The dollar is now 4 days into its final bloodbath phase. This phase usually lasts 5-7 days. We should get a bottom this week.

https://blog.smartmoneytrackerpremium.com/

Strengths

• The best performing precious metal for the week was silver, climbing 2.36 percent and just beating out gold’s price performance as softer economic data emerged.
• Gold traders and analysts are split on their outlook for gold, reports Bloomberg, with 12 bearish, three bullish and four neutral this week. On May 16 the yellow metal advanced for a fourth day, with Kotak Commodities Services saying gold is supported by “mixed U.S. economic data, weakness in the U.S. dollar, geopolitical tensions and uncertainty about Trump’s policy actions.” On the prior Friday, consumer prices (excluding food and energy) rose 1.9 percent year-over-year for April, the least since 2015, while retail sales were also weaker, reports Bloomberg.
• Eldorado Gold will “gain an operating foothold in its own country with a deal to take full control of Integra Gold Corp,” reports Bloomberg, offering the equivalent of C$1.2125 for each Integra share. That is a 52 percent premium to Integra’s closing price on May 12, according to a statement on Monday from Eldorado. The proposed acquisition provides Eldorado with its first operating mine in Canada, offering G&A and income tax benefits, along with exposure to a lower political risk project, notes a Viii Capital report.

Weaknesses

• The worst performing metal for the week was palladium, down 5.87 percent.  UBS noted that electric cars will be brought to the market sooner than consensus expectations and that platinum group metals are expected to lose market demand on this technology adoption.
• Barrick Gold reached an agreement with the Dominican Republic government (where it operates its Pueblo Viejo mine), outlining new financial terms and tax rates, reports Bloomberg. The new terms show the government is projected to receive an additional $181 million from Barrick between 2017 and 2019, according to a statement from the Dominican President’s office. The new terms are based on a gold price of $1,275 per ounce.
• Sibanye Gold Ltd. announced it will sell around $1 billion of shares at a 60-percent discount to partly fund its purchase of Stillwater Mining. The statement soon sent the stock plummeting the most in five months before rebounding after, reports Bloomberg. “The South African miner dropped as much as 11 percent in Johannesburg, the most since December 9, before paring losses to trade 2.4 percent lower,” the article continues.
• Frankfurt-based Commerzbank AG is exiting its physical precious-metals trading and services business, reports Bloomberg. The bank’s physical services include trading of physical precious metals, refining services, vaulting and transportation. Commerzbank does plan to continue its other bullion banking operations.

Opportunities

• Author and investor Mark Faber says that for the first time in a long time he is more heavily weighted in Europe than in the U.S. Faber cites “good opportunities in European stocks” at the present time along with his belief that the euro will continue to strengthen against the dollar. In a Bloomberg phone interview, he continues by stating, “In my opinion in the U.S. they will launch QE4 at the end of the year. The economy in the U.S. is weakening.” He also noted that gold mining shares are “inexpensive” and Amazon is “expensive.”
• Since President Trump’s comments about the dollar being “too strong” back in April, the greenback has since dropped – the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index has fallen 3.1 percent, reports Bloomberg. Citigroup, the world’s biggest currency trading firm, believes continued erosions for policy changes in D.C. will only lead to further weakening of the currency, the article continues. Even Westpac Banking Corp., the second most-accurate currency forecaster in Bloomberg’s recent rankings, is advising clients to sell the dollar, with Macquarie Bank expecting the greenback to decline as well. Gold traded near a two-week high this week, with equities in retreat “and in

• Bullion markets are staging a tentative recovery, reports Bloomberg, with the number of holes drilled at gold deposits steadily rising for more than a year, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.  For example, exploration has jumped around 50 percent in parts of Argentina for lithium mainly, but also for gold. “When prices fell, exploration budgets were slashed, which means the industry had limited scope to grow,” said Goldcorp CEO David Garofalo. In a similar note from Bloomberg, mining companies lured back to Ecuador after a ban on large projects was overturned, “will welcome news that the incumbent mining minister is set to continue in the role under President-elect Lenin Moreno.”

Threats

• Despite the world’s largest gold-mining companies posting their best profit margins in four years, the biggest ETF linked to producers (the VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF) has seen net withdrawals this month of $617 million, reports Bloomberg. During 2016, investors poured record amounts into the ETF, but now it seems the gold rally has faded, with prices lower by 10 percent from 2016 highs. “Some companies are finding it more difficult to tighten their belts further, diminishing prospects for increased cash flow,” the article continues. 
• Staff was evacuated and production was suspended at one of the two Banro Corp. gold mines in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday, reports Bloomberg. A gunman left three people dead, making this the fourth assault on the company’s operations in eight months. Namoya is the company’s second mine in eastern Congo, beginning production back in January of 2016.
• Acacia Mining will start its three-year process of closing down its Buzwagi mine in Tanzania, reports Bloomberg. According to an emailed statement from the company’s communication manager, the mine will be shut down by 2020, leading to as many as 100 job cuts. At current gold prices, Acacia is not able to increase the life of the mine past the year 2020. Back in March, the Tanzanian government issued a ban on concentrate exports that Acacia said cost the company over $1M a day.

http://usfunds.com/

Up 10,000% in 16 months? These charts truly depict our crazy times

“One word, a question: Etherium,” said the guy at my swim club on Sunday. “What do you think? It’s a ten-bagger since January.” Meaning that the value of the cryptocurrency has multiplied by ten in the four months since January 16.

It’s actually more than a “ten-bagger.” At the end of 2015, it was worth $0.90. As I’m writing this, it’s worth $91.30. Those who bought it at the end of 2015 had a ten-bagger on their hands by January 16, 2017. Those who bought at that time also have ten bagger on their hands. Those that rode it all the way up over the 16 months have a 100-bagger. For percentage fans, that’s a gain of 10,000%.
Here is the chart of this financial miracle (via WorldCoinIndex):

What miracle “asset” did they get when they bought it? Don’t even ask. Just believe in it. It certainly isn’t a usable currency for legit purposes, obviously, given this kind of insane instability. But it really doesn’t matter what it is as long as it is going up.

By “market capitalization,” ethereum is now the second largest cryptocurrency at $8.4 billion.

READ MORE HERE: What The Heck’s Going On With Cryptocurrencies? 

As I mention in my previous article, PAPER vs PHYSICAL: The Amazing Amount Of Leverage In The Silver Market:

 Currently, the crypto-currencies are experiencing huge gains over the past several months.  It doesn’t matter if an individual agrees with owning Bitcoin or one of the many crypto-currencies, the important thing to understand is that the tremendous price increases in many crypto-currencies are likely due to concern to the massive amount of Central Bank $1 trillion in asset purchases in the first four months of the year.

Furthermore, crypto-currencies are a likely a GOOD INDICATOR of what will take place in the gold and silver market when investors realize most STOCKS, BONDS and REAL ESTATE values will continue to implode as the U.S. and Global Oil Industries disintegrate.

The gold and silver prices are being capped because paper contracts can be added as more funds move in.  However, crpyto-currencies do not have this problem because the amount of Bitcoins, as an example, are limited.

Precious metals sentiment is very similar to what was taking place in Ripple for the past several years as trading volume and interest were FLAT-LINED:

You will notice since the May of 2015, trading volume and interest in Ripple was very low. However, in just the past 11 weeks, Ripple’s price has increased 3,500%.  It is interesting that interest in these Crypto-currencies has exploded as the Central Banks purchased $1 trillion in assets during the first four months of 2017.

The reason the Ripple Price is able to surge higher, is due to a LIMITED number of outstanding Ripple coins.  This is much different than Gold and Silver that are traded on the exchanges.  Gold and silver’s prices are capped as more and more paper contracts are added.

However, at some point, what is currently taking place in the Crypto-Currency Market will also take place in gold and silver.

Check back for new articles and updates at the SRSrocco Report. 

What in God’s name is happening?

It’s not a high.

It’s a record high.

Sweet mother of Mary…

As we can see from the above chart courtesy of the FT, emerging markets sold a record amount of government debt in the first quarter of this year.

More from the FT here:

“Data from Dealogic, a research firm, show that sovereign bond sales from emerging markets rose to $69.6bn in the first three months of the year, an increase of 48 per cent from a year ago and a record amount for a single quarter. Corporate bond sales by companies in developing countries also surged, rising 135 per cent year on year in the first quarter to $105bn, according to Bloomberg data.”

….continue reading HERE

Bitcoin Trading Alert originally sent to subscribers on May 15, 2017, 11:38 AM.

In short: no speculative positions.

A hacker attack has swept across the globe encrypting user files and crashing corporate services. In an article on CoinDesk, we read:

Extortionist hackers who may be using leaked computer exploits from the U.S. National Security Agency infiltrated computers in dozens of countries in a fast-spreading attack that forced British hospitals to turn away patients and breached systems at Spain’s Telefonica SA and organizations from Russia to Taiwan.

The ransomware used in Friday’s cyber-attacks encrypts files and demands that victims pay $300 in bitcoin for them to be decrypted, the latest in a vexing style of security breaches that, at the very least, forces organizations to revert to backup systems to keep critical systems running. The malicious software has infected more than 75,000 computers in 99 countries worldwide on Friday, most of them concentrated in Russia, Ukraine and Taiwan, according to Dutch cybersecurity company Avast Software BV.

Several other well-know companies have been affected such as Deutsche Bahn or Renault. Reports have also emerges claiming that people are unwilling to pay the ransom since it’s relatively complicated for them to set up a Bitcoin wallet.

This is bad publicity for Bitcoin as it highlights the features of the currency that have captured the imagination of mainstream media for some time now – the superficial anonymity and the possibility to use Bitcoin for illegal transactions. It is perhaps not fair for the currency – it is only a tool in the hands of criminals and there’s nothing inherently criminal in Bitcoin itself. Actually, the more interesting part of the story is that it is still too hard for people to use Bitcoin – a state of things that has prevailed for a couple of years now.

For now, let’s focus on the charts.

On BitStamp, we saw a correction. Not a strong one, but a move down nonetheless. Does this mean that the situation is bearish now? Let’s recall our recent comments:

The move up looks very overextended right now with the RSI over 90 (!). This is not a typical situation. This might mean that we’re in for a correction. If the correction transpires, its depth might be the most important situation in the market in months. For instance, if it’s shallow, we might have a buying opportunity on our hands.

The move down looks bearish on the face of it and it might just as well be the case that more declines will follow. At the same time, the decline was modest. Yes, the move on Friday was relatively deep in terms of price but it was also reversed, at least partially, on Saturday. More declines have followed since then (this is written around 11:30a.m. ET), but the volume hasn’t been convincing. So, we have a correction on relatively low volume. What might this mean for the market?

On the long-term BTC-e chart, we see the move down from the recent top. In our previous alert, we wrote:

The recent move to the $1,800 level doesn’t change much, in our opinion. Bitcoin has gone up very far very fast. The RSI at 90 also spells trouble for the short term. This might mean that a correction is long overdue. Is it possible for Bitcoin to move higher? Yes, this can’t be completely ruled out. At the same time, the balance of probabilities has actually shifted to slightly more bearish. The next move, if it in fact is a correction, might have far-reaching implications for the medium term. If Bitcoin breaks below $1,400, we might see a prolonged period of depreciation. If we see a move down, but not significantly lower and a bounce to the upside, we might be in for a continuation of the rally.

Much of what we wrote then is still up to date. We have seen a move down but not one strong enough, in our opinion, to change the short-term outlook and tilt it to significantly bearish. We might be in the first phase of a strong move down, however, it is still to soon to claim this decisively. The risk of seeing a rebound to the upside and an invalidation of the whole move lower is to great, in our view, to bet on lower prices just now. This might change in the next couple of days.

Summing up, in our opinion not having speculative positions might be favorable at the moment.

Trading position (short-term, our opinion): no positions.

Thank you.

Regards,

Mike McAra
Bitcoin Trading Strategist
Bitcoin Trading Alerts