by Karl Denninger Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it’s unexpected when gas prices ramp that consumer sentiment goes sour…. The preliminary March reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment came in at 68.2, down from 77.5 in February. That was the lowest level since October 2010 and was well off the median forecast of 76.5 among economists...

by Tyler Durden When we last updated on the size of the shadow banking system, the financial “system” that is far more important to the economic prosperity of the US economy than the traditional liabilities held by conventional banks, we observed that after declining for 9 consecutive quarters, having hit a peak of $21 trillion in...

Many readers might remember that exactly two years ago the S&P 500 tagged the infamous 666 price level before putting on a monster 2 year rally that saw it surge over 100% to the February 2011 highs. Investors today are staring at a rising wall of risk while corporate credit spreads remain bullish, corporations have been able to expand margins and...

By: John Darsie of T3Live The market opened sharply lower and got an early flush before finding its footing at major support around 1295 in the S&P. Several negative headlines overseas sent foreign markets sliding overnight, and the US market followed that downward trajectory this morning. The S&P currently sits below the lower trendline of...

From: John Thomas The Mad Hedge Fund Trader On this two year anniversary of the great bull market, one has to ask if it is about to die of old age. Take a look at the chart below showing investor sentiment. The last time it was this high was the end of 2007, not exactly a great time to load the boat with equities. I suspect...

By Phil of Phil’s Stock World I was early with my May call that the World was hurtling into violent revolutions (see my musical photo essay) but it is kind of my job to be ahead of the curve and the fact of the matter is that I called this way back in December of 2009, in “2010 Outlook – A Tale of Two Economies“: 2010 is...

The past couple weeks we have seen strong distribution selling in the equities market followed by equally large days of buying. These buying and selling frenzies have formed a sideways consolidation. Intraday movements have been sizable and more than enough to shake those trying to pick a direction early out of the market a few times. As fewer traders...

Calculated Risk The MBA reports: Mortgage Applications Increase in Latest MBA Weekly Survey The Refinance Index increased 17.2 percent from the previous week and was the highest Refinance Index observed since the week ending January 14, 2011. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 12.5 percent from one week earlier and was the highest Purchase...

By: Scott Redler of T3Live When the market accelerated out of the already-steep uptrend in February, I began getting cautious ahead of what I expected to be an eventual correction. Even before the breakdown on February 22, we were seeing sings under the hood that the market was not completely healthy. Over the course of the next three weeks, we...

Flight of the Black Swans: The 3 coming market crashes that will wipe you out or make you rich. Click here to watch this free webinar This is your final invitation to view this free webinar showing… Why a secondary banking crisis is looming – and could take the stock market to lows too ugly to say out loud. Why the real estate market is...

By Jordan Roy-Byrne, CMT Silver has been red hot lately and the silver shares have joined in the fun. Yet, we haven’t seen a corresponding breakout in Gold or in the gold shares (as evidenced by GDXJ and GDX). In the chart below we show SIL (large silver stocks), Silver, Gold, GDXJ (gold juniors) and GDX (large cap golds). Silver has been...

by Tyler Durden And many thought Bill Gross was only posturing when he said he is getting the hell out of dodge. Based on still to be publicly reported data by Pimco’s flagship Total Return Fund, the world’s largest bond fund, in the month of January, has taken its bond holdings to zero (and -14% on a Duration Weighted Exposure basis)....

From: John Thomas The Mad Hedge Fund Trader Texas tea has undergone the perfect storm over the past month, with the Middle Eastern dominoes falling one by one. It was the worst case scenario times five, and all of a sudden my once outrageous claim that crude would hit $100/barrel by the end of first quarter seemed positively...

Jeff Clark, BIG GOLD You already know the basic reasons for owning gold – currency protection, inflation hedge, store of value, calamity insurance – many of which are becoming clichés even in mainstream articles. Throw in the supply and demand imbalance, and you’ve got the basic arguments for why one should hold gold for the foreseeable future. All...

By: John Darsie of T3Live The market is still trading in its macro wedge pattern after a solid bounce this morning, and now looks set to test the upper trendline of the pattern around 1320-1322 on the S&P. If we get through the first level, we will bewatching bigger resistance in the 1330-1332 area. However, based on the way the market has been...