There are a range of factors which drive the Kondratiev waves. Following Schumpeter, we have focused so far on technological innovations. However, debt cycles are also a key. What are they?The debt cycles are comprised of alternate leveraging and deleveraging of debt. The former occurs when people incur debt, increasing the debt-to-income ratio, or the debt-to-assets ratio. The latter is the oppos...Read More

Portfolio Manager, attorney, finance author, a regular guest on North American media. Danielle Park is the author of the best selling myth-busting book "Juggling Dynamite: An insider's wisdom on money management, markets and wealth that lasts," as well as a popular daily financial blog: www.jugglingdynamite.com. Danielle worked as an attorney until 1997 when she was recruited to work for an intern...Read More

The opening salvos have been fired and the body count could soon start piling up. No, I am not talking about the steel and aluminum tariffs announced by Trump a couple of weeks ago (which seemed to be more of a ploy to try and encourage favorable NAFTA/trade negotiations rather than a real act of 'war'). Rather, the sides doing battle now are the world's two biggest economic guns - the U.S....Read More

A positive earnings reaction for Nike is a bright spot on the day, thoughIt's been a wild ride on Wall Street today, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) exploring a nearly 267-point range on both sides of breakeven. Most recently, the blue-chip index was seen trading lower, asuncertainty surrounding a possible government shutdown after President Donald Trump threatened to veto an omnibus...Read More

The market for containerized ferrous scrap imports into India showed signs of softening this week amid poor scrap demand and weaker local steel prices, sources told Metal Bulletin on Friday March 23.Market participants shied away from buying imports at a time of uncertainty in the steel markets after no scrap deals were heard in the Turkish deep sea scrap market for the second consecutive week and...Read More

- Market turmoil as trade war concerns deepen and Trump appoints war hawk Bolton- Oil, gold and silver jump as 'Russia China Hawk' Bolton appointed- Oil up 4%, gold up 2.2% and silver up 1.6% this week (see table)- Stocks down sharply - Nikkei down 4.5%, S&P 4.3% & Nasdaq 5.5%- Bolton scares jittery markets already shell-shocked by US' tariffs against China- Currency wars and trade wars tend to pr...Read More

The junior gold miners' stocks have spent much of the past year grinding sideways near lows, sapping confidence and breeding widespread bearishness. The entire precious-metals sector has been left for dead, eclipsed by the dazzling taxphoria stock-market rally. But traders need to keep their eyes on the fundamental ball so herd sentiment doesn't mislead them. The juniors' recent Q4 results...Read More

China isn't ruling out the possibility of scaling back purchases of US Treasuries in response to tariffs put in place by President Trump.Continue...Read More

The stocks initially jumped on rumors the companies could potentially combineShares of Kroger Co (NYSE:KR) and Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) popped at the open after a Fast Company report suggested the two retailers were in merger talks -- following last year's purchase of Whole Foods by Amazon (AMZN). Both KR and TGT have since pared a portion of their earlier gains after CNBC nixed the takeover...Read More

HighlightsBill Murphy of GATA.org returns with his perspective on the PMs sector. Savvy central banks around the globe recognize the strategic significance of bullion as sound money as seen by the continuing trend of PMs accumulation. Russia recently added several tons of 70 lbs. silver bars to the national stockpile. The silver bullion market is vulnerable to a short-squeeze, merely one billion...Read More

March 23 (Reuters) - Gold prices rose to a two-week high early Friday on a softer dollar as investors scurried to safety after U.S. President Donald Trump took a step towards long-promised anti-China tariffs, stoking fears of a global trade war.FUNDAMENTALS* U.S. gold futures GCcv1 for April delivery rose 0.7 percent to $1,337.10 per ounce.* Against a basket of currencies, the dollar index .DXY wa...Read More

"If 'a picture is worth a thousand words,' how many words is this worth?????" Michael Avenatti tweeted. Continue...Read More

Prices for Brazil-origin steel slab remained unchanged this week, but the market expects there to be increases after the country was temporarily exempted from tariffs related to the Section 232 investigation on steel imports in the United States.Metal Bulletin's weekly assessment of Brazil's slab export prices was $580-590 per tonne fob on Friday March 23, stable from the previous week.Most Brazil...Read More

Options activity has been very bearish on PFE Blue chip pharma name Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) is trading lower today following news the company's anti-smoking product, Chantix, didn't meet its goals in a late-stage study. The study was aimed at adolescent smokers aged 12 through 17. As such, PFE shares are down 0.7% at $35.35, sandwiched between their year-to-date breakeven mark of $36.22 and the all...Read More

China began buying key Chinese stocks in an effort to support its stock market on Friday, people familiar with the matter saidContinue...Read More

This article was written for Miles Franklin by Gary Christenson.The movie "Thelma and Louise" was released in 1991. One theme it discussed was "crossing over" or going beyond the point of no return. The consequences were tragic.Markets occasionally experience "Thelma and Louise" (T&L) moments when they "cross over" into a new phase. The results are usually traumatic. Now is a good time to call M...Read More

BEIJING (Reuters) - China urged the United States on Friday to avoid taking bilateral trade relations to a “dangerous place”, the Chinese commerce ministry said in a statement on Friday, responding to planned U.S. tariffs following an intellectual property probe.The commerce ministry said in a statement that China hopes the United States will pull back “from the brink”, and...Read More

China's rebar prices fell sharply in both the domestic and export markets on Friday March 23 after futures plunged in response to the country's brewing trade war with the United States. Domestic Eastern China (Shanghai): 3,500-3,580 yuan ($553-566) per tonne, down 110-120 yuan per tonne Northern China (Beijing): 3,750-3,780 yuan per tonne, down 80 yuan per tonne US President Donald Trump unveiled...Read More

Additional price-target hikes could be on the way for the outperformerNetApp Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) stock is higher today, up 1.7% at $63.21,after Piper Jaffray raised its price target to $72 from $60 -- territory not charted in 17 years. After meeting with management, the analyst in coverage believes the software firm is well-positioned to take advantage of next-generation technologies, and upped hi...Read More

There are a range of factors which drive the Kondratiev waves. Following Schumpeter, we have focused so far on technological innovations. However, debt cycles are also a key. What are they? The debt cycles are comprised of alternate leveraging and deleveraging of debt. The former occurs when people incur debt, increasing the debt-to-income ratio, or the debt-to-assets ratio. The latter is the o...Read More