Stocks & Equities

High-Profile Sectors Start To Roll Over

Long credit cycles like the current one always end with a crash. But first they deteriorate. The headline numbers remain positive while under the surface a growing list of sectors start to falter. It’s only when the latter reach a critical mass that market psychology turns dark.

How far along is this process today? Pretty far, it seems, as some high-profile industries roll over:

Deep’ Subprime Car Loans Hit Crisis-Era Milestone

(Bloomberg) – Amid all the reflection on the 10-year anniversary of the start of the subprime loan crisis, here’s a throwback that investors could probably do without.

There’s a section of the auto-loan market — known in industry parlance as deep subprime — where delinquency rates have ticked up to levels last seen in 2007, according to data compiled by credit reporting bureau Equifax.

“Performance of recent deep subprime vintages is awful,” Equifax said in a slide show on second-quarter credit trends.

Analysts have been warning for years that subprime car loans pose a threat to lenders as delinquency rates have edged higher since reaching a post-recession low in 2012. But it wasn’t until last quarter that the least creditworthy borrowers started to show the kinds of late payment profiles that accompanied the start of the financial crisis.

“We’re seeing an increase in delinquencies across all credit scores, but in deep subprime, the rise is more substantial. What stood out to me was the issuers. Those that have been doing this for a decade or more were showing the ‘better’ performance, while those that were relative newcomers were in the ‘worse’ category.”

Subprime-auto-delinquencies

Used Car Prices Crash To Lowest Level Since 2009 Amid Glut Of Off-Lease Supply 

(Zero Hedge) – The U.S. auto market is at an interesting crossroads with used car prices crashing to new lows every month while new car prices continue to defy gravity courtesy of a somewhat ‘frothy’, if not suicidal, lending market that has seemingly decided that anyone with a pulse is financially qualified for a $0 down, 0% interest, 80 month loan on a brand new $40,000 luxury vehicle of their choice.

As the Labor Department’s consumer-price index data showed last Friday, used car prices once again dropped in July to the lowest level since the ‘great recession’ of 2009. In fact, since the end of 2015, the cost of used vehicles has dropped in all but three months and are now roughly 10% off their 2013 high.

Used-car-prices-Aug-17

Junk Bonds Slump as Morgan Stanley Sees a Bigger Unwind Ahead

(Bloomberg) – It could be the beginning of the end for an 18-month rally in junk bonds.

A high-yield bond fund run by BlackRock Inc. slumped on Thursday to its lowest level since March, a day after Morgan Stanley warned a correction may already be underway. The cost of protecting speculative-grade bonds against default in the credit-default swap market climbed to its highest level since July 6. Investors demanded the most extra yield in almost a month to buy junk debt, according to a Bloomberg Barclays index fixed late Wednesday.

Morgan Stanley added its voice to a growing chorus of skepticism surrounding debt valuations, with Pacific Investment Management Co. writing in a report released Wednesday that investors should pare relatively expensive assets like corporate bonds in favor of safer investments like Treasuries. Echoing that view, T. Rowe Price Group Inc.’s Sebastien Page, head of asset allocation, said “everything is expensive.”

“This softness has a good chance of turning into a legitimate correction,” strategists led by Adam Richmond wrote in their note. “Complacency is too elevated.”

Junk-bond-yields-Aug-17

The worst is yet to come for retail stocks, says former department store executive Jan Kniffen

(CNBC) – Retail stocks are only going to get uglier, former department store executive Jan Kniffen said Monday.

“I said last year the fourth quarter is going to be the toughest quarter for retailing,” the CEO of consulting firm J. Rogers Kniffen Worldwide Enterprises told CNBC. “It’s not better this year.”

The S&P consumer discretionary sector has fallen about 2.6 percent from one month ago versus the S&P 500’s loss of less than half a percent.

Kniffen said on “Squawk on The Street” that many stores will post bad traffic and same-store sales comparisons this year. Even Black Friday won’t be enough to save many struggling companies, he said.

All of this is being driven by “things going online,” Kniffen added.

Kniffen said he expects many more bankruptcies, including Sears as early as next month, and said more strategic mergers are likely.

—————-

U.S. Stock Buybacks Are Plunging

(Bloomberg) – U.S. stocks have been able to hit fresh highs this year despite a dearth of demand from a key source of buying.

Share repurchases by American companies this year are down 20 percent from this time a year ago, according to Societe Generale global head of quantitative strategy Andrew Lapthorne.

Share-repurchases-Aug-17

 

Ultra-low borrowing costs had encouraged large firms to issue debt to buy back their own stock, thereby providing a tailwind to earnings-per-share growth.

“Perhaps over-leveraged U.S. companies have finally reached a limit on being able to borrow simply to support their own shares,” writes Lapthorne.

Whether this is enough to break through the complacency won’t be known until after the fact. But it does fit the historical peak-cycle pattern of sub-sectors faltering before the broader economy. Stay tuned.

 

 

Gold: Bullish Candlesticks Are Boss

Summary

Recent price action.

Anecdotal and other sentiment indications.

Price pattern sentiment indications and upcoming expectations.

Recent price action

As I noted in my new service on Seeking Alpha, The Market Pinball Wizard, as long as silver remains below its resistance of 17.26-17.80 and GDX remains below its resistance of 23.60-23.96, I am looking for another pullback in the complex before the real break out occurs. This past week, silver spiked and reversed slightly over the bottom of our resistance, and GDX came within 12 cents of our resistance before it turns lower on Friday.

….continue reading HERE

Marc Faber and Jim Rogers Agree

Screen Shot 2017-08-17 at 6.48.14 AM1. Marc Faber and Jim Rogers Agree

Despite US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen saying last month that another financial crisis on the scale of the crash that enveloped the world in 2007/8 was unlikely “in our lifetimes”, several respected stock market commentators believe a new disaster could happen within months rather than years  

…read more HERE

2. Hot Properties: Chinese Money Changes Direction

Ozzie Jurock on the massive change in investment money coming from China. Also Ozzie on the most interesting real estate story you will ever hear! The latest on the big story – what is happening with shopping malls in North America.

….continue HERE

3. Is Kim Jung-un Blinking?

by Martin Armstrong

Kim Jung-un in North Korea is refusing to blink yet he maybe. He has turned domestically first in the ongoing crisis and has now announced a massive army recruitment program. An article in a Pyongyang-based propaganda newspaper today declared already more than 3.5 million people had signed up to fight. The newspaper is claiming that millions were “volunteers” including students and former soldiers.

The truth is that the North Korean army is subjected to absolute obedience to the Kim dynasty. If civilians are scrambling to volunteer, it is also likely that they are malnourished and desperate civilians.

….read it all HERE

Silver Cycles and War Cycles

Why Silver Cycles and War Cycles?

Because silver prices and wars are connected, and because cycles have predictive value when viewed over the long term. Look at silver prices since the year 1900. Yes, silver has not freely traded for a long time, but there is value in the study.

J-Silver-800x629

Six important silver lows have been identified with green ovals. Two other lows in 1931 and 1971 are ignored. The six lows identified approximately match these wars:

Low Date War

1 1914 World War I

2 1939 World War II

3 1963 Vietnam War

4 1990 Gulf War

5 2001 War on Terror

 

6 2017 Beginning of the XXX war

Wars are usually financed with debt – borrowed currency. The extra currency in circulation creates price inflation. Silver prices, along with most other commodities, rise due to currency devaluation. Silver is used in war materials and war production, so demand rises, which also causes prices to rise.

Conclusion: We expect silver prices to rise at the beginning of new wars or the escalation of major and costly wars. There is little doubt that both World Wars and the Vietnam War were costly and important to the U.S. economy.

The Gulf War and the War on Terror were expensive. National debt at the end of 1990 was $3.3 trillion. Today it is $20 trillion. Much of that debt resulted from the Gulf War, Iraq War 2.0, the war in Afghanistan, War on Terror, and other military actions. The War on Terror caused a spike in silver prices and national debt.

Date Silver Appx. Price National Debt

Sept. 2001 $4.20 $5.8 trillion

April 2011 $48.00 $14.3 trillion

August 2017 $17.00 $20 trillion

Observe that following each green oval – the beginning or escalation of a war – the price of silver increased considerably.

Date SI Appx. Low SI Appx. High Date of High

1914 $0.50 $1.33 1919

1939 $0.35 $0.86 1946

1963 $1.29 $50.00 1980

1990 $4.12 $7.40 1998

2001 $4.67 $20.94 2008

2017 $16.70 ? ?

These approximate dates, skipping the War on Terror, are 25, 24, 27, and 27 years apart. A major war occurred about every 26 years. Based on this approximate cycle a costly war is due … about now.

North Korea, Syria, Iran, China, or Russia? Many possibilities exist for expanded wars. Although we do not want war, the supposed benefits of war are:

  • A major war distracts the populace from government and central banker mismanagement of the nation and economy.
  • A major war pumps huge profits into the military-industrial-media-security-banking complex and benefits many other corporations including Big Pharma, Big Ag, weapons manufacturers, and more.
  • Big Oil benefits when crude oil prices rise, as they will.
  • Congress and lobbyists get their cut of the swag. There is something for everyone in the political and financial elite.
  • A major war justifies a massive increase in debt and a “clean” debt ceiling law. Why bother with a ceiling if we know it isn’t real?
  • Central banks want inflation and a big war assures it.
  • The nation might unite against a common enemy instead of wasting resources on current nonsense.
  • The military tests their new weapons and expands their importance.
  • The NSA eavesdrops on everyone claiming national security priorities and the need to ferret out North Korean, Russian, and Chinese spies.
  • And the list goes on.

Many vested interests support escalation of existing wars and beginning new wars. It is all about money and power. The Deep State favors more war.

SILVER:

High tech weaponry, missiles, military hardware, fighter jets, helicopters, and computers need silver, lots of silver. A new war will increase demand. Silver prices will rise, as they have following WWI & WWII, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and the War on Terror.

The inevitable massive increase in debt – say another $20 trillion in eight years – will devalue the dollar and create silver price rises. Some individuals will protect their savings, investments, and pensions from devastating consumer price inflation with silver purchases, increasing demand. We see the precursor of those silver purchases with the fantastic increases during 2017 in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

The Stock Market:

Dollar devaluations diminish the buying power of the dollar so the DOW rises. War will increase corporate profitability so the DOW will also be pushed up by earnings, probably after a major correction.

Date Dow Appx Low Dow Appx High Date of High

1914 59 390 1929

1939 140 680 1959

1963 700 1000 1966

1990 2,500 11,750 2000

2001 8,100 14,000 2007

The DOW and S&P 500 are trading at all-time highs in August 2017. A new war might temporarily crash the stock markets, but they are likely to rise after a nasty correction. Massive debt increases, dollar devaluations, and central bank levitation support stock prices.

CONCLUSIONS:

 

  • Since 1900 silver prices, national debt, and the Dow have increased exponentially – straight line increases on a log scale graph.
  • Since 1900 the U.S. has entered a major and costly war about every 26 years, with an extra “War on Terror” in 2001. Given the approximate 26 year cycle, we are due for a major and costly war NOW!
  • The U.S. stock market is selling at all-time highs. A new war might crash market prices but we know government and central banks will devalue the dollar, massively increase debt, and push new digital currency units into the stock market, eventually forcing it to new dollar devalued highs.
  • Silver prices are still two-thirds below their all-time highs reached in 2011. War materials needed in a new war will increase demand for silver. The massive debt needed to finance the war will devalue the dollar and push silver prices higher. The coming consumer price inflation will encourage individuals to purchase silver (and gold and cryptocurrencies) to protect their savings from central bank and government created consumer price inflation, which means more demand for silver.
  • Silver prices will rise in the next several years with no escalation in wars because of supply, demand and devaluation.
  • Silver prices will rise spectacularly if the U.S. indulges in another major war.
  • We do not look forward to another war or an escalation of existing wars, but history suggests another war is likely. Plan accordingly.

 

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