The raging bull market in silver has turned into an angry bear. Silver is down 5% this morning and more than 30% from its high only two weeks ago. The abrupt reversal is nothing short of spectacular—to watch of course. Investors who bought physical silver, or worse yet, margined silver futures, just took a savage beating. … [Read more...]
The Raging Bull Market in Silver
Silver hit a new all-time high this morning. Silver has risen over 144% since August 31. Why are we measuring from August 31? The end of August is when the esteemed Mr. Bernanke signaled that the Federal Reserve would print another $600 billion in Federal Reserve Notes. The money-printing campaign ignited a stampede into hard assets. Silver has been the big winner among the precious metals. Silver tends to be a more speculative metal than gold. The silver market is small and easily influenced by speculative capital. In 2010, total silver demand was 1.05 billion ounces or $21 billion dollars at … [Read more...]
The World’s Best-Performing Commodity
Do you know which major commodity has increased in price most YTD? It’s cotton. Cotton is up 96% YTD. The second-best-performing commodity is palladium. Palladium has gained 88% YTD. The big gains in cotton and palladium are not outliers, though. In Young Research’s Global Investment Strategy, we provide subscribers with a Global Investment Scorecard that shows the performance of all of the major developed and emerging equity markets as well as major fixed-income sectors, U.S. stock sectors, and all the major commodities. For commodities, we break out the performance of energy commodities, … [Read more...]
Gold is at $1,400
Don't tell me there is no inflation, the price of gold has topped $1,400/ounce. The Dow Jones Industrials are up year-to-date and over the past three years. But even so, Gold has beaten the DJIA Total Return (i.e. dividends included) handily as shown in my two charts. Make sure you are not caught off guard here. Your exposure to stocks must be well compensated by owning high yielding dividend payers. … [Read more...]
Sky-High Silver
Silver prices have gone parabolic. The metal is up almost 60% since August. If history is any guide, this isn’t going to end well. … [Read more...]
Vital Intelligence for Investment Success
If you read The Wall Street Journal or the Financial Times, you have likely heard about the “risk trade.” It’s a term journalists have been using with increasing frequency to explain the behavior of financial markets. You see, since the financial crisis struck, risky assets have either been rising together or falling together. There has been much less distinction among the returns of risky assets. You have days where either bonds are up or stocks, commodities, and risky currencies are up—it’s risk on or risk off. This recent phenomenon can be explained by an increase in the correlation among … [Read more...]
CRB Spot Index Hits All-Time High
Is it deflation that we should be worried about? According to the Fed, inflation is too low. That may be a temporary problem. The CRB commodity spot index just hit a new all-time high. The index is up 15% YTD. … [Read more...]
A Must-Have MLP Fund
You don’t want to miss the boat on master limited partnerships (MLPs) especially now that the asset class is receiving more press. A recent Wall Street Journal piece by Tom Lauricella and Carolyn Cui, “Frenzy in Energy Partnerships,” shed more light on the relatively unknown natural resource pipeline market, which has been attracting billions of dollars owing to its attractive 6%–7% yield. In fact, as the article points out, through the beginning of this month, MLPs rallied 15% on the year and 11% per year over the past 10—as measured by the industry benchmark, the Alerian MLP Index—for … [Read more...]
Wheat Prices Skyrocket
Wheat prices are up more than 50% in a month. Droughts in Russia, a major world wheat producer, are threatening the country’s crop. Traders bid up wheat prices in anticipation of tighter supplies. … [Read more...]
A Raging Bull Market in MLPs
The raging bull market in MLPs shows no signs of slowing. Since the S&P 500 peaked in October of 2007, MLPs have gained more than 33%, while the S&P 500 dropped 25%. YTD, MLPs are up 17%, compared to a loss on the S&P 500. … [Read more...]