Short term weakness early this week is expected to provide a buying opportunity in sectors that show positive seasonality at this time of year (e.g. energy, materials, oil services, platinum, silver). Wait for technical signs of bottoming before adding/ introducing a position.

Jon Vialoux’s EquityClock.com can be accessed HERE for Sector Seasonality Reports

Crude Oil gained $2.27 per barrel (2.41%) last week. Trend remains down. Crude moved above its 20 and 50 day moving averages. Strength relative to the S&P 500 Index changed from negative to positive. Technical score improved to 2.0 from 0.0 out of 3.0. Short term momentum indicators are trending up.

….Don’s Timing The Market Monday Morning Report Reviews & comments on the entire Energy Sector & all other Commodities, Currencies, Equity Trends, Intersest Rates, Economic News this Week, Earnings News…….just a thorough review of over 45 Charts that is well worth scanning HERE

Especially when dealing with leftist dictators and hyperinflation setups.

Venezuela Enacts “Law of Fair Prices” Banning Profits Over 30%, with 10-Year Imprisonment for Hoarding

Via translation from El Economista:

The Fair Prices Act, an instrument with which the Government of Nicolas Maduro intends to control prices and eliminate shortages, includes a ban on profit margins over 30%, with penalties of up to 10 years imprisonment for hoarders.

The law passed in November, and the Supreme Court ratified the law yesterday.

The law, published in Official Gazette, states that the profit margin will be established annually “addressing scientific criteria” by the National Superintendency for the Protection of Socio-Economic Rights (SUNDDE).

The law provides for the application of preventive measures and sanctions such as confiscation, temporary occupation of premises or property, the temporary closure of an establishment or suspension of licenses and the “immediate adjustment” price.

In the section of the law regarding hoarding, those who “restrict supply, circulation or distribution of regulated goods or cause distortions in prices, shall be punished with imprisonment judicially 8 to 10 years.” 

The law also provides for fines ranging from 107,000 bolivars ($17,000) to 5.3 million bolivars ($850,000).

SUNDDE will “fix maximum prices for the production or importation, distribution and consumption according to their importance and strategic nature for the benefit of the population as well as the technical criteria for assessing the levels of exchange equitable and fair of goods and services.”

Under this preposterous measure, no companies will be able to import and sell goods at anything but a loss. Expect all goods and services to vanish soon.

Mike “Mish” Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Have you been paying attention to what has been happening in Argentina, Venezuela, Brazil, Ukraine, Turkey and China?  If you are like most Americans, you have not been.  Most Americans don’t seem to really care too much about what is happening in the rest of the world, but they should.  In major cities all over the globe right now, there is looting, violence, shortages of basic supplies, and runs on the banks.  We are not at a “global crisis” stage yet, but things are getting worse with each passing day.  For a while, I have felt that 2014 would turn out to be a major “turning point” for the global economy, and so far that is exactly what it is turning out to be.  The following are 20 early warning signs that we are rapidly approaching a global economic meltdown…

#1 The looting, violence and economic chaos that is happening in Argentina right now is a perfect example of what can happen when you print too much money…

For Dominga Kanaza, it wasn’t just the soaring inflation or the weeklong blackouts or even the looting that frayed her nerves.

It was all of them combined.

At one point last month, the 37-year-old shop owner refused to open the metal shutters protecting her corner grocery in downtown Buenos Aires more than a few inches — just enough to sell soda to passersby on a sweltering summer day.

#2 The value of the Argentine Peso is absolutely collapsing.

…read 3-10 HERE