Thursday, September 2, 2010
Read more at TraderPlanet.com
JIM’S MARKET THOUGHT OF THE DAY *
Gold prices have been trending higher for the past six weeks and set a fresh two-month high on Wednesday. It’s my bias that in the coming weeks gold futures prices will establish a new all-time record high. The present record high is $1,270.60 [...]

Thursday, September 2, 2010
Stocks surged today on the back of positive US and China manufacturing data,even though construction spending was down in the states.  Amidst all the market pessimism today’s data was obvisouly greeted with open arms, however you shouldn’t be getting bullish just quite yet.  Technically we took out the previous high and stopped [...]

Thursday, September 2, 2010
[Alan Geik, whose razor-edged essays on our sordid political culture have gained him a loyal following at Seeking Alpha and other popular web sites, has been a lifelong student of frauds and scams, and so writing about this Era of Bailouts comes naturally to him.  In the essay below (which contains some [...]

Thursday, September 2, 2010
The bastion of safety that Muni bonds held in the past might not be that safe any more. All one has to do is use a little common sense. In this economy sales tax, income tax  and property tax revenues are declining. The question is can we expect more defaults like Harrisburg, [...]

Thursday, September 2, 2010
Asian stocks had a good night as the US manufacturing PMI report gave some confidence about the world economy.  The ECB announced it will extend emergency lending operations to aid lending; this gave equities and the Euro a short term boost.  In the US, jobless claims fell to 472K, this close enough [...]

September 1, 2010
 
What are the true costs of trading futures and options?  Carley Garner and Karen Gibbs discuss…. http://www.aweber.com/archive/decarleystock/.MPm
 
Treacherous Treasury futures
 
Just as Treasury traders focused on the bullish fundamental factors in yesterday’s session, today was all about the bearish arguments.  Unfortunately, the market is having difficulty coming to a reasonable middle ground.  A few days [...]

Wednesday, September 1, 2010
CASH C.O.W. December T-Bonds seem to be struggling to maintain the current price level which also coincides with a .764 Fibonacci bearish retracement to the downside.  This could be the 2nd wave (bearish retracement) signaling a possible top in bond prices, of course we would need a continuation to the downside to [...]

Wednesday, September 1, 2010
[Today’s guest commentary, by Ben Rositas, takes an elliptical path in arguing that dumb little laws and legalistic thinking have helped undermine the sort of  self-determination that alone can make real and lasting prosperity possible.  RA]
This is probably going to seem off-topic for a Rick’s Picks commentary, but I hope that it [...]

Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Read more at TraderPlanet.com

JIM’S MARKET THOUGHT OF THE DAY *
The first trading day of the month today finds investor risk appetite increasing, as stock and commodity markets are posting good gains, while the U.S. Treasury bonds and notes are seeing weaker prices. With so many expecting the next two months to be [...]

Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Chinese and Euro Zone PMI reports both came in better than expected. The Chinese PMI keeps hopes alive for the world economy.  The EZ PMI along with decent auction results of Portuguese debt is giving the euro big strength.  In the US, The Challenger report showed that planned layoffs are at their [...]

Tuesday, August 31, 2010
[Many readers have pointed out that our long-running discussion of deflation has tended to overlook the impact of price increases, or at least price stability, on essential goods and services. In the essay below, Robert Moore, a frequent contributor to the Rick’s Picks forum, explains how both type of “flations” can co-exist. [...]