Republican senator Mike Lee is slated to introduce a bill Friday that would force President-elect Donald Trump to get approval from Congress to use tariffs or withdraw from trade deals. …read more
Source: GOP senator’s bill aims to reel in Trump’s trade power
By Vince Lanci
Silver and Gold Today
Gold is down $10 at $1202 and Silver is off 38 cents at $16.9 as of this writing. The net effect of today’s events thus far have added to overnight weakness on the back of USD strength
The ECB announced no changes as expected to its monetary policy at 7:45 ET. The Euro weakened vs the USD post announcement. Draghi’s press conference has started, and the EURO is not liking what he is saying. Jobless claims are out with the most pronounced reactions we see so far in a stronger Vix and softer Equity futures. Markets are just beginning to digest the info as of this writing
At Davos early this morning, UK PM Theresa May defended globalization in a post Brexit world. Free markets were extolled and the GBP would find the right level for trade.
Yesterday, the USD rallied while Bonds and Gold dropped following Yellen’s San Fran speech, countering the effect Trump’s “weak dollar” statements made the day before.
Charts: Bad Candles Loom, RSI looks toppy, and Inauguration on Deck
interactive charts here
Physical Markets
Gold EFP (Cash to prompt future) was 20/50 yesterday (cash over) as Feb converges with cash. Chinese interest in a specific Gold bar through London is working way through the cash market. This not a a new phenomenon and reflects the premium Asia pays over the West to cash. All other globally liquid forms currently trading normally. No signs of backwardation or GOFO changes in April EFP or spreads at this point.
Countries looking for liquid, portable, convertible assets players adding fresh buying. Examples include Venezuela, Turkey, and smaller Eurozone players. India has lowered taxes, China always a known factor with wild card potential
FWIW
Anyone who has had a student loan can handicap the outcome of the footnote highlighted in the picture below. “Revised figures show that many more students are failing to pay back loans than thought”was Barbarian Capital’s summary of the WSJ article here
h/t
@JakeCahan for pic
Good luck
Source: Silver and Gold Daily
By Tyler Durden
With the market not expecting any changes from the ECB this morning, so far that is precisely what it got, when moments ago the ECB announced that it kept all of its rates unchanged as expected, keeping the rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility at 0.00%, 0.25% and -0.40%, respectively.
In additional language relating to non-standard measures, the ECB also said that “it will continue to make purchases under the asset purchase programme (APP) at the current monthly pace of €80 billion until the end of March 2017 and that, from April 2017, the net asset purchases are intended to continue at a monthly pace of €60 billion until the end of December 2017, or beyond, if necessary” and “in any case until the Governing Council sees a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation consistent with its inflation aim.“
It also said that “the net purchases will be made alongside reinvestments of the principal payments from maturing securities purchased under the APP” and cautioned that “if the outlook becomes less favourable, or if financial conditions become inconsistent with further progress towards a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation, the Governing Council stands ready to increase the programme in terms of size and/or duration.”
In other words, it may move QE up or down, depending on what happens with inflation, in line with the ECB’s December announcement.
Full ECB statement below.
Monetary policy decisions
At today’s meeting the Governing Council of the ECB decided that the interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will remain unchanged at 0.00%, 0.25% and -0.40% respectively. The Governing Council continues to expect the key ECB interest rates to remain at present or lower levels for an extended period of time, and well past the horizon of the net asset purchases.
Regarding non-standard monetary policy measures, the Governing Council confirms that it will continue to make purchases under the asset purchase programme (APP) at the current monthly pace of €80 billion until the end of March 2017 and that, from April 2017, the net asset purchases are intended to continue at a monthly pace of €60 billion until the end of December 2017, or beyond, if necessary, and in any case until the Governing Council sees a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation consistent with its inflation aim. The net purchases will be made alongside reinvestments of the principal payments from maturing securities purchased under the APP. If the outlook becomes less favourable, or if financial conditions become inconsistent with further progress towards a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation, the Governing Council stands ready to increase the programme in terms of size and/or duration.
The President of the ECB will comment on the considerations underlying these decisions at a press conference starting at 14:30 CET today.
And now all eyes on Draghi at 8:30am Eastern.
The e-commerce firm will help sell merchandise, organize the Games and run a Chinese internet TV channel. …read more
Source: Alibaba backs Olympics through 2028
By Tyler Durden
Ever get the feeling you’re being watched?
It’s because you are – and, as Visual Capitalist's Jeff Desjardins details, for a rough proxy of this, use the browser extension Ghostery to see how many tracking scripts are watching you on a typical media site. (It doesn’t work for everything, but a large media site like Vice.com has 50+ trackers, with 40 of them focused on advertising).
Capturing this user data helps sites sell their inventory to advertisers, but a select few companies operate in this capacity at a whole different level. Google and Facebook are the best of examples of this, as nearly $0.60 of every dollar spent on digital advertising goes to them. They both have the sophistication and ubiquity to capture incredible amounts of information about you.
GOOGLE IS EVERYWHERE
Today’s infographic, which comes to us from Mylio, focuses in on Google in particular.
The search giant is massive in size, and there is a good chance you tap into Googleverse in some way:
Global market penetration for Android is 61-81%.
Google has a 78.8% market share for online search.
The company generates $67.4 billion in annual ad revenue.
Google processes two trillion searches annually.
30-50 million websites use Google Analytics to for tracking.
There are 700,000 apps available in the Google Play store.
82% of videos watched online come from YouTube.
In total, Google has at least 79 products and services.
According to Google’s documentation, it uses these services to pull out information on the “things you do”, “things you create”, and the things that make you unique.
SEE WHAT GOOGLE COLLECTS
All in all, Google tracks your activity history, location history, audio history, and device history. It also builds a profile for you for serving ads – age, gender, location, income, and other demographic data.
You can view and actually download this history by using a tool called Google Takeout.
Many people understand that their data helps support advertising revenues on websites they enjoy. Others are rightly concerned about their privacy, and how their information is used. Regardless of which category you fit in, becoming informed about how privacy on the internet works will help you craft an experience that best fits your preferences.
Source: Here’s How Google Tracks You (And What You Can Do About It)
Despite the evidence–free drumbeat of propaganda and hysteria, a new CNN/ORC poll finds that Americans are remaining level-headed about the Russian hacking allegations:
Majorities say that … that the outcome of the election would have been the same regardless of the information released (58% say that). Further, 56% say that despite this situation, the US ought to continue its efforts to improve relations with Russia rather than take strong economic and diplomatic steps against Russia.
It’s almost enough to restore my faith in my fellow Americans …
For the past eight years, Barack Obama has been using the power of the U.S. presidency to impose his vision of a progressive world order on the entire globe. As a result, much of the planet will greatly celebrate once the Obama era officially ends on Friday. The Obama years brought us the Arab Spring, Benghazi, ISIS, civil war in Syria, civil war in Ukraine and the Iran nuclear deal. On the home front, we have had to deal with Obamacare, “Fast and Furious”, IRS targeting of conservative groups, Solyndra, the VA scandal, NSA spying and the worst “economic recovery” since the end of World War II. And right at the end of his presidency, Barack Obama has committed the greatest betrayal of Israel in U.S. history and has brought us dangerously close to war with Russia.
So is the end of the Obama world order worth celebrating?
You better believe it is.
Of course Obama and his minions are in a great deal of distress that much of their hard work over the past eight years is about to be undone by Donald Trump. On Wednesday, Vice President Joe Biden warned the elitists gathered at the World Economic Forum in Davos that their “liberal world order” is in danger of collapsing…
Vice President Joe Biden delivered an epic final speech Wednesday to the elites at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The gist of his speech was simple: At a time of “uncertainty” we must double down on the values that made Western democracies great, and not allow the “liberal world order” to be torn apart by destructive forces.
And without a doubt, we definitely want it to collapse.
During his time in the White House, Barack Obama has used the full diplomatic power of the government to promote “abortion rights”, “gay rights” and other “liberal values” to the farthest corners of the globe. Here at home, the appointment of two new Supreme Court justices under Obama paved the way for the Supreme Court decision that forced all 50 states to recognize gay marriage. During his final press conference on Wednesday, Barack Obama told the media that he was particularly proud of this…
Obama said he’s particularly proud of the “transformation” on gay rights during his presidency, which saw monumental Supreme Court decisions on gays in the military and same-sex marriage. Obama said his role was mostly to deliver “a good block downfield to help the movement advance.”
He said gay and lesbian activists deserve most of the credit, and singled out talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres, to whom he awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom last year.
And the final press conference of his presidency also afforded Obama the opportunity to talk about UN Security Council Resolution 2334. Sadly, Obama still does not have any regrets for betraying Israel so dramatically…
“It was important for us to send a signal, a wake-up call, that this moment may be passing, and Israeli voters and Palestinians need to understand that this …read more
Source: The End Of The Obama World Order
100% Pure Garcinia Cambogia Extract – Appetite Suppressant – Carb Blocker Capsules – 2100 MG – 90 Caps
Looking for something special ? Find The Lowest Price HERE
Welcome to Esh Carmel Blog.
