Stocks: Take Your Money and Run!

Swiss America’s
Gold News Daily 

4.12.18 – Stocks: ‘Take Your Money and Run’

Gold last traded at $1,341 an ounce. Silver at $16.47 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices retreated Thursday on political backpedaling and a firmer dollar. U.S. stocks rebounded after president Trump said Syria attack may not be imminent.

‘Nervous’ Investors Pile Into Gold ETFs –Bloomberg
“Anxious investors from Germany to China are seeking shelter in gold ETFs. Holdings in all bullion-backed exchange-traded funds tracked by Bloomberg extended their ascent to the highest since 2013, rising for a fourth straight session in the longest run since January. Xetra-Gold, the third-largest commodity-linked ETF, had almost 177 million shares outstanding as of Monday, the most since the Frankfurt-listed fund started trading in 2007. While equities rebounded Tuesday after Chinese President Xi Jinping struck a conciliatory tone in remarks on trade disputes with the U.S., geopolitical angst is driving demand for gold as a haven. ‘We’ve seen volatility risk in the stock market, and geopolitical risk concerning the situation in Russia and the Middle East,’ said Michael Blumenroth, an analyst at Deutsche Bank AG who writes a weekly market report published on Xetra Gold’s website. German investors aren’t alone. China’s Bosera Gold ETF has attracted $610.8 million this year, putting it on course for the biggest annual inflow since it was listed in Shenzhen in 2014. New York-listed iShares Gold Trust has attracted $1.49 billion in 2018, the biggest inflow of all commodity ETFs.”

‘Take your money and run.’ Investor David Tice warns on ‘pretty dangerous’ stock market –CNBC
“The investor known for running a bear fund suggests a stock market crash may be virtually unavoidable – citing Federal Reserve Policy and geopolitical risks. In a note to CNBC, David Tice wrote that investors should ‘take your money and run.’ ‘You guys have enjoyed the party,’ he said Wednesday on CNBC’s ‘Trading Nation.’ ‘There are a lot of people dancing. But I think that could be pretty dangerous. I’d say the last couple of 10 percent declines were a sign that the band is about ready to go home.’ Tice has viewed the February correction as a foreshock – predicting stocks could lose 20 to 25 percent of their value by year’s end…’All this volatility with the VIX having doubled is very, very disturbing,’ said Tice. ‘We’re testing 200-day moving averages on some of the hot stocks like Google and Facebook.’ Tice, who sold his Prudent Bear Fund to Federated Investors in 2008 just as the financial crisis was unfolding, wasn’t in the bear camp much of last year. On ‘Trading Nation’ last July, he urged investors not to bet against stocks. According to Tice, Fed rate hike cycles historically lead to recessions and deep market declines. He says this time is no different because the market is very overvalued. He reiterates that investors should consider buying gold. ‘In this kind of environment with geopolitical uncertainty and trade uncertainty, you’ve got to be in gold,’ Tice said.”

The Zuckerberg Collusion –Wall Street Journal
“What is the main reason Mark Zuckerberg was hauled in front of three committees of Congress? It is because the media connected a long series of dots to suggest the possibility that Russian bots exploited the personal Facebook data obtained by a firm named Cambridge Analytica to . . . put Donald Trump in the White House. Without the link to collusion – an infinitely elastic phrase with no legal meaning – Mr. Zuckerberg never would have had to leave Menlo Park….Despite the legislators’ thunderings about regulation, the likelihood of the House and Senate enacting rules for the web is more remote than Halley’s Comet, due back in 43 years….Mr. Zuckerberg divided his prepared testimony between two subjects. The first, headlined ‘Cambridge Analytica,’ was a proxy for the personal-privacy issue; the other was ‘Russian Election Interference,’ a proxy for the collusion obsession….Zuckerberg said Facebook was aware of ‘traditional’ Russian cyberthreats ‘for years,’ including a group called APT28….Buried beneath the subsequent stampede toward ‘collusion’ was the report’s extensive description of U.S. intelligence’s longstanding, pre-Trump concerns about a Russian ‘network of quasi-government trolls.’….But somehow all this suspected Russian interference wasn’t worth putting in front of American voters until after they elected Donald Trump. Some 15 months later, the Russian-collusion grand opera has degraded into an FBI smash-and-grab operation against Trump lawyer Michael Cohen to find payoffs to porn stars….Of more pressing concern are Mr. Zuckerberg’s thoughts on what he keeps calling the values of the Facebook ‘community.’ Meaning what? A primary criticism of social-media platforms like Facebook is that they expose users to content that encourages ‘hate’ or is ‘hurtful.’ Facebook’s answer to this perceived problem has been to hire some 15,000 people dedicated to ‘community operations and review,’ with more monitors on the way.”

Gold is taking back its crown from bitcoin as best defensive play, strategist says– CNBC
“Gold soared to two-year highs this week as uncertainty rattled the market. The bull run isn’t over yet, says one strategist. ‘I am a buyer. I really do like it,’ Boris Schlossberg, managing director of FX strategy at BK Asset Management, told CNBC’s “Trading Nation” on Wednesday. It’s ‘retaking its mantle as the key defensive asset against bitcoin, which has certainly suffered a lot over the last couple of months.’…Gold’s rise is not a new development, says Chris Verrone, head of technical analysis at Strategas Research Partners. In fact, its rally has been years in the making. ‘This improvement in gold is now about 4 or 5 years old,’ Verrone told CNBC on Wednesday. ‘We have this big base that’s been taking shape really since late 2012.’ Gold prices found a bottom in early December 2015 after hitting a multiyear high in late 2012. Since that low, gold has surged 28 percent to trade at around $1,347 an ounce.”

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