on the euro, nobody! Even ECB President Mario Draghi probably has a secret short position in the EUR/USD in order to hedge his euro exposure from his salary at the ECB. If the following sentiment chart could fall below 0 it would probably be at… Continue Reading

Daily Commodity Chart Wrap 3/9/2015 via Energy and Gold.com: Copper Marginal Cost Percentiles The 90th percentile cost of producing copper is currently roughly $2.25/lb, it’s interesting that this level also coincides with the 200-month moving average (the same moving average where copper found support at the 2008-2009 lows). A powerful chart of gold net producer… Continue Reading

Since gold topped out near $1307 in late-January the yellow metal has followed a standard script in its descent; violent $10-$20 down moves that occur in a matter of seconds or minutes followed by much lengthier sideways or slightly rising consolidations. The action of the last 2 weeks has been no different and this morning… Continue Reading