Dear Friends,
In looking over the Commitment of Traders data for this week, we find a rather sharp increase in open interest which is a healthy sign. Speculative money began rebuilding their long positions for the second consecutive week as the wholesale long liquidation which began in earnest November of last year has come to an [...]

Dear Friends,
Following are three charts of gold priced in terms of the Euro, the British Pound, and the Swiss Franc. The reason for the charts is to help keep us focused on what gold is doing on a global basis and not allow us to become tunnel-visioned ignoring the rest of the world outside the [...]

Trader Dan’s Commentary
The financial health of any state is directly related to the financial health of its various cities and towns. Here is further evidence of the mounting crisis that is yet to erupt and make itself felt in the larger scheme of things.
The rating of a city’s or state’s bonds is related to [...]

Dear CIGAs,
Today was “Let’s buy commodities day” as fund money came back into the sector sending a large majority of the individual commodity futures higher. Copper was well bid all day as was crude oil with even natural gas getting a decent bid. The grains were all stronger as well. The culprit behind the influx [...]

Dear CIGAs,
You have to be really impressed by gold’s performance today. It had three, no, make that four, strikes against it. First, the equity markets dropped sharply. Second, bonds ran strongly higher in a flight to safety. Thirdly, the Dollar was marginally higher. Fourthly, crude oil dropped nearly $3.00 barrel while copper was hit hard. [...]

Dear CIGAs,
The big chatter of the day was Fed Chairman Bernanke’s comments up on Capitol Hill where he admitted the obvious – interest rates would need to stay low for an “extended period”. He also remarked that inflation would remain subdued. Couple that with new home sales data that was abysmal and that was enough [...]

Dear Friends,
The following article, compliments of our friend and ever vigilant internet researcher, JB Slear, is yet another ugly fact that the spinmeisters and “jobless recovery” gang would ignore. The numbers in the story are a sobering dose of reality and this only deals with the residential real estate market – the commercial real estate [...]

Dear CIGAs,
The Conference Board released its index on US Consumer Confidence this morning and that sent a shot across the bow of the equity bulls’ parade boat. The index plunged more than 10 points to 46.0. The expectation had been closer to 55.5. That was all that was needed to send the “risk aversion” trades [...]

Dear Friends,
The following article speaks directly to comments made yesterday about unemployed and underemployed workers and their effect on the US consumer driven economy.
It also confirms the results of a Gallup poll released this AM which shows the effects of underemployment on national spending.
Click here to view the Gallup poll…
That is why the phrase, “jobless [...]

Dear Friends,
Gold ran higher last evening in Asia notching a price above $1130 before moving lower as it came into New York. There it encountered further sell pressure ( Groundhog Day still abides) until dip buyers came in making their presence felt near the $1,110 level. There wasn’t any particular catalyst that I could see [...]