Monday, stocks fell 0.8% in Asia, rose 0.7% in Europe, and fell 0.6% in the U.S. on moderate volume. Precious metals gained 1% and their miners powered three times that amount higher. Tuesday, stocks rose around the world — in Asia 0.9%, in Europe 1.5%, and in the U.S. 2.2% on moderate volume. The VXO plummeted 16% to close well below the 20 benchmark at 18.59, the 10-Year U.S. Treasury Bond yield shot up 5% to close at 1.83, precious metals fell 1%, and their miners lost four times that amount. The reason: bad news, buy-backs, and hope for more central bank stimulus. This broken record is getting very hard to tolerate.
Wednesday, stocks shot up 2.9% in Asia, and rose 0.7% in Europe and the U.S. on moderate volume. Precious metals rose another 1% and their miners rose about three times that amount. Thursday, stock blasted 1.6% higher in Asia, fell 0.5% in Europe and gained 0.7% in the U.S. on moderate volume. Precious metals gained 2% and their miners gained about twice that amount.
While gold had technically moved to a bull market, I remain cautious. The reason for the caution is I believe there is a good possibility of a big market downturn that as it did in 2008 will take gold with it. While earlier this year we did have some good buying opportunities, I’m waiting for even better ones when this bubble finally bursts.
Friday, stocks rose 0.8% in Asia, 0.7% in Europe, and 0.6% in the U.S. on moderate volume. This was just enough to take the closing Dow Jones Industrial Average above 17,000 and the S&P 500 index one cent below the 2000 mark. Earlier in the day, both ndices were higher. Significantly also the VXO ended the week back below the 20 watershed to finish at 18.42.