Editor's Note: OK, this is a blog called Money Daily, which means that there should at least be a post every day. That sounds reasonable enough, but, as a writer, editor and publisher for many years (spanning the decades from the 1980s to the present), I'm old enough and wise enough to realize that - unless I'm serially unemployed (not yet, but working on it) or have no other obligations in life (sadly, I do) - writing something coherent and reasonable and, yes, maybe even stimulating and/or thought-provoking every day is a tall order.
Nevertheless, I've taken a long hiatus of about one year due to moving (twice), running another business (badly), managing a five acre property (working) and sawing and chopping lots and lots of wood to burn this winter (working on that too), and that is now at an end, mainly because I have found more free time, a renewed interest in money, economics and politics and because something inside me tells me I can long longer be silent on a growing number of issues.
To that end, I'll endeavor to put something on this blog every weekday (come on, everyone needs a weekend) and sometimes on weekends. I will do my best to write posts that are entertaining, enlightening, interesting and provocative. And, I'll go back to using my most significant and enduring signature. --FR
In Paris, France, recently, two weeks were spent by highly-paid representatives from nearly 200 countries to reach an agreement that is not binding on any of the participants, includes goals and suggestions that individual countries can choose to either accept or reject, and a vast array of proposals that are unenforceable.
This is the cumulation of the global climate change summit just ended in Paris over the weekend. It also marks the beginning of the end of the absurd notions of the "climate change" proponents. No nation would agree to a mandated agreement, particularly the United States of America, because it would have required approval from our congress, which was a dubious outcome at best.
Not to belabor the issue, the climate change agreement - hailed by Secretary of State John Kerry as "significant" on FoxNews Sunday, today - is yet another glowing example of the failed leadership in the global community. Thousands of delegates gather together to plan, prepare, eat, drink, party and come up with an agreement that is null and void from the start.
In other words, the entire exercise was a complete waste of time, energy and (using the term very, very loosely) talent. The delegates, for wasting so much time and TAXPAYER MONEY, should be docked two weeks pay. Further, the people responsible for this latest craziness - a non-binding agreement to not raise the global temperature by another degree by 2050 - should simply resign, if for only the paramount reason that they have no real clue of what they're supposed to be doing, other than possibly enriching themselves and their close business allies.
Climate change is real. The climate is always changing. There's no doubt about that. But, thinking that humans are actually causing the climate to change in any significant way, or, the ultimate hubris of thinking that they can actually do anything to fix it, is just plain stupid.
The climate change agreement is a farce. A total disgrace. Let's just be happy that the issue won't be addressed again for - from what I'm hearing - another eight years - 2023. Well, at least that's good news.
--FR
Showing posts with label Paris. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paris. Show all posts
Sunday, December 13, 2015
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Markets Continue Dull Streak; Germany Slow Go on Gold Move
How dull is this market?
The Dow Jones Industrials hit their lows of the day just minutes into trading, losing 66 points, then rallied off that until stabilizing - though still in the red - around 11:00 am ET.
From that point until the close, the index traded in a range of just 25 points.
This is what happens when headline-scanning algos do 80% of the trading. When there's no news, nothing happens. So, if you're trading on fundamentals - things like price-earnings ratios, comparative advantage, free cash flow, etc. - you can just sit and wait until your particular stock of choice latches itself to a broad rally or makes some headline-grabbing news.
And, if that's what's become of our "free" markets, good luck, because the computers will beat you every time. They can find and scan a headline, react and trade in a matter of seconds, or, in much less the time an average web page takes to load.
Now, is there any reason at all for individual investors to trade stocks? One would believe no.
About all that was not moving the market today were a series of equally dull economic reports, like the CPI, at 0.0%. There's no inflation (really?) and no deflation, which, unless one knew better, would be defined as stagflation (or maybe lackflation).
The NAHB Housing Market Index remained steady at 47, whatever that means; industrial production bumped up 0.3%, which was down from last month's reading of an increase of 1.0%, and capacity utilization improved from 78.7% to 78.8%.
Outside of Goldman Sachs' (GS) huge earnings and revenue beat and JP Morgan's (JPM) narrow beat ex-one-time-charges (but of course), what may have put a pall over the session was the World Bank lowering its global growth (that's a joke, son) projection from 3.0% to 2.4%.
Seriously, the sloped-browed, slack-jawed dunces at the World Bank don't have a crystal ball, but, for some unholy reason, people believe they know what they're doing. Some of us are dubious. But, then again, some of us don't trust anything that comes out of the mouth of politicians or bankers or even stock analysts.
Ho-hum. It seems even the bright-minded Germans, who shook things up a little yesterday by wanting some of their gold back, really don't want it all that badly, after all. GATA reports that Germany will take all of seven years to repatriate some 300 tons of its gold from the Federal Reserve in New York. It will likely take a shorter period of time to remove all of its gold - 374 tons - from the vaults in Paris, but it plans on keeping whatever is in the London vaults there indefinitely, amounting of 13% of all its gold.
The plan is to hold 50% of its gold at home, the rest in London and New York. La-de-dah.
Dow 13,511.08, -23.81 (0.18%)
NASDAQ 3,117.54, +6.76 (0.22%)
S&P 500 1,472.57, +0.23 (0.02%)
NYSE Composite 8,710.22, -22.88 (0.26%)
NASDAQ Volume 1,648,059,375
NYSE Volume 3,198,232,750
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 2775-3605
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 263-10
WTI crude oil: 94.24, +0.96
Gold: 1,683.20, -0.70
Silver: 31.54, +0.013
The Dow Jones Industrials hit their lows of the day just minutes into trading, losing 66 points, then rallied off that until stabilizing - though still in the red - around 11:00 am ET.
From that point until the close, the index traded in a range of just 25 points.
This is what happens when headline-scanning algos do 80% of the trading. When there's no news, nothing happens. So, if you're trading on fundamentals - things like price-earnings ratios, comparative advantage, free cash flow, etc. - you can just sit and wait until your particular stock of choice latches itself to a broad rally or makes some headline-grabbing news.
And, if that's what's become of our "free" markets, good luck, because the computers will beat you every time. They can find and scan a headline, react and trade in a matter of seconds, or, in much less the time an average web page takes to load.
Now, is there any reason at all for individual investors to trade stocks? One would believe no.
About all that was not moving the market today were a series of equally dull economic reports, like the CPI, at 0.0%. There's no inflation (really?) and no deflation, which, unless one knew better, would be defined as stagflation (or maybe lackflation).
The NAHB Housing Market Index remained steady at 47, whatever that means; industrial production bumped up 0.3%, which was down from last month's reading of an increase of 1.0%, and capacity utilization improved from 78.7% to 78.8%.
Outside of Goldman Sachs' (GS) huge earnings and revenue beat and JP Morgan's (JPM) narrow beat ex-one-time-charges (but of course), what may have put a pall over the session was the World Bank lowering its global growth (that's a joke, son) projection from 3.0% to 2.4%.
Seriously, the sloped-browed, slack-jawed dunces at the World Bank don't have a crystal ball, but, for some unholy reason, people believe they know what they're doing. Some of us are dubious. But, then again, some of us don't trust anything that comes out of the mouth of politicians or bankers or even stock analysts.
Ho-hum. It seems even the bright-minded Germans, who shook things up a little yesterday by wanting some of their gold back, really don't want it all that badly, after all. GATA reports that Germany will take all of seven years to repatriate some 300 tons of its gold from the Federal Reserve in New York. It will likely take a shorter period of time to remove all of its gold - 374 tons - from the vaults in Paris, but it plans on keeping whatever is in the London vaults there indefinitely, amounting of 13% of all its gold.
The plan is to hold 50% of its gold at home, the rest in London and New York. La-de-dah.
Dow 13,511.08, -23.81 (0.18%)
NASDAQ 3,117.54, +6.76 (0.22%)
S&P 500 1,472.57, +0.23 (0.02%)
NYSE Composite 8,710.22, -22.88 (0.26%)
NASDAQ Volume 1,648,059,375
NYSE Volume 3,198,232,750
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 2775-3605
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 263-10
WTI crude oil: 94.24, +0.96
Gold: 1,683.20, -0.70
Silver: 31.54, +0.013
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