U.S. Consumer Confidence Rises To 92.6 In December

Updated: U.S. Consumer Confidence Rises To 92.6 In December

Tuesday December 30, 2014 10:00 AMThe Christmas holidays created a little cheer for U.S. consumers as optimism rose in December, reversing some of the declines seen in November, according to data from the U.S. Conference Board.  The board said its monthly Consumer Confidence Index rose to 92.6 from November’s revised reading of 91.0. In its initial reading, last month’s index was at 88.7.
Some economists anticipated a boost in optimism; according to consensus forecasts, economists expected the index to rise to about 94.6.
In the report, the board said that the Present Situation Index rose to 98.6, up from the previous reading of 93.7, but at the same time the Expectations Index fell to 88.5, from November’s reading of 89.3.
“Consumer confidence rebounded modestly in December, propelled by a considerably more favorable assessment of current economic and labor market conditions. As a result, the Present Situation Index is now at its highest level since February 2008,” said Lynn Franco, director of economic indicators at The Conference Board.
Although the data shows that optimism was generally positive, the current outlook of the labor market was relatively mixed. According to the board’s survey, participants who said jobs were “plentiful” increased to 17.1% from the previous survey of 16.2%; at the same time, participants who said jobs were “hard to get” fell to 27.7% from the previous level of 28.7%.
Similar to the overall report, the future outlook for the labor market was slightly weaker as participants who said that they anticipated more jobs in the months ahead dropped to 14.7%, compared to the previous survey of 15.5%. Participants who said that they anticipated fewer jobs in the future increased to 16.9% from 16.4%.
Eric Green, head of U.S. rates and economic research at TD Securities described the consumer report as “positive with a few wrinkles.”

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Dec 30 Oil: Lubrication For Gold Stocks Rally Stewart Thomson

Oil: Lubrication For Gold Stocks Rally

Stewart Thomson

Dec 30, 2014

1. Gold is ending the year on a solid note. The bears promised that 2014 would be a horrible year for gold. Many bank economists predicted “double digit declines”.
   
   
2. None of their shrill predictions have come to pass. That’s because the gold bears overestimated supply from the West, and underestimated demand from China and India.
   
   
3. Please click here now. That’s the hourly bars chart for gold. I believe there is now an inverse head and shoulders bottom in play, and the short term price target of that pattern is the $1220 area.
   
   
4. Early yesterday morning, I told my subscribers that I expected gold would decline to the $1180 area to form the right shoulder of the pattern, and rally from there during the night.
   
   
5. That’s what happened. Regardless, gold price enthusiasts should understand that chart and cycle targets are not financial guarantees. They are indications of what is possible and likely.
   
   
6. As the year 2014 ends and 2015 begins, gold is postured quite bullishly, from both a fundamental and technical standpoint.
   
   
7. Please click here now. That’s the daily gold chart. The 14,7,7 Stochastics oscillator is now in an area where rallies of $50 - $150 in the price of gold often occur.
   
   
8. Please click here now. China officially imported almost 100 tons of gold in November, and Hong Kong imported about 50 tons.
   
   
9. As Reuters notes, direct imports into the Chinese mainland from countries other than Hong Kong are not revealed by China. The total tonnage imported into China and Hong Kong during November was likely somewhat higher than 150 tons, but even if they imported no gold directly at all, the demand is excellent.
   
   
10. India also officially imported about 150 tons in November. Clearly, Chindian demand is once again robust, and growing!
    
    
11. As the centres of gold price discovery move from London and New York to Shanghai and Dubai, the price action should mainly revolve around the love trade (gold jewellery).
    
    
12. Until 2014 began, the fear trade (Western debt and the outrageous behaviour of government and banks) was the main mechanism of gold price discovery. In my professional opinion, gold price volatility will diminish significantly as the love trade overshadows the fear trade.
     
13. The “shock and awe” growth of the Indian and Chinese economies is relentless. That means the growing dominance of the love trade on the global gold price discovery stage, is probably best described as a “clock that can’t be turned back”.
    
    
14. As terrible as the gold bears were at predicting the price of gold in 2014, if they keep failing to study the Chindian love trade for gold in meticulous detail, their price projections will go much more awry in 2015, than they did in 2014.
     
15. Gold stocks are prime beneficiaries of the Chindian gold bull era. Please click here now. That’s the GDX daily chart, and it suggests that gold stocks could begin the new year with a solid rally.
    
    
16. A “textbook” double bottom pattern is in play. These patterns tend to be quite reliable.
    
    
17. Please click here now. This GDXJ chart is very similar to the GDX chart. The double bottom pattern suggests that GDXJ could rally to the $40 area in early 2015.
    
    
18. Also, GDXJ has been restructured. It now holds more producing gold companies, and that may reduce some of the volatility it experienced in the past.
    
    
19. Silver looks even more bullish than gold does, and I’ve recently swapped a modest amount of my gold bullion for silver.
    
    
20. Please click here now.  There’s a nice inverse head and shoulders bottom in play on this daily silver chart.
    
    
21. Some individual silver stocks have the same pattern, and they have already staged strong volume-based breakouts to the upside. The stocks tend to lead silver, and they are supporting my thesis that silver itself is poised for a great rally early in 2015. My short term price target is $19.
    
    
22. Please click here now. That’s the hourly bars chart for oil. I have a $49 short term target for oil. The outlook for oil is grim, both in the short term and the long term.
    
    
23. In the short term, supply is overwhelming demand, and oil company earnings are suffering. In the long term, alternative energy is likely to reduce oil’s function to that of a useful lubricant, from the key fuel that it is now. In the coming decades, I expect the price of oil to ultimately return to pre-1973 levels.
    
    
24. Gold mining companies are entering 2015 with robust demand from China and India, and with a very stable outlook for fuel costs. This situation should entice substantial numbers of value-oriented fund managers into the sector, throughout the year!

Dec 30, 2014
Stewart Thomson

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Dec 30 Gold Rallies With USD Above 90 Przemyslaw Radomski

Gold & Silver Trading Alert:
Gold Rallies With USD Above 90

Przemyslaw Radomski
Posted Dec 30, 2014

Gold & Silver Trading Alert originally published on December 29th, 2014 7:17 AM:

Briefly: In our opinion no speculative short positions in gold, silver and mining stocks are currently justified from the risk/reward perspective.
The USD Index moved slightly above the key, long-term resistance level but gold rallied by almost $20 on Friday. We have seen several bearish signs in the precious metals market recently – is the above bullish enough to make the overall outlook for the precious metals market bullish?
Not really. Gold didn’t move above the previous resistance levels, so actually not much changed and most of what we wrote last week remains up-to-date. Let’s start today’s analysis with the USD Index (charts courtesy of http://stockcharts.com).

In the previous alert we wrote the following:
The USD Index moved higher only insignificantly, and we don’t see much change on the short-term chart. One could argue whether there was a short-term breakout or not, but even if we agree that there indeed was one, it’s not confirmed. Consequently, the short-term picture doesn’t provide us with much new information.
The USD Index closed the week above 90 and also above the rising short-term resistance line, so the short-term breakout is confirmed. The implications for the next several days are bullish.
Let’s take a look at the situation in the USD Index from the very long-term perspective.

In the previous alert we wrote the following:
The USD Index has just encountered a major resistance line that it needs to surpass before a rally to 92 becomes very probable – the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement levels based on the entire 2002 – 2008 decline.
The Fibonacci retracements have worked for the USD Index many times in the past, so it could be the case that this level will keep the rally in check for some time. If not, and we see a confirmed breakout, then we’ll likely see another big rally – to the 92 level or perhaps even to the next retracement at 96.11.
However, we would first need to see the breakout and its confirmation. For now, we have just seen a move to this critical level. While the situation in the precious metals market remains bearish, without a breakout in the USD Index, the possibility of another slide in the USD and a rally in gold, silver and mining stocks will be too big for us to think that opening short positions in the precious metals sector is justified from the risk to reward perspective.
The USD Index closed the week above the critical resistance level (the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement level), but it closed only a little above it and for just one day, so the breakout is not confirmed at this time. Consequently, we don’t think that the move to 92 or higher is very probable for the USD Index at present. The implications for the precious metals market remain rather unclear at this time.

The long-term picture for gold remains unchanged. Last week’s events didn’t change much as gold ended the week below $1,200 and well below the declining resistance line. The medium-term trend remains down.

The short-term price action didn’t change much either. The previously-mentioned self-similar pattern could still be in place – the current situation is still somewhat similar to what we saw in January 2014. This means that based on the above chart alone we could see a rally in the coming days.
Please note that gold rallied on very low volume, but that was a low-volume session across the board due to the Holiday season. Consequently, while a low-volume rally would be a bearish sign in a normal case, at this time there are no such implications.
Moreover, there was a buy signal from the Stochastic indicator, which of course is a bullish sign, but on the other hand, there was no breakout above the declining red resistance line.
Overall, the above chart is more bullish than it was last week, but not bullish enough to justify opening long positions based just on it.

When we take a look at the gold market from the gold to USD Index ratio perspective, we’ll see that the recent rally was nothing more than a verification of a breakdown below the 2013 low and 2008 high. With this breakdown being confirmed, we can expect to see a move lower shortly.

The silver market moved higher in the last session and we saw a breakout, but let’s not forget that “breakouts” in silver have very often turned out to be “fakeouts” and followed by sharp declines. The most recent example took place at the beginning of December. Overall, the breakout in silver has no bullish implications in our opinion.

Gold stocks and silver stocks (the XAU Index includes both) didn’t move much lower last week, but they didn’t move much higher either. Overall, the last few weeks of trading seem to be simply a pause within a big decline. If the move that follows the current consolidation is similar to the one that preceded it, we could actually see mining stocks at their 2000 lows.
Could we really see such a significant decline in the mining stocks sector? Why not, it would be less than half of what the miners have already declined since 2010. Besides, the entire commodity sector could move even lower.

The CCI Index (proxy for the commodity sector) has definitely broken and verified the breakdown below important support levels: the rising very long-term support line, the declining long-term one, and the one based on the previous lows. The index has moved well below the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement based on the entire 2001 – 2011 bull market. It’s now likely to decline to the 50% or even the 61.8% retracement. The latter seems even more likely as that’s where the commodities declined in 2008 (back then the retracement was based on the 2008 top) – the CCI Index even moved a bit below this level and then started to rally once again.
Overall, the situation is still unclear as there are several factors that point to a looming decline in the precious metals, but there are also some important signs suggesting higher values of PMs – like the critical resistance in the USD Index.
It seems that another trading opportunity is just around the corner and even though not much seems to be going on, it might be that paying close attention to the precious metals market at this time and in the coming days will be well worth it. It might be the case that the USD Index manages to rally shortly and confirms the breakout above its key resistance. If that takes place, it will likely create a great entry point for short positions in the precious metals market. However, we are not at that point yet and other factors will need to be considered as well. As always, we'll keep our subscribers updated should our views on the market change. We will continue to send them our Gold & Silver Trading Alerts on each trading day and we will send additional ones whenever appropriate. If you'd like to receive them, please subscribe today or sign up for our free mailing list today.
To summarize:
Trading capital (our opinion): No positions
Long-term capital (our opinion): No positions
Insurance capital (our opinion): Full position
You will find details on our thoughts on gold portfolio structuring in the Key Insights section on our website.
Thank you.

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Dec 30 Five crucial things to know about the snap Greek elections

Five crucial things to know about the snap Greek elections 

LONDON (MarketWatch) — The third time is not a charm when it comes to Greek politics.
Once again, the country finds itself at the epicenter of a political and economic drama after the parliament on Monday — for the third time in two weeks — rejected Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s preferred presidential candidate.
The failure to line up sufficient backing for former European Commissioner Stavros Dimas in the third and final round of voting has triggered snap elections that could bring the far-left, euroskeptic formation Syriza into power and threaten to derail Greece’s bailout program. In fact, words like “Grexit” and “default” and “accident” are once more being thrown around among nervous market observers.
Expect daily headlines on Greece leading up to the elections and lots of volatility in the financial markets. To stay on top, here are the five key things to know ahead of the parliamentary elections as an investor.

Which parties should I watch for?

Anti-austerity and anti-bailout Syriza, behind charismatic leader Alexis Tsipras, could hold the key to Greece’s future as a member of the eurozone. The party is ahead in opinion polls, and Tsipras appears confident he’ll emerge as prime minister after the elections.
“Be optimistic and cheerful,” he reportedly proclaimed after the presidential vote on Monday. “Austerity will soon be over. The Samaras government, which looted society and decided to take further austerity measures, is finished.”
Syriza has spent years campaigning against the harsh austerity measures imposed on Greece in exchange for the international rescue program and is eager to renegotiate the bailout terms with its international creditors — the so-called troika, composed of the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund — sooner rather than later. A major concern is that Syriza and the troika won’t be able to reach new bailout terms, which could force Greece into a disorderly default. The four-year bailout was set to stop at the end of December but was extended by two months to allow Greece more time meet demands from its international lenders.
The other major party in the election is current Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s center-right New Democracy. The party emerged as the winner in Greece’s last national elections in June 2012 and has as the leader of the coalition government been in charge of the reforms and austerity measures agreed to under the bailout program. However, with unemployment painfully high and economic growth painfully low, Greeks have increasingly turned against the governing coalition with calls for an end to austerity.

What are the risks of a Greek default or a euro exit?

With polls pointing to a Syriza win, the fear of Greece leaving the eurozone is back on the table. Although the party has moderated its anti-euro rhetoric, there remains concern that the drive to end austerity above everything else could cost Greece its membership in the currency union.
Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg, puts at 55% the probability that Syriza “would push Greece into a serious crisis that — with money running out and neither the troika nor the ECB in any position to help — could potentially catapult Greece into a messy default within the euro or even out of the euro.”

 

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What's Your Strategy - Full Coverage

2014 - A Breakthrough Year for Technology Metals

It is impossible to create a connected, mobile and sustainable society without technology metals (precious metals, specialty metals and rare earth elements) enabling it. Lithium stores energy in our rechargeable batteries; neodymium's magnetic properties run electric motors of which there are many in our lives; silver helps collect sunlight and turn it into renewable energy. Tech Metals Insider reported about these and many other applications throughout the year.

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The 6 PM Recap With Gary Wagner: Volatile Blahs

Volatile Blahs

Monday

Equities were up a small amount today amid cautious holiday trading, but the U.S. dollar continued its climb to supremacy, helping push gold lower. But the dollar doesn’t tell the whole story today for gold.
The chief outside market influence, crude oil, was down severely again, by around 2%. Gold was dragged down on that ride.
Thin trading also did not help gold, as a few major sales going into year’s end forced prices down. Investors are squaring up their books, taking their losses (or gains if the case might be), and exiting positions all over the place, except for equities, which, of course are much less volatile than commodities markets, trading, as they do, in factors rather than simple dollar gain and loss like stocks.
The news of Greek’s renewed shakiness wasn’t enough to goose gold upward. Most analysts, including us at the Gold Forecast, feel that Greece is a lost cause and it is already factored in to prices of various financial instruments. Greece may continue to harm the euro, which doesn’t seem to need any help with that currently. A sinking euro lowers gold prices in dollars.
Some support was seen in physical gold as we approach the Chinese Lunar New Year, a favorite time for buying in the huge country. Other than that, consumption of the actual metal is soft.
While technical support was threatened today, the decline in gold didn’t crash through our previously delineated levels - more on that in Market Forecast.
As might be expected at this time of year, international news is slow so there were no big new factors that might lend support to gold as a haven play.
Wishing you as always, good trading,

Gary Wagner

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Gold Ends Lower As Dollar Continues To Strengthen - Alliance

Gold Ends Lower As Dollar Continues To Strengthen

Monday
 

WASHINGTON ( Alliance News ) - Gold futures ended lower on Monday, tracking rising equity markets with the dollar trending higher against a select band of currencies. There was little or no significant economic releases for cues, with investors upbeat over an improving US economy.
Nevertheless, trading volumes are expected to remain thin during the week, ahead of the New Year.
After some strong data recently, including a report showing US gross domestic product to have grown much more than expected in the third quarter, the prospects of a rate hike next year seem to get more definite with the greenback continuing to gain consistently against most major currencies. A higher interest rate supports the dollar and is a drag on gold.
Greece was once again pushed into a political crisis on Monday after the parliament failed to elect presidential candidate, Stavros Dimas , paving the way for a snap general election early 2015. Prime Minister Antonis Samaras' candidate, Dimas - a former European Commissioner and the only candidate in the fray, was rejected by a vote of 162 in favor and 132 against, but woefully short of the required 180 votes in the 300 member house.
This could mean a snap general election for the economically beleaguered country, which analysts feel could go in favor of the leftist Syriza party that is extremely opposed to the austerity measures suggested by the EU and the International Monetary Fund .
Gold for February delivery, the most actively traded contract, dropped USD13.40 or about 1.1% to settle at USD1,181.90 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange on Monday.
Gold for February delivery scaled an intraday high of USD1,197.50 and a low of USD1,178.60 an ounce.
Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust , the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, edged lower to 712.30 tons on Monday, from its previous close of 712.90 tons .
The dollar index, which tracks the US unit against six major currencies, traded at 90.20 on Monday, up from its previous close of 90.05 late Friday in North American trade. The dollar scaled a high of 90.22 intraday and a low of 89.79.
The euro trended lower against the dollar at USD1.2157 on Monday, as compared to its previous close of USD1.2181 late Friday in North American trade. The euro scaled a high of USD1.2220 intraday and a low of USD1.2144.
In economic news, Switzerland's consumption indicator dropped slightly in November as fewer car sales weighed on spending, data from UBS showed Monday. The Swiss consumption index dropped to 1.29 in November from 1.32 in October. Although weak car sales were a drag on consumption, Christmas retail business has apparently made a good start.
Among data due this week are the consumer confidence index for December from the Conference Board, the weekly jobless claims, the National Association of Realtors' pending home sales index for November and the results of the Institute for Supply Management's national and MNI Indicators' regional manufacturing surveys.
The S&P Case-Shiller house price index for October, Markit's final US manufacturing index for December and the Commerce Department's construction spending data for November will also be out during the course of the week.

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Quiet For Now, But EU Clouds Forming - by Peter Hug

Quiet For Now, But EU Clouds Forming

Monday 

Gold continues to meander into the last trading days of 2014, as both the dollar and oil appear to have stabilized into year-end. Greece will once again be on everyone’s radar, as the Greeks failed to elect a new President. This opens the door for a snap election where the outcome could result in Greek voters picking a leader who may abandon the current austerity program and raise doubts about Greece’s membership in the EU. This could turn into a significant story for early 2015, which may create some safe-haven flows into the metals from the EU investor block. Although the market remains thin on participation, we have three full trading days in front of us and volatility may increase into year-end positioning.

By Peter Hug
Global Trading Director

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Dec 29 SSSSS This past week in gold Jack Chan

This past week in gold

Jack Chan

GLD – on sell signal.

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SLV – on sell signal.
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GDX – on sell signal.
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XGD.TO – on sell signal.
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CEF – on sell signal.

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Divergences between gold and gold stocks often lead to trend changes.

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Dec 29 Gold's Mega-Move Days Have Turned Bullish Demeadville

“Gold's Mega-Move Days Have Turned Bullish”


In bidding adieu (or if you prefer, a not-so-Golden good riddance) to 2014, 'tis said that those who've "manipulated" the price of Gold lower shall be the same entities which shall "manipulate" it back up. To the extent that the price of Gold is or is not "manipulated", (as long as we can engage fairly and equitably in a like trading platform and have enough size ourselves to shove price about manually and/or algorithmically), we've got some very heartening news to share in closing out what has not so much been a down year for the yellow metal, (as 'tis on target to finish just either side of the 1205 "break-even "level), but instead a year that has been perpetually annoying. With only three trading days remaining in 2014, 'tis at this juncture incidental as to whether Gold nets out an up or down year: for far more material either way is the above scoreboard's telling us just how alarmingly low price is relative to the growth in our money supply these last 30 years.
However, here's the heartening bit: be they "manipulators" and/or legitimate trading forces sufficiently capitalized to hoover away hundreds of bids or offers in an electronic heartbeat, we've ferreted out data which is indicative of them having changed their tune from selling/shorting Gold to now buying it, or if you'd prefer, that the upside "manipulative" rumblings are at last underway. To the naked eye, such activity is sufficiently stealth so as not to notice it: but to a measurable degree, we've sussed it out, or at the very least, found evidence of Gold's price now being protectively supported. And as odd, indeed sparse or incomplete as the following chart may at first glance appear, 'tis showing us the market moving powers that be are shifting back into buy mode:

"Uh, mmb, like Ricky said, Lucy you got some 'splainin' to do..."
Absolutely, Squire. What you're looking at above are Gold's intra-day price movements for the 250 trading days now in the books for 2014: except visibly there are only six bars across the entirety of the chart. Why? Because we've eliminated every day which traced a trading range of less than 40 points between its session's high and low so as to only cite Gold's "mega-move" days. And more importantly, here's the best part: the colour of those six robust bars describes the directional thrust of those mega-moves: Red for down-thrust, and Gold for up-thrust.
To be sure, 'twould be beyond the extremes of arrogance to believe that which we pen influences market direction; we likely more oft are considered a contrary indicator. But with respect to the above chart and its cluster of three up mega-moves just in these last two months, they curiously occurred with our introducing The Gold Update Scoreboard which now opens these weekly missives. Coincidence?
"Absolutely, mmb."
Squire's brutal honesty notwithstanding, let us press on to the graphic of Gold's weekly bars, wherein we see the parabolic trend having survived its fourth week to the LongSide, as indicated by the ascending blue dots. The descending dashed trendline across the chart belies just how near Gold is to actually closing out 2014 as a "break-even" year, 2013 settling at 1204.8 and now yesterday (Friday) at 1196.1, again with but three remaining trading days in the balance. Further note that despite the absence of a rare "mega-day" this past week, price still scampered up to close near its bar's high:

Of course, Sister Silver, below in her own weekly bars chart, shan't be closing out 2014 anywhere near her 2013 settling price of 19.425, for in finishing the week yesterday at 16.085, the descending dashed trendline truly tells her tale of woe:

Don't take it too hard, Sis. You may be -17% year-to-date, but so identically is Cousin Copper, whilst your distant Uncle Oil is -44%! (Next week's missive in opening 2015 will present the final "BEGOS Markets Standings" for 2014).
Then there's the stock market, which in conveniently ignoring global asset price shrinkage, continues to bound merrily along, the S&P 500 setting all-time highs on a daily basis as 'tis complacently assumed 'twill do in perpetuity. We however, as you well know by now per our being seemingly forever on "crash-watch", see it quite differently. As our calculation of the S&P's price/earnings ratio closes in on 30x, (the current "live" reading being 29.4x), please excuse our implementation of even more common sense in pointing out that the S&P's MoneyFlow is hardly keeping pace with price's perennial rise. Here is their relationship regressed to an S&P-points basis over the past 63 trading days (one quarter) to date, indicative of price ascending sans volume, quite in contrary to the past week's in-depth ChiTrib piece entitled "Dow, S&P power to new records". Quite frankly, and rightly in tune with this 1977 hit by Jackson Browne, we see the S&P as "Running On Empty...":

And therefore from the stock market's standpoint as having participated in this December to Remember we're fully anticipating that 'twill be a capitulative January to Forget. And as goes January... Besides, let's face it: when you've the S&P trading at double the support of its earnings base, and the price of Gold valued at half its natural level given Dollar debasement alone, something soon will give, and I suspect for the markets 'twill be massive.
As for the chest-pounding "Dollar strength" crowd out there -- and yes the beloved Greenback's Index now for the first time since April 2006 is just above 90 (90.315) -- the Buck is currently up 3% from Gold's closing low day of the year (1140 on 05 November), whilst the yellow metal itself is nevertheless up 5% from same:

Still, StateSide we've the percentage of adults in their prime working years with full-time jobs near the lowest levels ever recorded, (per the Bureau of Labor Statistics as far back as 1986). In the Middle East, veteran Saudi Arabian Oil minister Ali "fake it on the give-and-go" al-Naimi stated that Oil's price is irrelevant to output decisions, the Saudi Finance Ministry then pledging to curb wages and sally forth with investments next year toward lessening the blow of the halved price of petroleum. Meanwhile over in Japan, for the first time with records having been collected since 1955, their savings rate has turned negative as the populous draw on their nest-eggs, despite inflation just having slipped to a 14-month low. Westward across the sea from there, China's industrial profits for November just fell by the largest amount in two years. And not to be outdone by such economically foundationless follies, Greece’s Parliament still has yet to elect a new President, which were the anti-austerity opposition to instead become empowered, could again bury Hellenic paper. All-in-all, a fairly good year-ending basket of Gold positives, non?
Which in turn gives us hope that 2015 shall be far better for Gold than this Year of Annoyance. With just the three trading days left, we close out 2014 with this final two-panel technical graphic. On the left we've Gold's daily bars for the past three months with the ever-attendant "Baby Blues" depicting 21-day linear regression trend consistency, which admittedly is waning, (and for those of you who read the daily Prescient Commentary, you've likely noted an open signal for Gold to trade down to 1164.1 per its daily Price Oscillator study having gone negative). On the right is Gold's 10-day Market Profile showing price just a point below trading resistance at 1197, with underlying, less participative support at 1178.

This ensuing holiday-shortened, boundless football bowls week is not without some key incoming economic data, including December's Chicago PMI reading on New Year's Eve and then in turn on Friday, the first trading day of 2015, the ISM Index. In the interim, please be safe out there: we want all of our great and valued readers riding along with us in the Great Gold Machine of 2015!
A Happy and Golden New Year to Us All!

Cheers!

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