HCPG We like this 32 area for potential reversal into panic selling (around 4% away).   If you’re watching crude then watch the 66 – 67 area for signs of reversal.  As always remember how we trade support: we wait for signs of reversal, we get in with stop under.  No catching knives, no being a hero.

The Market Ticker In a display of idiocy reminiscent of what was done here in the US a couple of years ago Reuters has up a wire report (headline only) that Germany intends to ban “short sales” at midnight (presumably their time) this evening. Zerohedge is reporting that this is only “naked” short sales but will apply to...

CalculatedRisk Total housing starts were at 672 thousand (SAAR) in April, up 5.8% from the revised March rate, and up 41% from the all time record low in April 2009 of 477 thousand (the lowest level since the Census Bureau began tracking housing starts in 1959). Single-family starts were at 593 thousand (SAAR) in April, up 10.2% from the revised...

Courtesy of Mish Meredith Whitney is concerned about financial reform that will punish banks just for the sake of doing something. This she says, will hamper small business lending right at a time state and local cutbacks will cost 1-2 million jobs. The Wall Street Journal covers this in The Small Business Credit Crunch Over the next 12 months,...

An update on the Gold Bull Market and the SP 500 Index- David Banister Back in the third week of April I predicted on Kitco.com a topping in the broader market indices.    The theory was the VIX levels were extremely and historically too low concomitant with extremely high historical readings in investor bullish sentiment gauges.  After thirteen...

The Reformed Broker Joshua Brown Johnny Cash once ominously sang “you can run on for a long time” before reminding those whom he considered wicked that sooner or later, they’d be cut down. US stocks were able to ignore the sovereign debt crises of southern Europe…until they weren’t. Now your Staples ($SPLS) and your Akamai Networks...

CalculatedRisk From Treasury: HAMP Servicer Performance Report Through April 2010 About 299,000 modifications are now “permanent”, and 277,000 trial modification cancelled. There is still a huge number of borrowers in limbo. According to HAMP, there are 637,353 “active trials”. As of April, there were 1,214,085 trials...

Courtesy of The Pragmatic Capitalist If the chart below doesn’t grab your attention then few things will. In my opinion, the performance of the dollar is the surest evidence of the kind of environment we’re currently in. The surging dollar is a clear sign that inflation is not the concern of global investors. This is almost a sure sign that...

Last week was amazing for both gold and index traders as gold surged higher and the SP500 tested a key resistance then fell 4% in our favor. The past couple weeks with the mini market crash and Euro issues making the market extra volatile both gold and the broad market (SP500) index has been wild. The added volatility makes trading more difficult...

By Jeff Clark Editor Casey’s Gold & Resource Report Gold is once again above $1,200 and making new highs. And yet, Doug Casey thinks we’re just getting started, estimating gold could touch $5,000 before this is all over. A titillating thought, to be sure, but… how likely is that? Gold’s latest rise stems from mounting fear that the...

Continuing—and Looming—Deflationary Forces The Fed and the government quite effectively advertise their efforts to inflate the supply of money and credit. But deflationary forces, to most eyes, are invisible. I thought I would point some of them out. 1. Banks Are about 95 Percent Invested ...

“We’re heading toward government devaluing its currency to devaluate its debt in order to survive. That means you need to protect yourself. You can’t just have savings accounts paying no interest. You need to go and buy gold,” says Bud Conrad, chief economist with Casey Research, in this exclusive Gold Report interview....

The Market Ticker No, really? “You have the great problem of a potential disintegration of the euro,” Volcker, 82, said in a speech in London yesterday. “The essential element of discipline in economic policy and in fiscal policy that was hoped for” has “so far not been rewarded in some countries.” Oh it has been rewarded all right. ...

CalculatedRisk On a monthly basis, retail sales increased 0.4% from March to April (seasonally adjusted, after revisions), and sales were up 8.8% from April 2009 (easy comparison). This graph shows retail sales since 1992. This is monthly retail sales, seasonally adjusted (total and ex-gasoline). The red line shows retail sales ex-gasoline...

Scott Redler of T3Live Around 3:30-3:40 yesterday on the radio I noted a lot of push through failures into resistance, and to be cautious with longs. Now we will be testing Monday’s gap up. Watch 1147-1150 in the S&P around (114.91 is the SPY price). We could either hold gap or fill it. Watch the lower support in the banks for clues, and...