Business

Stocks are now on borrowed time.

Corporate buybacks have been the single largest driver of stock prices in the last quarter. Institutional investors have been net sellers for 15 weeks. And individual investors have been pulling capital out of stock funds in record amounts.

This leaves corporate buybacks as the sole driver of stocks. But now that is ending.

Announced buybacks plunged 34% in 1Q16. This is the single largest plunge in announcements since 2009.

As an equal opportunity information-provider, we thought it worth noting that following yesterday's panic-selling puke in precious metals, this morning we are greeted with panic-buying as Gold and Silver spike higher on heavy volume as US stocks open...

8,500 contracts in 4 minutes - or just over a billion dollars notional paper gold bid...

When crude oil prices started to collapse, the great American unwashed were told - day after day - that low oil prices were "unequivocally good" for them. That myth was destroyed as rent, healthcare, and debt-reduction trumped consumer gains. However, as angry Americans are seeing every day now, gas prices at their local pump have been soaring... having never dropped as they should.

Authored by Axel Merk via Merk Investments,

Since the beginning of the year, the greenback has shown it's not almighty after all; and gold - the barbarous relic as some have called it - may be en vogue again? Where are we going from here and what are the implications for investors?

Authored by Michael Lebowitz via 720Global.com,

In his 2016 State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama accused those claiming the American economy is in decline of “peddling fiction”.