This week…. - This marks the return of the weekend commentary in 2014. A full report should come next week. - One full week has now gone by and so far in 2014 the stock market is faltering while gold and gold stocks are rising. An omen? Naturally too early to tell but at this time last year the stock market was higher and gold, well, it was on its way to its worst year since 1981. - The US #stock market was stopped dead in its tracks on Friday following the release of the lower than expected nonfarm payrolls. The #unemployment rate fell under 7% but then some 900 thousand workers were wiped out of the labour force as the labour force participation rate fell to its lowest level since the early 1970’s before women entered the labour force in large numbers. Grant you the US nonfarm payrolls were up. In #Canada the jobs numbers actually fell sharply and the unemployment rate rose. - US #bond rates fell on the week following the release of the nonfarm payrolls. With the 10 year Treasury note at 3% it is highly unlikely that Janet Yellen the new Fed Chairman would want to see high bond rates persist given their negative impact on mortgage rates. - #Gold prices rose after trying to fall earlier in the week given initially a stronger US$ Index. But then the nonfarm payroll numbers sent the #US$ down and gold up some $20. The word “tapering” became a little quieter. - #Oil prices faltered again and have fallen sharply since the beginning of the year. But one can’t help but look nervously at all of the wars in the Mid-East all of which are proxy wars for the two major oil powers Saudi Arabia (Sunni) and Iran (Shiite). The cold weather went away so natural gas prices fell as well.
Posted on: Sun, 12 Jan 2014 22:54:01 +0000
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