Market Updates

Bloomberg reported on a study this past week that points to decades of manipulation in the gold market. Whether there is credence to this study is something that is yet to be proven.

There is a stark difference in the financial world today than a few year’s prior. Unsettling news in foreign counties does not seem to have the same effect as it once did.

A rift if being created as no consideration is yet to be given from the western world. A dollar tug of war is creating a global imbalance.

“The experience of the market place of this past week will be indicative of this entire year; I think we are going to be in a world of much greater volatility. That doesn’t mean we end up in a bad place. . . but there will be quite a bit of disruption”

-Blackrock CEO Larry Fink speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland

The monetary efforts employed by the US Fed were experimental policies that have previously never been experienced. It’s very difficult to price something into the markets that we have never seen before.

To suggest that the Canadian Federal Government is pushing a weak dollar policy must then imply that in years past they too were opting for a stronger Canadian dollar. At the least the price of the Canadian dollar would suggest that, but unfortunately its nonsense.

The biggest question for 2014 is not whether the US stock market will be able to perform a repeat of the exuberant gains achieved in 2013. It does, however, relate to whether stocks will be able to repeat their exuberant gains.

It might have gone against the conventional wisdom to see the markets trade higher on the basis that the US Federal Reserve will begin, come January, to be less accommodative to the US economy.

It’s hard to avoid the topic of the beleaguered Canadian dollar given the swift move down we have seen against its US counterpart over the last six weeks.

Given the fact that commodities became the easiest pick for investors over the latest decade, we really shouldn’t be that perplexed with the idea of how quickly it has now been shunned by the masses

It is not the Fed's goal is to be less accommodative by tapering, but change the medium in which policy is delivered.

For this economic recovery to continue central bankers are still needed more desperately than ever.

The current debate on Obamacare is not over whether the US needs a system of universal healthcare. That debate has passed, successfully.

Dennis Gartman on CNBC earlier in the week said this would be the most boring FOMC statement from the Federal Reserve this year. He was correct.

The most overused expression that has come about since governments in Europe and the US have been unable to compromise on budget negotiations is “kicking-the-can down the road.”

The Triffin Dilemma, named after economist Robert Triffin, speaks to the balancing act required on the part of the government that stands behind the world’s reserve currency.

What is going on in Washington is more of a political charade than real budget negotiations; albeit, it is a distraction from the real structural problems created from a two decade period of credit-fuelled surges in consumption.

The renowned commodities investor Donald Coxe wrote in the Globe and Mail this week on what seems to be an original and profound thesis for gold....

Although there are many uncertainties, one thing is clear; despite the Fed’s increased transparency and despite their efforts to provide forward guidance—against all efforts to the contrary they still have the ability to send financial markets for a tailspin.