WHAT PROPS UP THE DOLLAR
Bear's Lair
Bear Markets always follow Bull markets and a severe stock market correction is long overdue. Bears Lair will spot, monitor and analyze the stock market correction as it develops.
The dollar succeeded in confounding many experts late last week with a sudden strong rally.
Last week was nothing special as stock market continued to drift higher on light volume and the Volatility Index (VIX) reaching a new multi year low.
Gold has much further to run in the years to come and silver even more-so. There is no other possible outcome as world fiat currencies continue to be devalued. It is that simple.
Gold stocks continue to face a stiff psychological headwind. As measured by their flagship HUI index, they were ripped to shreds in late 2008's brutal stock panic. In only 13 trading days, the HUI plummeted 49%!
Earlier this week I noticed a pattern in the market throughout an entire trading session that has inspired me to write a short piece on sector rotation.
"We are spending more money than we have ever spent before, and it does not work. After eight years, we have just as much unemployment as when we started and an enormous debt to boot."
Last weeks price action unfolded just as we expected. Money poured into stocks with the focus being on small cap, banks and technology stocks.
We are finally starting to see some retaliation against those “too big to fail” institutions who are basically criminals who have robbed the middle class of their wealth and livelihood over time. Let’s hope it keeps up!
The US Mint's popular American Eagle gold and silver coins remain in high demand by US investors.
To be sure, almost without debate, all the financial world has turned to crisis mode. One can safely describe the norm to be crisis proliferation. This theme will clearly continue for the full year in progress.
So far this week has been pretty slow. Large cap stocks continue to lag the market which can be observed by looking at the Dow Jones Industrial Average which still has room to move higher before breaking the January high.
Last week was exciting as we saw stocks and gold close above the February highs which confirms we are in a new up trend. The question everyone is wondering is:
How far will this market go before rolling over?
The UK's big newspaper, which has generally been gold friendly this past decade, says new research shows gold to have been the decade's best performing asset. Didn't take too much research to figure that one out.
After spending our entire lives in a dollar-dominated world, we Americans naturally view gold through a dollar-centric lens. We assume the gold charts we're seeing are universal.
"In the short run, the market is a voting machine, but in the long run it is a weighing machine" - Benjamin Graham
Most competent market analysts, objective economists and honest politicians concur the current 26-year high in the Unemployment Rate at near 10% is totally unacceptable.
Three weeks ago on February 5th, we saw an extremely high level of fear in the market with selling vs. buying volume at a 9:1 ratio. We note that in 2009 this extreme level of fear occurred at the bottom of each significant pullback.
Chairman Bernanke's testimony to Congress last Wednesday marks a major turning point as well as a flash signal for what lies ahead to anyone that is willing to listen.
I have spent a considerable amount of time discussing how a supply-crunch is looming in the gold market.
I've exceeded the length I like the letter to be this week in the fundamentals section, so I will reserve the chart and technical analysis of the precious metals for my subscribers who will be getting a boatload of charts including
Neither the US financial press nor the US bank leaders take the sovereign debt crisis seriously. Even the USCongress seems totally unaware of the growing global intolerance for government debt out of control.