The market wires are ablaze recently with news that all is well in the relationship between Athens and the elites of the Euro-Zone. The Greek bailout is a fait accompli. The markets are responding with a relief rally that has taken the pressure off of stock and commodity markets internationally since the beginning of July.
All is quiet on the Western Front, one would think. The nagging question is: where is all this money to bailout debtor nations going to come from? Indeed, the Greek Canary is singing. Perhaps we should pay attention to its song as he is being accompanied by the melody of the steady beat of the printing presses.
It has been the contention of Gold Stock Trades, that QE3 is being skillfully engineered by our economic mavens. It matters little what moves are being played in this masterful chess play. What is of import is the end game.
The moves en route to checkmate may be devious or disguised. The important consideration is the player’s basic strategy. The skillful chess master makes his moves by whatever deceptions are necessary to achieve his tactical goals. At the same time, his opposition is guided into a snare.
Gold Stock Trades subscribers should avoid becoming pawns in what is essentially a series of moves designed to entrap the unwary player.
Questions must be asked. Was the current move into cash (NYSE: UUP, Stock Forum), treasuries (NYSE: TLT, Stock Forum) and liquidity the way to go as QE2 expired? Is gold (NYSE: GLD, Stock Forum) and silver (NYSE: SLV, Stock Forum) bullion the proper play? Or is it time for the miners (NYSE: GDX, Stock Forum) to play catch up?
As we ponder over the economic chessboard, we sense that the basic direction is toward the use of economic stimuli in whatever guises are necessary.
A few weeks ago, we saw the oil surprise in order to bring down commodity prices as a fiscal stimulant as well as the successive margin rate hikes from the Comex in Silver. Recently, the Fed was off the hook for a couple of months.
Heretofore, the Fed was criticized as facilitating the rise in commodities. Recently they posed as a stabilizer of prices while monetizing mounting debt burdens. In line with this, increasing the U.S. debt ceiling becomes a done deal. Politicians can now go on their vacations and present themselves to their constituencies as the saviors of their cherished entitlements.
Gold pulled back to its multi-year trend support. Oversold levels were hit and we have witnessed a rally over a $100 an ounce rally in two weeks. A healthy consolidation is expected and welcomed after such a move as it moves to our late January 2011 target of $160. (See Video from ©thestreet.com predicting $1600 gold, $40 Silver.)
This healthy correction in precious metals and commodities and dead cat bounce in the U.S. dollar has been normal and necessary. It was from these oversold conditions that a major up move formed in late June similar to what we saw in August through September of 2010 and February through April 2011.
The gold miners (NYSE: GDX, Stock Forum) are showing good relative strength versus the bullion. The critical $52.50 retracement level showed support as it tested 2011 lows.
The recent successful retest and reversal, regaining its long term trend indicates that the summer “goldrums” (© Gold Stock Trades) for miners may be ending. Many of our mining recommendations showed that a bottom was forming ahead of bullion. Just like miners began reversing lower before bullion in April, miners began turning higher before bullion in this recent move higher. We are witnessing the divergence between miners and bullion close as the undervalued equities have shown impressive relative strength. Do not be surprised if precious metals and miners consolidate after such an impressive reversal over the past few weeks.