Gold has traded between $1,251 and $1,269 so far today..as of 9:55 am Pacific., bullion is down $14 an ounce at $1,253…it’s Gold’s 8th straight day on the downside…Silver is off 46 cents at $17.27…Copper has slipped a penny to $2.15…Crude Oil has jumped 50 cents to $50.33 while the U.S. Dollar Index has added nearly half a point to 96.58…
The number of announced layoffs by U.S.-based companies rose in September to the highest level in 2 months, global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported today…employers announced plans to cut more than 44,000 jobs last month, a 38% increase from August when total job cuts of just over 32,000 were the lowest since May…the report comes a day after ADP and Moody’s Analytics reported that companies in September created jobs at the slowest pace in 6 months…tomorrow, the Labor Department issues its closely watched non-farm payrolls report for September…economists might be optimistic, anticipating a gain of 175,000 jobs according to the median estimate of 100 economists polled by Reuters…the number could easily disappoint and that’s what may give Gold a lift to finish the week…mind you, an election is only a month away, so anything is possible…
Traders are pricing in close to a 65% chance of an interest rate increase in December after data this week showed that U.S. services sector activity rebounded to an 11-month high in September. “People are coming to terms with an eventual rate rise, possibly this year,” said James Steel, a strategist at HSBC…
Dollar bulls, meanwhile, took comfort in this morning’s jobless claims report which put some fresh pressure on Gold…the Labor Department said first-time weekly jobless claims in the U.S. fell by 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 249,000 during the week to Saturday…that was slightly better than expected and brought the 4-week moving average for new claims down to 253,500, the lowest level since December 8, 1973, when it was 252,250…
Total Global Debt Stands At $152 Trillion
The world is awash with $152 trillion dollars of debt, according to the IMF, an all-time high which sits at more than double the balance at the start of this century…this debt mountain, as of 2015, represents 225% of GDP, up from 200% in 2002 and signifies the extent to which increases in borrowing have outpaced economic growth during the period…
While the Washington D.C.-based organization emphasized that there is no exact science to knowing how much debt is too much (really?), it has urged governments in certain countries to tackle excessive private debt levels…that’s kind of funny, actually, considering governments can’t properly manage their own finances (taxpayers’ dollars)…governments account for about one-third of the world’s debt…
The IMF pointed to Europe as an example of where an impaired banking system was a hurdle to successful deleveraging…the organization also singled out China as a country at risk of a disorderly wind-down of current high corporate debt levels…
Oil Update
U.S. Crude rose above $50 a barrel for the first time since June today as WTIC was underpinned by a surprisingly large drop in U.S. inventory levels during the previous session…technically, $50 is key resistance for Crude…how soon it’s able to conquer that level will be fascinating to see…
Declining U.S. shale production has been a major contributing factor behind this year’s move toward global rebalancing in the Oil market, though the global market is still dealing with too much supply…BMI Research says it’s forecasting shale production to drop by 532,000 barrels a day in 2016…however, “production declines have begun to bottom out and we expect the sector to return to growth in 2017, adding 151,000 barrels a day,” the firm added…
In Today’s Morning Musings…
1. How Gold looks in Canadian dollars – valuable clues…
2. Our 6th ETF trade ALERT (5-for-5 so far)…
3. The growing interest in Cobalt…
4. Where’s there’s smoke, there’s fire – CXO identifies at least 6 mineralized trends at Inel…
5. Updates on WRR, ORG and CLE…
Plus more…click here to read the rest of today’s Morning Musings and all BMR exclusive content, through a risk-free Pro, Gold or Basic package, or login with your username and password…
Readers may want to look at TMG-Thermal Energy Intl. Thermal Energy International (TMG) – In the last 10 days TMG shares have gone from 0.05 to 0.16 as of this moment. TMG’s latest financials show $12.4 Million in revenue and $260,000 net income in the last year. TMG also has a massive order backlog which will inevitably turn into higher revenue / profit for the coming fiscal year. They also are buying back up to 10% of their outstanding shares. Yes this company is making money – and is ideally suited for the carbon tax era – as it can save companies big time – customers can recoup their costs in very short order and then realize substantial savings and reduction of carbon exhaust. Investing in TMG would be a nice way to recoup money lost investing in the BC Golden Triangle – what a fiasco that was!
Comment by JoeMichel — October 6, 2016 @ 10:08 am
Huh, is it Friday already, us $ soaring, how on earth this is good for the us I’ll never know…. Only looks good for the democrats, they will fudge numbers because they don’t want what happened to the republicans to happen to them in 2008. Simple as that.
Comment by Laddy — October 6, 2016 @ 3:22 pm
That’s a concern of mine as well, Laddy, that we may get some cooked-up numbers tomorrow…I just don’t trust the Labor Department, but will it be 200,000 instead of 150,000 or 150,000 instead of 100,000?…lots of private data this week, so we know that tomorrow’s jobs report should not show surging growth…if there’s a surprise on the jobs’ side, it really should be to the downside…interesting day coming up…Gold has the potential to swing wildly either way…
Comment by Jon - BMR — October 6, 2016 @ 3:30 pm
Yes Jon, I watched that documentary last weekend, how good was the timing on that for the democrats. My view is they are willing to do anything to get crooked Hillary elected. The American people are going to suffer, and suffer big time. Pretty pathetic, I hope they can see past this, for thier sake.
Comment by Laddy — October 6, 2016 @ 3:50 pm
Anyone care to share Some “Climate” picks? Have done fenomenale with Dynacert
And own CO2 solution.
Comment by Tran — October 7, 2016 @ 3:47 am
Jobs missed, gold up….a good site to see any contract in the world live streamed, Investing.com
Comment by bob — October 7, 2016 @ 4:32 am
156,000 vs. 175,000 expected, unemployment rate ticks up to 5.0%. Average hourly earnings for September matched expectations with an increase of 0.2%. Gold reverses modestly higher in first 20 minutes after numbers, looks good for today. Fed will likely remain divided on rate hike by December, some arguing for it and others advising caution and wanting to stay the course.
Think the trading in Gold has been crazy this week? British Pound overnight saw 6 months of forecasts trade in 6 minutes in a “flash crash”.
Comment by Jon - BMR — October 7, 2016 @ 4:35 am