Gold Rose Another 10% In February – Best Month Since January 2012
Gold bullion rose 10.1% in February adding to the 7% gains seen in January. This means that gold is the best performing asset this year, up 17% so far in 2016. Silver is the next best performing asset with an 8% gain year to date, followed by US Treasuries (30 Year Bond) which have gained 7.8% so far in 2016.
If it feels like just two weeks ago when Jeffrey Gundlach was spewing almost daily fire and brimstone about the future of the market is because that's precisely when he was doing just that.
Recall on February 8 when we wrote that in an email exchange with Reuters, the DoubleLine chief said "credit fund bankruptcies are coming," adding that "it's not a market to be flopping around in. The trends are relentless and powerful."
In recent weeks Bank of America's new chief technician Stephen Suttmeier has been surprisingly bearish, predicting that the rally is over, as Tom DeMark cautioned yesterday, key support levels are not defended in which case the S&P 500 is looking at a substantially greater drop. Today, his skepticism reached new heights, when he warned that should the failure to break out higher persist then the market is facing a drop to as low ast 1575-1600, something which even Goldman now agrees with.
Below is an excerpt from his latest attempt at a diplomatic guide down:
Excerpted from James Stack's InvesTech.com,
Technical Evidence: Confirming a bear market
With the "generals" finally meeting their reality-maker, investors appear to be questioning the DotCom bubble-like highs as momentum collapses. "Exuberance has turned to panic pretty quickly," notes one asset manager and after a very rapid plunge in recent days, options traders are piling into protection at a pace not seen since Q4 2008.
The Nasdaq-S&P implied vol spread is more than double its 5 year average...
(ignore the spikes as they represent rolls as opposed to trends)