In the spring of 2015 we showed something unexpected: one of the biggest buyers, and holders, of AAPL stock was none other than the already quite troubled - in the aftermath of its disastrous Swiss Franc peg which ended up costing it tens of billions in losses - largest hedge fund in Switzerland, its central bank, the Swiss National Bank.
While the primary topic of Albert Edwards' most recent note is the question how long China can sustain its FX intervention before tapping out and letting the hedge funds win with their short Yuan bets once total reserves drop below the critical redline of $2.7 trillion (the answer incidentally is between 5 months and 10 months assuming monthly reserve burn rates of $130BN to $60BN), we will skip that part as we have discussed it extensively in the past, and instead will fast forward to some chart porn by the SocGenarian.
Gold And Silver Best Performing Assets – Up 9% and 8% YTD
Gold is 3.6% higher this week and is now over 9% higher year to date. The dollar saw sharp falls this week on growing doubts that the Federal Reserve will be able to raise interest rates. The gains this week were due to increasing concerns about the U.S. and global economy.
GoldCore and Finviz.com
Yesterday, on the way to documenting the malaise China’s hard landing has inflicted on Minnesota’s mining country, we discussed the dramatic impact falling crude prices have had on the American and Canadian oil patches.
After weeks of modest declines, the US Oil Rig Count plunged by 31 to 467 this week - the biggest drop since April 2015 led by a 19 drop in Texas. Total rig count crashed 48 to 571. The reaction, though muted, was a jump in crude prices.
A big plunge - tracking lagged crude perfectly...
Led by Texas in absolute terms - but every region is accelerating in the last 6 months...