Monday, June 9, 2014

What Is Better Than Gold As An Inflation Beater?

At Stansberry & Associates, we have a good idea of what investors believe at any given time.
 
We know their deepest fears. We know when they are optimistic. We know when they are deeply pessimistic.
 
So, how do we know all this personal information?
 
By carefully tracking our sales. By tracking which areas of our websites get the most "clicks."
 
It's one thing to fill out a survey. It's an entirely different thing to actually spend your money on investment research... and then put thousands or millions of dollars to work based on that information (more)
 
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The Top 10 Stocks of 2014

Anyone who did not “sell in May and go away” has likely enjoyed stock gains — especially in Nasdaq stocks.
Indeed, the S&P 500 Index closed at 1,920 last Thursday, logging its 13th all-time high of 2014.
And as we closed out May, the broad-based benchmark has soared nearly 2%, putting gains since the start of the year at 3.9%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, meanwhile, has mostly traded sideways. Still, the blue-chip index was on pace to end May in positive territory. It’s up a modest 0.7% so far in 2014.  (more)

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Canada’s looming pension crisis

As the City of Regina debated its largest tax hike in more than a decade, 76-year-old George Malish looked at his household balance sheet to see how he would pay for it all. Taxes were rising, along with utilities and phone bills. Yet Malish’s Old Age Security (OAS) cheque had gone up by just 55 cents a month. “I ask [city officials] to please put their heads together and decide how to divide 50 cents a month and forgo the other increases they are demanding,” he wrote in a letter to the local newspaper, suggesting that politicians and bureaucrats should also try limiting their own wage increase to 55 cents a month.
Despite what he sees as the growing demands on his meagre benefits, Malish considers himself one of the lucky ones when it comes to financing his retirement. Aside from income from CPP and OAS, he receives a company pension after retiring from what he calls “blue-collar work” in 1994. Two decades of inflation have steadily eroded his income, but at least Malish’s pension covers prescription benefits for himself and his wife. “Very few people have that,” he said in an interview. “That’s what’s giving us a very decent living.”  (more)

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Vipshop Holdings Limited (NYSE: VIPS)

Vipshop Holdings Limited, through its subsidiaries, operates as an online discount retailer for various brands in the People’s Republic of China. It offers a range of branded products, including apparel for women, men, and children; fashion goods; cosmetics; home goods and other lifestyle products; footwear; sportswear and sporting goods; luxury goods; and gifts and miscellaneous products. The company provides its branded products through its vipshop.com and vip.com websites, as well as its cellular phone application. Vipshop Holdings Limited was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Guangzhou, the People’s Republic of China.
To review Vipshop’s stock, please take a look at the 1-year chart of VIPS (Vipshop Holdings Limited) below with my added notations:
VIPS
VIPS had been trading sideways from the end of March until the beginning of May. Over that period of time the stock had formed a clear resistance level at $160 (blue) and a strong level of support at $130 (green).  At some point the stock had to break one of those two levels created by the rectangle pattern, and in mid-May the stock broke resistance. The stock should continue moving higher from here.

The Tale of the Tape: VIPS had a level of resistance at $160 and the stock broke that resistance. The ideal long opportunity would be on a pullback down to or near that previous $160 level. On the other hand, one would want to enter a short position on a break back below that level.
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US Weekly Economic Calendar

time (et) report period Actual forecast previous
MONDAY, JUNE 9
  None scheduled        
Tuesday, JUNE 10
7:30 am NFIB small business index May   -- 95.2
10 am Job openings April   -- 4.0 mln
10 am Wholesale inventories April   -- 1.1%
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11
2 pm Federal budget May   -- -$139 bln
Thursday, JUNE 12
8:30 am Jobless claims 6/12   310,000 312,000
8:30 am Retail sales May   0.6% 0.1%
8:30 am Retail sales ex-autos May   0.4% 0.0%
8:30 am Import price index May   0.2% -0.4%
10 am Business inventories April   0.4% 0.4%
FRIDAY, JUNE 13
8:30 am Producer price index May   0.1% 0.6%
9:55 am UMich consumer sentiment June   83.0 81.9
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