The Market Ticker So what’s here that tells us anything? In July, total consumer credit decreased at an annual rate of 1-3/4 percent. Revolving credit decreased at an annual rate of 6-1/4 percent, and nonrevolving credit increased at an annual rate of 1/2 percent. Nothing, to be blunt. This report is better looked at in pictorial form… Ok,...

Courtesy of Doug Short Earlier today I posted some charts on the Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI). A few hours later I received an email from Bob Bronson, a market historian whose theory of market cycles — the Bronson Asset Allocation Cycle (BAAC) — I featured a few months ago. The email included the annotated chart below with the...

Tim Iacono Today’s must-read commentary on the U.S. economy comes from Steven Pearlstein at the Washington Post who details the labor market’s structural problems and presents what, realistically, is the only real long-term solution – make more or the stuff that we buy. Right now, the United States is running a trade deficit that is likely to...

Gold Scents Lately we’ve been hearing a lot of talk about Kondratieff cycles, Elliot Wave super cycle, end of the world, deflation, deflation, deflation. What the deflationists fail to acknowledge is that in a purely fiat monetary system deflation is a choice not an inevitability. To put it in simple terms, if a government is willing to...

Courtesy of The Pragmatic Capitalist Whitney Tilson of T2 Partners says the global economy is set to “muddle through” as the excesses of the last few decades are worked off. Tilson detailed his macro outlook in his most recent investor letter for August.  Tilson believes the worst of the credit crisis is behind us, however, the heavy lifting...

Courtesy of JESSE’S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN When the US government announced a ‘better than expected’ headline growth number in its non farm payrolls report for August, a loss of ‘only’ 54,000 jobs versus a forecasted loss of 120,000 jobs, people had to wonder, ‘How do they do it? We do not see any of this growth and recovery in our day to...

Non-farm payroll employment fell by 54,000 jobs in August and as some expected employment to fall by about 120,000 jobs this was good news. The US needs to create about 150,000 to 200,000 jobs each month the US needs to supply between 150000 and 200000 new jobs to just maintain a steady unemployment rate due to new people entering the workforce. ...

Courtesy of Mish In multiple posts Paul Krugman is saying “I told you so”. For example, please consider Nobody Could Have Predicted Pictures support the view that stimulus worked as long as it lasted, boosting the economy — which is the same conclusion Adam Posen drew from Japan’s experience in the 1990s: Fiscal policy works when...

Our friends at Elliott Wave International have just announced the beginning of their wildly popular FreeWeek event, where they throw open the doors for non-subscribers to test-drive some of their most popular premium services...

By David Galland and Kevin Brekke, Casey Research The other day, I came across an article that said, while individuals may be moving their money out of equities, they have been moving into bond funds – and in a big way. It’s called jumping from the frying fan into the fire. Based on my experience as a co-founder of a mutual fund group, I can tell...

Tim Iacono The Labor Department reported that nonfarm payrolls declined by 54,000 in August and the unemployment rate rose to 9.6 percent. The overall decline was driven by the departure of 114,000 temporary 2010 Census workers and private sector payrolls rose by 67,000. The increase in private payrolls was more than the consensus estimate of 40,000...

Here’s one for you new and intermediate options traders (though frankly, I think traders of all experience levels can benefit by getting back to basics). Want to know what I think are the four cornerstones of sound options investing? They aren’t complicated, yet they seem to be elusive too much of the time. They are… Invest in options...

Tim Iacono Yesterday, automakers in the U.S. reported the worst sales since 1983 and not even the ongoing troubles at Toyota seem to have been able to cushion the fall, the graphic below from this story at CNN/Money offering a reminder of how much the “Cash for Clunkers” program boosted sales last year. Industry sales also fell 5% from July levels....

Wednesday was a big session with better than expected manufacturing surging the market 3%. In this article I will do a quick technical take on the current situation for the SP500 and gold as they are both trading at a key resistance level. also its important to know what type of price action we will get in the next 1-2 days so you can have your profit...

By Marin Katusa, Chief Energy Strategist, Casey’s Energy Opportunities The International Energy Association (IEA) has spoken. What the world needs now is a clean energy technology revolution. June saw the 2010 launch of IEA’s biannual report, Energy Technology Perspectives. Speaking at the launch was Nobuo Tanaka, executive director for IEA....