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Sorry, I missed everyone yesterday, it was a very interesting day making this one wonder if we are not seeing more hidden central bank selling in a desperate measure to hold Gold Prices down. Sooner or later the shorts will have to fill which I believe will happen somewhere around the $1050 – $1100 range giving a big pump up. Meanwhile today’s action, we are once again seeing continued downward pressure with Gold holding at the $890 to $900 range. Personally, I think we will hold here at the $880 to $900 level, build strength after the Gold coming on the market is absorbed. If we don’t hold here then $850 is the next very strong support level. We’re having a nice little upward correction in the stock markets and this may be the 20% retracement rally traders have been looking for. Mark my words we will soon here remarks like the “bottom is in place for stocks” and “now” is the time to get in at these low levels. After they sucker everyone in then we will see the Stock markets continue in their downward channel. In the meantime take advantage of this to load up on your Gold. Especially since we’ll hear the “double top” formation is in place comments and everyone will be giving up on Gold and Silver. I personally think we are forming a new pennant formation like the one that was formed around the $700- $750 level which then took off to $1000+. Based on that this formation should be the launch pad up to the $1250 level. I am aggressively buying Precious Metals Miners with current or about to come on line production, accumulating some more physical holdings and hanging tight. When I have confirmation I will be re-entering DGP for another ride to at least $1000. I will post when I enter that trade and if you are following me on Twitter you’ll be the first to know. Good Investing! -jschulmansr
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Here you go- Bottom Calling For the Stock Market already!Barron’s Calls a Bottom – Seeking AlphaSure, stocks could slide much further — but they probably won’t. By most measures, they are downright cheap.
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By: Eli Hoffman Senior Editor Seeking Alpha
Barron’s cover story this weekend basically calls a bottom to the bear, though not in quite so many words.
After blaming Obama for much of stock market woes (“The lousy economy is the main factor, but stocks haven’t been helped by Obama administration proposals … It doesn’t help that the Street is calling this an “Obama bear market” and that some investors are looking to “Obama-proof” their portfolios…), Barron’s concedes that the president did get at least one thing right: stocks are cheap for investors with patience.
Barron’s says its research bears that out. Here’s why:
- Stocks are cheap relative to P/E – a Citigroup economist’s 2009 earnings estimate for S&P 500 components puts their collective P/E ratio at more than 13, which is where a bunch of bear markets bottomed – except 1974, ’82 and ’87 when P/E went as low as 8.5. If we get down to 10, S&P could fall another 25% to 500 and DJIA around 5,000. But that probably won’t happen, because in previous downturns Treasury yields were much higher, and because another Citigroup analyst says he’s seeing signs of panic.
- Stocks are cheap relative to GDP – at 60% of the $14T GDP, stocks are their cheapest relative to economic output since the early ’90s. But they’re still well higher than the lows of about 30-35% seen in the ’70s and early ’80s. Stocks are also cheap relative to book value – about 1.3 down from a high of 5 during the dot-com bubble.
- Stocks are cheap relative to gold – S&P 500 is now worth about 75% of the price of an ounce, vs. a peak of more than 5x in 2000. Over the past 40 years, the average stocks-to-gold ratio has been 1.6.
There’s also a lot of cash on the sidelines, Barron’s says, noting money-market funds now hold $4T – almost half of the market cap of U.S. stocks, and double the amount in money-market funds two years ago.
Barron’s expects stocks in defensive industries like drugs (PFE, LLY, MRK, BMY, SGP) and consumer goods (HNZ, KFT, PG, KO, GIS) to benefit from a return of confidence.
For those prone to bottom calling, or not, here’s some more food for thought:
- Babak notes pessimism, as measured by the American Association of Individual Investors’ weekly survey, is at record highs. A contrarian buy signal.
- Todd Sullivan says that a couple weeks of positive economic data could cause extreme pessimism to make a rapid about-face.
- Jason Schwartz thinks we’re in another bubble – one of uncertainty. Forget about buy-and-hold, he says – but short term gains on oversold stocks could be massive.
- Meanwhile Mike Stathis, while noting stocks are very close to “fair value,” for what that’s worth, doesn’t mean the market won’t go lower. In fact, it probably will.
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Here’s a nice piece with some good info about one of my personal longs (ABX).
Gold Mining or Gold Bullion Stocks for 2009? Seeking Alpha
By: Preston Poulter of PrestonPoulter.com
With Obama’s outrageous stimulus plans where the federal government is going to give out billions of dollars of handouts to the demand side of the economy, it’s no wonder gold is gaining ground while stocks have been falling. However, the question remains when is it time to buy? The answer is now. Gold has been consistently in an uptrend since October of last year. This is shown in the chart (click to enlarge) of a major gold ETF (GLD) [GLD: 90.57, -1.72 (-1.86%)] below. As you can see, gold is making a short short term pullback which signals a time to buy. With more talk of spending, including a world wide stimulus package, there is only further pressure on leading countries, currencies such as the U.S. dollar. These inflationary pressures may push gold to break the 2008 highs of around $1056.
But I’m not content just to park my money in physical gold and leave it at that. The trader in me wants to make a leveraged play to make the most off of gold’s bright future. Gold mining shares would seem an excellent play then. Not only do you get exposure to the gold market, but you get the benefits of stock ownership. In the past, whenever I would introduce the idea of owning gold as a form of investment, people would laugh my suggestion off because they just couldn’t imagine how anything would be better than owning “stocks for the long run.” Of course, they aren’t saying that anymore.
Gold mining shares are a nice compromise in terms of investment philosophy. If the American dollar does fall from grace as we goldbugs suggest, then owning shares of a gold mining company will be a tremendous boon. If the dollar continues to stubbornly hang on, and we somehow manage to resume normal economic growth, then I still own equities and should get the traditional benefits of equity appreciation.
The theory of owning gold mining equities is pretty easy, but the reality can be rather treacherous. Should you chose an established company with a lot of reserves or a junior company that mainly has a lot of promising prospects? One is more dependable and the other has the potential to be far more rewarding. It’s a similar discussion to blue chip versus tech stock debate we saw towards the end of last century.
For myself, I wanted an established company. Junior mining companies need a healthy amount of credit to develop their mining operations, and that wasn’t a chance I was prepared to take given the credit collapse of last year. That narrowed my focus down to just a couple of companies: Newmont Mining (NEM) and Barrick Gold (ABX). I chose Barrick because it was the largest mining operation in the world and because, at the time, it was trading at a lower PE ratio than Newmont. As of this writing, Newmont has held up better over the last twelve months as shown in the graph below.
The relative stock performance of the two companies
Really the two companies were performing in tandem until the last month or so. Then Barrick shares had a rather sudden loss of value. Part of this loss of value is probably related to the loss Barrick announced for its fourth quarter. The company was able to sell its gold at a good profit margin, despite the temporary fourth quarter fall in the price of gold, but the company also wrote off a large portion of the value of an oil company it had acquired in the prior year. Like so many decisions that turn out wrongly, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Oil is a significant cost in the mining of gold, so it would make sense to buy an oil company in a rising oil market as a hedge against an increase in the cost of mining. Oil’s subsequent fall caught even Warren Buffett by surprise.
Having to write off the value of an oil company due to a collapse in the oil market seems like a one time event. So let’s instead compare Barrick and Newmont on their forward PE ratios, rather than the past twelve months. Barrick closed yesterday trading at a forward Price-to-Earnings (PE) ratio of 15.71 compared to Newmont’s 16.43, which shows that you’re getting a discount for Barrick’s earnings over Newmont’s. The dividend ratio is even better: Barrick yields 1.4% compared to Newmont’s 1.0%. That’s 40% more money in your pocket for owning Barrick. Looking at these figures suggests Barrick is clearly the better company to own at these prices.
Going forward, it’s only a matter of time before the inflationary policies of the world’s central banks start forcing the gold price higher. However, Barrick will not perform well this year if we don’t see a return in the price of copper. There’s a significant amount of copper tied up in the gold ore that Barrick mines and in the past Barrick has been able to refine and sell it at a nice profit to held reduce the cost of its gold operations. For the year 2006-2008, Barrick was able to sell its copper at over $3 a pound and make a profit of over 50% on the sale. Yesterday copper closed around $1.65. If copper stays at that price the entire year, Barrick’s results will suffer. I’ve run a few simulations in a spreadsheet and here’s the numbers I get:
- If gold averages the year at $950 an ounce and copper stays at $1.65 a pound, Barrick will earn $.94 a share.
- If gold averages $1050 an ounce and copper stays at $1.65 a pound, Barrick will earn $1.78 a share.
- If gold averages $950 an ounce and copper returns to $3 a pound, Barrick will earn $1.51 a share.
As you can see, the return of copper to its former levels is going to be just as significant to Barrick’s earnings as gold appreciating in value.
Since analysts estimate a 2009 EPS of $1.85, Barrick could suffer a significant down year if we don’t start to see copper return soon.
Looking beyond a year, I believe Barrick is positioned well. It is set to make money from an appreciation in copper, oil, or gold. That makes it a great place to be as we feel the effects of inflation, but in the short term gold bullion may represent a better investment.
Disclosure: Barrick common stock represents a significant portion of my investment portfolio.-Preston Poulter
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Gold Continues to Gain Ground – Seeking Alpha
Source: Bullish Bankers – Justin DiPietro
Given the massive amount of money being pumped into the global economic system, higher prices down the road are a given. It’s possible that prices may fall in the short term, but no currency can withstand a determined onslaught by its own central bank and national government for long. I consider gold a no brainer in this environment. It’s a store of value that does well both in inflationary times and, as we saw last year, in deflationary times.
-Justin DiPietro
Disclaimer: None.
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My Note: See the nice little wedge we are forming in the above chart, a little patience and then bang! $1250 here we come! – jschulmansr
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Claim a gram of FREE GOLD today, plus a special 18-page PDF report; Exposed! Five Myths of the Gold Market and find out:
· What’s been driving this record bull-run in gold?
· Why most investors are WRONG about gold
· What Happens When Inflation Kicks In?
· How to buy gold — at low cost with no hassle
Get this in-depth report now, plus a gram of free gold, at BullionVault here…
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Nothing in today’s post should be considered as an offer to buy or sell any securities or other investments; it is presented for informational purposes only. As a good investor, consult your Investment Advisor/s, Do Your Due Diligence, Read All Prospectus/s and related information carefully before you make any investing decisions and/or investments. – jschulmansr
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