• Gold Prices Set for Further Fall
  In the not-so-distant past arguing that precious metals prices were setup to fall generally elicited a response which was not real pleasant. In fact, during gold’s infamous bull market rally on several occasions I called for pullbacks which regardless of the accuracy of my call generated hate mail that seemingly never ended.
  Fast forward to the present and hardcore gold bugs remain transfixed on the idea that precious metals must rise. The gold bull market has ended, at least for now and those still holding the bag are looking at large losses from the all time highs set back in 2011.
• Adobe Systems (NSDQ: ADBE): On the Fast Track to Growth
  The 2000 technology bust and subsequent collapse of the high-flying Nasdaq left many investors with the perception that technology is a high-risk, volatile sector that’s only appropriate for the most aggressive growth investors.
  That sentiment is downright anachronistic. The S&P 500 Information Technology Index has a beta of 0.96 over the past five years; indexes with betas lower than 1.0 are less volatile than the broader market. More important, technology stocks have outperformed the broader market by a sizable margin despite their below-average risk. (See “Tech Sector Shines.”)
• Ron Paul In Praise of Private Charity
  One of the great fallacies of our time is that if government doesn’t do something, no one will. Its corollary is that if you are opposed to the government doing something, that you are opposed to anyone performing that function at all. These disastrous fallacies color much of our national debate concerning heath care, education, poverty, housing, and disaster relief, and other issues.
• Gold Stocks Failed Bottom Initiates Start of Capitulation
  It was only a week ago we felt the gold stocks had a great chance of putting in a bottom. Monday supported our thesis but after Tuesday’s action and Bernanke’s jawboning it was apparent that the gold shares were in for a very difficult period. We immediately went long DUST to hedge long positions and trimmed some of our most vulnerable positions. We aren’t day traders personally or professionally (in our service) but sometimes you have to be considering the day to day volatility in this sector. Having accounted for the short-term, the next move is to gameplan for a potential major bottom in the sector.
• Stocks Have Reached the Euphoria Stage
  The last bull ended when the leading stock, GOOG, entered a parabolic "bubble" phase. That was the signal that the bull had reached the euphoria stage. When the GOOG bubble popped it signaled the end of the bull market.
• Real Interest Rates, The Key To Reading The Gold Bull
  Mark Motive writes: After peaking at $1,780 in late February, gold dropped over $100 in March, finishing the month at $1,662.50.
  Whenever there is a big move up or down, we all naturally seek confirmation and reassurance of our investment strategy, which is why investors must use objective measures to evaluate and re-evaluate their positions.
• Obama’s Supreme Court Rebuff
  Many Americans still revere the Supreme Court. As one of the three branches of the Federal government, confidence in their conduct and authority is usually higher than Congress or the Presidency. Yet when a real or contrived constitutional crisis develops, the screams and indignation arise and point to a convenient culprit. The current Obamacare case before this court has all the trappings of a full-blown confrontation. The reason is simple. The underlying question before the Supremes is not purely a legal matter. At stake is whether this country is actually a government under laws. Alternatively, is it an authoritarian dictatorship nuisance by irritating lawful restraints?
• New Lumia 900 Smartphone to Breathe Life into Nokia
  David Zeiler writes:
  After a rocky couple of years, Nokia Corp. (NYSE ADR: NOK) has a plan for a comeback, and it starts with the release of the new Lumia 900 smartphone.
  The Lumia 900, which went on sale in the United States yesterday (Sunday), is the fruition of last year’s deal with Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) to put the Windows Phone operating system on Nokia smartphones.
• Coal Stocks Are Historically Cheap – Here’s What You Need to Know
  Patrick Vail writes:
  The U.S. coal industry is facing a perfect storm and has taken a beating recently, bringing coal stocks down with it.
  According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), electricity generated by coal was down more than 20% in 2011. So it’s no surprise that U.S. coal producers have been hit, and their valuations stand at 15-year lows.

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• Has the Stock Market Topped?
  The current MAP wave count on the S&P 500, 4H-1 of D-1 of W-1 of M-3, indicates we are at the point of a major correction which would be confirmed with a break below 1391.
• The Worst of All Monetary Policies, The Boom That Must End in Depression
  I. Monetary Expansion Is Kept Going
  In monetary analyses, the balance sheet of the commercial banking sector is typically kept separate from the balance sheet of the US Federal Reserve (Fed). However, combining the two balance sheets might be much more informative.
  First, adding up the business volumes of commercial banks and the Fed provides a (much) better insight into the expansion of the monetary sector as a whole over time — especially so in times of the financial and economic “crisis.”
• Blythe Masters Speaks Out On JPM and Market Manipulation
  A number of people have asked me what I think about Blythe Masters’ interview on CNBC in which she categorically denies that JPM is involved in anything but legitimate hedging of customer positions in the silver market.

  I think a detailed description of all of JPM’s hedging positions in the futures and derivatives market, and the related customers and bullion holdings, should be supplied to Gary Gensler’s CFTC as government regulator so they can look them over.    That is what the CFTC has been asked by the people who pay them, the investing public, to do.

• Gold Reality Check
  For well over a decade GATA has been “ranting” about the evils of the Fed and how the world economy is going to collapse in a heap.

  Of course, there is an element of truth in all their arguments but the fact is that the world economy has not collapsed in a heap.

  “Oh but it will, it will, trust us, it will.”

• America’s Middle Class is Being Wiped Out, Soon to be a Nation With a Very Tiny Elite
  End of the American Dream writes: The middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence in the United States today. America is a nation with a very tiny elite that is rapidly becoming increasingly wealthy while everyone else is becoming poorer. So why is this happening? Well, it is actually very simple. Our institutions are designed to concentrate wealth in the hands of a very limited number of people. Throughout human history, almost all societies that have had a big centralized government have also had a very high concentration of wealth in the hands of the elite. Throughout human history, almost all societies that have allowed big business or big corporations to dominate the economy have also had a very high concentration of wealth in the hands of the elite. Well, the United States has allowed both big government and big corporations to grow wildly out of control. Those were huge mistakes. Our founding fathers attempted to establish a nation where the federal government would be greatly limited and where corporations would be greatly restricted. Unfortunately, we have turned our backs on those principles and now we are paying the price.
• Nothing in Washington Is Worth Your Money, Including the "think-tanks"
  The Washington Beltway is a war zone. It is the battleground over what the United States government does and what it does not do. It does a great deal.
  Conservatives send tens of millions of dollars each year to Beltway resistance organizations. Some of them are called think tanks. They are dedicated mainly to getting the federal government to do other things, or else to do evil things without spending as much money. These organizations promote this idea: “Running government like a business.” Whenever you hear this, think of a serious business: Cosa Nostra.
• Greening The Desert
  In the real world, the non-polar deserts are growing at a rapid rate, totally overwhelming the small but valiant attempts at pushing them back.  http://hqweb.unep.org/geo/GDOutlook/
  One neglected cause among many includes the annihilation of tropical forests.  These contain 600 billion tons of carbon, equivalent to about 4.6 trillion barrels of oil or 145 years of oil-burning at the present annual rate of 32 billion barrels a year. This amount of carbon is almost as much as is contained in the atmosphere, but much of it is likely to be released into the atmosphere in the next decades by uncontrolled logging and deforestation.
• U.S. Job Creation Just Trying to Keep Up Wth Population Growth
  Today’s employment numbers were decidedly soft, but the unemployment rate went down anyway, and that is about the best you can say. And this being a holiday weekend, it provides us an opportunity to look deep into the employment numbers, while we put off thinking about Spain for at least a week. And who knew that being an unmarried Asian-American in the US was a risk for unemployment? Plus a few other interesting items will make for an interesting letter.
• Savings, investment, and the Keynesian preference – a follow-up
  There is a general belief that government finances are somehow immune from the financial reality faced by everyone else – an illusion fostered by bond markets and supported by the public’s wishful thinking. Look no further than the plight of the eurozone for evidence of the reality. Not only that, but history tells us that countries regularly default, yet we continue to buy government bonds in the belief they are less risky than any private sector debt. And if we begin to question the status quo, we are even told by financial regulators that government debt is less risky than anything else. Banking regulation enshrines it in Basel Committee guidelines, and modern portfolio theory – which guides securities regulation – casts it in stone.

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• US Stock Market Downtrend Appears Underway
  After making a new uptrend high on monday US markets then began to weaken throughout the holiday shortened week. The SPX/DOW were -0.95% and the NDX/NAZ were mixed. Asian markets were quite mixed again -0.2%, but European markets were all lower for the third week in a row -2.9%. On the economic front positive reports outnumbered negative reports 8 to 6. On the uptick: ISM manufacturing, factory orders, auto sales, the M1-multiplier, investor sentiment, the WLEI, plus both weekly jobless and the unemployment rate improved. On the downtick: construction spending, ADP, ISM services, monthly payrolls, consumer credit and the monetary base. Next week we’ll get reports on the CPI/PPI, Export/Import prices, the twin deficits and the FED’s beige book.
• It’s Time to Change the Way You Think About the Stock Market
  The Daily Crux: What does it mean to value a stock as a business? How does it differ from the way most investors think about investing?  
   
  Dan Ferris: Let’s start by considering what a stock actually is. In simple terms, a share of stock represents a share of an actual business.  
• War Torn Iraq and Free Market Capitalism
  In the course of my deployments to Iraq I learned a great deal about economics, though I didn’t realize it at the time. I hadn’t yet been introduced to the Austrian School or a Rothbardian view of laissez-faire capitalism. Looking back, however, I can see quite clearly that in several important areas voluntary systems not only existed in that country but thrived.
• Wall Street Numbers Game Played at High Speed by Powerful Computers Trading Complex Derivatives
  There’s plenty of blame for the financial crisis being spread around. Those on the left say Wall Street wasn’t regulated enough, while those on the right claim government mandates required lenders to make bad loans. The argument is made that the Federal Reserve was too loose, while the other side says Bernanke wasn’t loose enough. Some blame greed. Others blame Wall Street’s investment products. And then there’s mathematics.
• Gold and Silver Price Manipulation – "High Frequency Shearing"
  In this video with RT Capital Account’s Lauren Lyster, Mike Maloney talks about a mission critical topic for gold and silver investors—manipulation. Governments and central banks around the world manage the action of markets to maintain an illusion of prosperity, but Mike calls gold and silver the “canaries in the coal mine.”
• Discouraged U.S. Workers NOT THE REASON for decline in March Unemployment Rate
  Civilian Unemployment Rate: 8.2% in March, down one notch from February. Cycle high jobless rate for the recent recession is 10.0%, registered in October 2009.
  Payroll Employment: +120,000 jobs in March vs. +240,000 in February. Private sector jobs increased 121,000 after a gain of 233,000 in February. A net gain of 4,000 jobs due to revisions of payroll estimates of January and February.
• Gold Junior Stocks Available at Bargain Prices
  What do the gold market and the weather have in common? You can forecast both, but predict neither, according to Brien Lundin, chief executive of Jefferson Financial and publisher of Gold Newsletter. Lundin, who also organizes the New Orleans Investment Conference, isn’t focusing on if there will be rain or sun in the market, he told The Gold Report in this exclusive interview. He’s slowly accumulating juniors on the cheap that have big news in the forecast.
• Learning to Think in Multiple Scales and U.S. Jobs Creation
  Most politicians, bureaucratic officials, business "leaders", mainstream academics and media pundits in the world are stuck in a single-scale mindset. They approach every problem and issue from the perspective of a human being looking out into an increasingly inter-dependent global society. They take the structures of extensive trade, multinational corporations, global regulatory institutions, international treaties, etc. as irreversible truths that are embedded into the very fabric of existence.
• Silver Trend Reversal or Higher Future Profits?
  Yellow and silver are our favorite colors, but red is what we are seeing on the boards this week after the U.S. central bank dashed hopes for more monetary stimulus and a weakened euro weighed on sentiment. Silver and gold were caught in a broad market sell-off which spread across commodities and equities. Bullion lost more than 3 percent over two days after the U.S. Federal Reserve released minutes from its last policy meeting which showed policy makers were less inclined to launch more monetary stimulus. This was strange since the Fed did not explicitly take QE3 off the table. In fact, according to the minutes, if the recovery stumbles, or if inflation is too low, the Fed is already prepared to launch QE3. Press accounts report that the sentiment dimmed precious metals’ appeal as an inflation hedge.

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• Gold QE3 Scares
  Sellers hammered gold again this week on news from the Fed.  The minutes from its latest FOMC meeting convinced traders the odds for a third round of quantitative easing are waning.  This was the latest in a long line of QE3 scares that have become the bane of gold’s existence.  But they are merely a distraction from the Fed’s ongoing massive monetary inflation behind the scenes, which is very bullish for gold.
• Dr. Copper Leads the Breakout in Commodities Prices
  Don Miller writes:
  Demand for commodities of all kinds is ramping up at breakneck speed. And despite fears of a slowdown in China’s economic growth, Dr. Copper is leading the rise in commodities prices.
  Copper earned that nickname because it’s thought to be a bellwether on the health of the global economy, thanks to its numerous economic uses.
• How and Why of Silver Price Manipulation
  Peter Krauth, Global Resources Specialist, Money Morning :
  No one knows the machinations of the day-to-day silver price better than Ted Butler.

  Ted publishes bi-weekly commentary at www.butlerresearch.com, with a special focus on the silver market, which he’s been closely following for over 30 years. Ted is an expert’s expert.

• The Reserve Fiat Currency Triffin Dilemma Will Create a 3-G World
  Trade imbalances – deficits and surpluses – between nations are one of the major reasons for financial crises. Countries become trapped in a vicious spiral – they accumulate debt because they are sustaining a trade deficit, the bigger their debt grows year after year, the harder it becomes to generate a trade surplus.
• Killing the golden goose that lays the golden egg
  In the first quarter of 2012 we have seen a few high profile criticisms of the gold standard. Reading them back now, and considering it’s Easter time, I was reminded of a famous fable.
  ‘The goose that lays the golden egg’ is a fable in which a farmer and his wife are fortunate enough to have a goose which day after day produces a golden egg. The eggs are produced regularly and therefore the couple could rely on this source of income.
• Gold Investor Opportunity Window
  “Investments that are denominated in a given currency include money-market funds, bonds, mortgages, bank deposits, and other instruments. Most of these currency-based investments are thought of as “safe.” In truth they are among the most dangerous of assets.”
   
  Warren Buffet, Fortune Magazine, 2/9/2012
• What Happens to Gold if We Enter a Recession or Great Depression?
  Jeff Clark, Casey Research : Mayan prophecies aside, many of the senior Casey Research staff believe that economic, monetary, and fiscal pressures could come to a head this year. The massive buildup of global debt, continued reckless deficit spending, and the lack of sound political leadership to reverse either trend point to a potentially ugly tipping point. What happens to our investments if we enter another recession or – gulp – a depression?
• Public Pension Funds: Tens of Billions at Significant Risk
  To meet ambitious investment return targets, some public pension funds must now swing for the fences.
  But many are down two strikes already, due to their previous big bets with hedge funds.
• Elliott Wave Diagonal Straight Shot to a Market Trading Opportunity
  Today we sit down with Elliott Wave International’s Futures Junctures Editor and Senior Tutorial Instructor Jeffrey Kennedy to discuss his favorite wave pattern of all: the diagonal.
  EWI: You say if you had to pick just ONE of all 13 known Elliott wave structures to spend the rest of your technical trading life with, it would be the diagonal. First, tell us what the diagonal is.

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• Why the ECB Expanded Its Balance Sheet By Over $1 trillion in Less Than Nine Months
  Between July 2011 and today, the ECB has expanded its balance sheet by an incredible $1+ trillion: more than the Fed’s QE 2 and QE lite combined (and in just a nine month period).
  This rapid and extreme expansion of the ECB’s balance sheet (again it was greater than QE lite and QE2 combined… in nine months) indicates the severity of the banking crisis in Europe. You don’t rush this much money out the door this fast unless you’re facing something very, very bad.
• Call This Financial Repression? Really?
  Financial repression this ain’t. Not unless you like playing victim…
  All of a sudden, everyone’s talking about financial repression – the capture and torture of domestic savers with below-inflation rates of interest, so that banking and government debt shrinks in real terms.
• Do you trust the banks? Is there money under your bed? Gold Safe Alternative
  Last month it was reported that over £5.6 billion in cash is estimated to be kept in peoples’ homes; out of the banking system
  It works out at around £270 per person; this is a lot of money to be sat around avoiding the banking system.
  The statistic was announced by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), the body responsible for compensating savers when a bank fails; an organisation which bases its entire existence on an un-backed paper money system.
• Lithium Rare Earths Critical Metal for Green Energy Technologies
  Rare and critical metals are playing a crucial role in recent scientific advancements, especially in the environmental technologies and energy sectors. These advancements in today’s and tomorrow’s green technology are driving industrial countries like the United States to allocate significant funding for breakthroughs in alternative fuels for vehicles and alternative energy storage.
• US scores own goal on Gold
  Will Bancroft takes a look at America and the West’s decision to force Iran out of the global payments system, SWIFT, and what these geo-politics mean for investors. Read more to learn if Washington may have stumbled again in its management of the dollar.
• Asian Gold Demand Still Lacking as Vietnam Bans Monetary Use
  GOLD and SILVER ticked higher from Wednesday evening’s 3-month lows in London on Thursday, going into the long Easter weekend with gold trading 0.7% higher against the US Dollar.

  Silver bullion rallied 2.2% from last night’s low, but held one-third below the 3-decade peak near $50 per ounce hit at Easter 2011.

• Don’t Catch Economic Recovery Fever
  Gold has been holding steady in the the $1,600-$1,800 band since early October. This could be attributed to consolidation after last summer’s historic run up to $1,895, but I think this wait-and-see attitude reflects current market sentiment toward the US dollar.
• The Student Loan Bubble is the Next Subprime Trillion Dollar Sinkhole
  Martin Hutchinson writes:
  Don’t look now but there’s another giant bubble out there. It’s so big it rivals subprime.
  I’m talking about the student loan bubble. Recently, the outstanding volume of student loans passed $1 trillion. What’s more bothersome is that the average individual amount owed by new college graduates has passed $25,000.
• Jim Rogers “I Will Buy Moreâ€� Gold – Still Long Term Bullish
  Gold’s London AM fix this morning was USD 1,622.50, EUR 1,239.21, and GBP 1,022.82 per ounce. Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,631.75, EUR 1,239.65 and GBP 1,027.75 per ounce.
  Silver is trading at $31.36/oz, €24.00/oz and £19.80/oz. Platinum is trading at $1,595.75/oz, palladium at $635.80/oz and rhodium at $1,350/oz.

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• Where and When to Place Your Gold Investment Bets?
  Jeff Clark, Casey Research : Let’s explore the advantages of saving in gold and silver over dollars. Here’s a hypothetical look at what could occur over the remainder of this decade.
  The charts below compare saving $100/month in gold and silver vs. an interest-bearing money-market account. For our projections, we assumed gold’s average annual gain of 18% since 2001 will continue through 2020. For the money-market account, we used an annual interest rate of 1% in 2012 and added 0.5% each year, so that by 2020 it’s earning 5%.
• Is it Safe to Start Buying Gold Stocks Yet?
  One of the most common questions I field from my forecast and trading subscribers is can we buy Gold stocks yet? We have seen Gold consolidating and correcting following a 34 fibonacci month rally that I discussed last fall was going to top out around 1900 per ounce. This type of rally went from October of 2008 to August of 2011 and we saw Gold rally from $680 to $1900 per ounce during that time.
• Is the Chinese Economy Driving Gold Prices?
  We sometimes miss the bigger picture, when we focus solely on the U.S. economy. This certainly seemed like the case in 2011, when precious metals corrected sharply in the second half of the year, despite a new U.S. easing effort in the form of ‘operation twist’. In particular, we can take our eye off the Chinese economy, which I shall examine below.
• Stock Market Rally Beginning of the End
  As convincing as this rally has been I am confident this is an ending phase and not the start a new secular bull market. Actually the bear market began last year in May but was temporarily aborted by massive Central Bank printing. Let me explain.
  The last four year cycle that started in 2002 and bottomed in 2009 was the longest four year cycle in history. It was stretched to these extreme lengths by Bernanke’s desperate strategy of debasing the currency to avoid the bear market that should have begun in 2006. Instead the stock market cycle stretched all the way into the spring of 2009.
• Crude Oil Under Pressure
  Let’s notice that today’s swoon in nearby NYMEX crude oil has pressed to a new corrective low at 101.49 off its March 1 high at $110.55. It just so happens that this morning’s new low for the move has not been confirmed by my 4-hour RSI momentum gauge, which is our first warning signal that the selling pressure might be drying up for oil and the U.S. Oil Fund ETF (USO).
• TSA, Promoting a Gestapo State Whilst Pretending to Oppose it
  Becky Akers writes: Nero fiddled while Rome burned. And Congress holds hearings on the TSA while the agency sexually assaults passengers, steals their valuables, torments children, the elderly and handicapped, and spits on the Constitution.
• Uncle Sam Is Choking on Data, The Totalitarian Moron
  At the end of this report, I will provide a link to an article I published on steps that you can take to keep Web-based data-gathering companies from collecting data on your Web viewing activities.
  You cannot stop this altogether. Too much data comes from your financial transactions. The FBI and other intelligence agencies are now buying data from private firms. In effect, they are outsourcing data-collection.
• Gold Sinks to 3-Month Low as Fed "Distances Itself" from Further QE Stimulus
  THE U.S. DOLLAR gold price hit its lowest level since early January on Wednesday morning, when it sank to $1622 an ounce ahead of US markets open.
  Silver prices dropped to $31.76 an ounce – a fall of 1.7% for the week so far, but still just above last week’s low.
• Why Google Android Can’t Compete With Apple’s iPhone
  David Zeiler writes:
  There’s an inherent flaw in Google Inc.’s (Nasdaq: GOOG) Android operating system.
  The flaw isn’t a technical glitch.
  In fact, most agree that Google’s Android is a first-rate mobile operating system that has gotten better with each update. Some even prefer it to Apple’s iOS.

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• Investing in a Low Interest Rate Market
  Jason Jenkins writes: For the last year, the effective federal funds interest rate has been 0.25%. The federal funds rate is considered one of the most important interest rates in the U.S. markets.
  The federal funds rate is used to control the supply of available funds and hence, inflation and other interest rates. Raising the rate makes it more expensive to borrow. That lowers the supply of available money, which increases the short-term interest rates and helps keep inflation in check. Lowering the rate has the opposite effect, bringing short-term interest rates down.
• The Best Exit Strategy for Any Investment
  So… when do YOU sell?

  What? You don’t know? How could you not have any kind of plan?

  Let’s say you hold shares of Apple today at over $600 a share. You bought them a couple months ago below $400 a share. When is the right time to sell?

• UK Interest-only mortgage house arrest
  There has been a sudden surge in lenders reducing the LTVs on interest-only mortgages to just 50%, placing them firmly out of the reach of the majority of borrowers.
  Lenders cite this as ‘prudent’ borrowing but anyone who currently has an interest-only mortgage at a higher LTV than 50% needs to consider their limited options quickly.
• Gold New Rally Phase?
  Although spot gold remains stuck between a set of convergent support and resistance lines derived from the Mar 11 rally peak at $1717.36, my near-term pattern work argues that what looks like a coil is really the initiation of a new rally phase off of the Mar 22 low at $1631.89.
• Italian Bonds/Economic Data/Materials Raise Caution Flag
  Our models remain bullish longer-term, but we have some concerns on a shorter-term time horizon. The yield on a ten-year Italian bond has crept back up over 5%, a level which was last seen just prior to recent corrections/big drops in stock prices (see purple arrows below). Economic data has started to weaken relative to expectations in a similar manner to what we saw in spring 2011 (blue arrow below).
• Game Changer for Gold and Stocks
  I am not preaching to the converted however most if not all readers will know that the US banking system is in trouble as evidenced by QE1, QE2 and now suggestions of QE3. Governments would not offer or provide the monstrous bailouts and deposit guarantees unless this was the case. The European bank has also taken steps to prop up their banking system since 2008, with in excess of US$1.2T in new support in the past 4 months. This is a global phenomenon made necessary due to the gradual debt collapse, a deleveraging process that will persist for many years to come.
• Gold Stocks Cheap or Silver Stocks Expensive?
  Although Gold prices are off their highs of 2011, they still remain at a reasonably high level.
  From the chart below, we can see that Gold and Silver are highly correlated:
• Why the Fed Will Be Powerless to Stop The Real Crash
  Over the last two years, I’ve been caught into believing a Crash was coming several times. In some ways I was right: we got sizable corrections of 15+%. But we never got the REAL CRASH I thought we would because the Fed stepped in.
  So what makes this time different?
• Gold Market To See Little Business This Week with India Striking and China Closed
  WHOLESALE MARKET prices to buy gold dropped to $1672 an ounce Tuesday lunchtime in London – a 0.7% fall from the previous day’s high – while stocks and commodities traded lower and US Treasury bond prices rose ahead of the release of the latest Federal Reserve policy meeting minutes.

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• Oh Canada! Imposing Economic Austerity on the World’s Most Resource-rich Country
  Even the world’s most resource-rich country has now been caught in the debt trap.  Its once-proud government programs are being subjected to radical budget cuts—cuts that could have been avoided if the government had not quit borrowing from its own central bank in the 1970s. 
• iShares MSCI Malaysia Index Fund At The Nexus Of Many Positive Trends in Malaysia
  Malaysia traditionally has been viewed as a backward economy with a very defensive market. As a general rule, the Malaysian market tends to perform best relative to other Asian markets during periods of higher oil prices. That’s because Malaysia is a net exporter of oil.
• Ron Paul on The Supreme Court and Obamacare
  Last week the Supreme Court heard arguments concerning the constitutionality of the Obamacare law, focusing on the mandate requiring every American to buy health insurance or pay fines enforced by the IRS. Hopefully the Court will strike down this abomination, but we must recognize that the federal judiciary has an abysmal record when it comes to protecting liberty. It’s doubtful the entire law will be struck down. Regardless, the political left will continue its drive toward a single-payer, government run health care system.
• German Bunds Interest Rate Yield Pressing Support
  Starting a new month and a new quarter, U.S. 10 year YIELD remains rangebound, but looking like it is in a down-loop towards 2.00% again.
  In our comparison chart between U.S. and German yield, notice that German 10-year yield is pressing against its key support plateau, and looks like it is about to break down, which probably is a warning either that some other negative surprise is approaching in Europe, or that the German economy is about to sputter — or both. All of this will negatively impact U.S. growth and press Treasury yield lower, also impacting the iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT).
• Marc Faber Says Japanese Stocks Will Outperform All Other Stock Markets in 2012
  Marc Faber, publisher of the Gloom, Boom and Doom Report, spoke to Bloomberg Television’s Betty Liu this morning and said that the “Japanese market may outperform all the other markets against all expectations in 2012.”
  Faber said that investors “should be very careful at this stage” because he believes that “earnings may begin to disappoint” and “corporate profit margins could deteriorate.” Also that “the economy has bottomed out, but is far from robust.”
• The blind spot surrounding the 2005 ‘major restructuring’ of the Goldman / Greek secret loan
  The EU Commission was at the forefront of the response to the revelation in 2010 of irregularities in Greece’s government statistics and in particular the 2.8bn Euros secret loan it received from Goldman Sachs in 2001 (Bloomberg). Has it delivered, and has parliamentary oversight been adequate? 

  We tried to answer in a December 2011 article by comparing the results of a thorough audit from Eurostat with initiatives from legislative bodies in the EU and the UK and the bank’s communication (MarketOracle). In short, there were serious lapses that point to a deception. 

• Gold Price Struggling for Momentum But Still Respecting Long Term Uptrend
  SPOT MARKET gold prices jumped to $1669 per ounce ahead of Monday’s US trading, broadly in line with where they ended last week, though they remained below the Asian session peak touched briefly following the release of positive Chinese manufacturing data.
  "Gold [is] still respecting the long-term uptrend," says the latest technical analysis note from bullion bank Scotia Mocatta.
• With or Without "Obamacare" These Healthcare Stocks Are Headed Higher
  Don Miller writes:
  The fat lady hasn’t sung yet…but she is warming up.
  Three days of arguments before the Supreme Court have made it abundantly clear – "Obamacare" is in danger of being gutted or completely wiped off the books.
• High-Tech IPOs Are Fueling the Nasdaq Stock Market Rally
  Michael Robinson writes:
  Don’t look now but big paydays are here again in the tech-heavy Nasdaq.
  From the depths of the 2009 bottom, the Nasdaq is up 139%, hitting levels it hasn’t seen in more than 10 years.
  In the last three months alone, the bellwether index is up nearly 19% — outpacing the 12% gain in the S&P 500.

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• AAPL Falls….NDX Lags…ISM On Deck…..Stock Market Turning Point?
  Three days ago Apple Inc. (AAPL) printed a doji candle after a long run up. In most cases, 90% or more, and especially if you’re not Apple, it usually means that the stock has topped out short-term. A doji, meaning a candle that gaps up and shows indecision after that gap up, where buyers no longer can take it up with sellers holding the line for the day. A stock will open and close at basically the same price. Apple, for once, has followed normal protocol. It has fallen off that candle stick the past two days. It has helped the Nasdaq lag behind the Dow and S&P 500.
• The Decline of the U.S. Dollar
  In our previous article we looked at whether the U.S. Dollar was headed for a major fall or not. We demonstrated how the dominance of the U.S. dollar was almost entirely dependent on the grip it had over oil producers and this allowed the oil price to be designmnated in the U.S. dollar. The U.S. has gone to war in Kuwait and Iraq over this issue under the guise of destroying “weapons of Mass Destruction” as it appears on the verge of doing in Iran. It is no coincidence that Iran has long since ceased using the dollar to price its oil. It has also eliminated the U.S. dollar from its reserves. But of greater importance to the emerging world has been the use of the Belgian-based SWIFT system of international settlements. Not only has the move stopped the sale of Iranian oil, but it has also interfered with an important source of oil to the emerging world.
• Gold and Silver Mining Stocks Approaching Most Oversold Level Since Start of Bull Market
  The following chart shows the performance of mining stocks (XAU) versus the broader stock market (S&P 500). This comparison is useful in identifying periods when mining stocks are oversold or overbought versus the stock market as a whole. As you can see from the long-term chart, mining stocks have been outperforming the S&P 500 over time with the expected volatility that is mostly confined within the upward-sloping trend channel.
• Peak Oil Evasion Tactics Scraping The Barrel
  Probably well-intentioned but always ineffective oil saving plans, schemes and notions are reaching the limit of their low effectiveness, a rising number of indicators suggest. In a week where newswires tell the story of French election-oriented attempts by the outgoing Sarkozy government to persuade the IEA’s main powerbrokers to release oil stocks, and shave a few cents off the price of car fuel in time for Sarkozy’s re-election bid, this is schizophrenically opposed by the same French government. It is pressurizing other EU governments to further tighten their oil embargoes on Iran. 
• Savings, investment, and the Keynesian preference
  Neo-classical economists underestimate the importance of the link between savings and investment. The two should be regarded as linked together: you need savings to be available for investment in new production for the future.
• Plunge In U.S. Savings Rate Highlights Economic Risk
  I can’t resist mentioning the irony of talking about personal income "growth" on April Fool’s Day. You can’t make this stuff up. The headlines read "US consumer Spending Rose 0.8% In February, Best Gain In 7 Months; Income Lagged"
• Euro Crisis Next Phase All About Spain, the Mother of All Housing Bubbles
  Last Monday I was in Paris and was asked to do a spot on CNBC London. I arrived at the studios an hour early due to a misunderstanding of the time zones, so while trying to catch up on the news I listened to CNBC. I had just written about Spain in last week’s letter and guessed that was what they wanted to talk to me about, but for the full hour before I got on it seemed like every guest wanted to talk about Spain. When I had my turn and indeed got the Spain question, I smiled and noted that we were now in a period when it would be “All Spain All the Time,” for at least the next year. I should have noted that there would be brief interruptions where we glanced at Portugal and perhaps Ireland, but the real focus would be on Spain.
• Foreign Stock Markets Weakening Again
  Somewhat of a volatile week in the US markets, as the SPX rallied to 1419, dropped to 1392, and ended the week at 1408. The market made a new uptrend high, but the pullback that followed was more than expected. For the week the SPX/DOW gained 0.9%, as did the NDX/NAZ. Foreign markets were again less fortunate. Asian markets ended the week flat, European markets lost ground again this week, (-1.7%), and the DJ World index gained 0.2%. On the economic front there was a slight bias to the downside. On the uptick: durable goods orders, Q3 GDP, personal spending, consumer sentiment, the WLEI, the M1 multiplier, and new home prices. On the downtick: pending home sales, Case-Shiller, consumer confidence, personal income, PCE prices, the Chicago PMI, the monetary base, and weekly jobless claims rose. Next week we get a look at the Payrolls report, ISM and the FOMC minutes. Best to your week.
• Greek Government Robbed Public Institutions to Complete the Bond Swap
  John Ward writes: “But Lucas my dear, if you run out of poor people, you can always steal from the sick”
  REVEALED: HOW THE VENIZELOS GOVERNMENT SECRETLY REMOVED 70% OF MAJOR HOSPITAL, UTILITY & UNIVERSITY BANK ACCOUNT FUNDS TO PAY BONDHOLDERS

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• Dr Copper suggests, its the longs that are the Gamblers
  Copper is known as a base material for construction and manufacturing, it is also known that China imports 35% of all its copper. If true risk on was built on solid foundations copper prices would reflect this, lets see what you think.
  Copper is sensitive to PMI (Purchasing Manufacturing Index) data, the HSBC China PMI has post 5 consecutive drops. Makes you wonder who is doing all the buying.
• Obama Touts "Economic Recovery" Amidst Deepest Slump since the Great Depression
  While the United States remains mired in the deepest slump since the Great Depression, President Barack Obama is touting a modest improvement in employment over the past several months to boost his electoral prospects in November.
  The three-month period from December through February has, according to the Labor Department, seen a net gain of 744,000 jobs, the largest for any three-month stretch since 2006. The official jobless rate has fallen from 9.1 percent in September to 8.3 percent in February.
• The Fed’s "Operation Twist". Europe and America. Grim Economic Prospects
  Seven months after the official announcement on 9/21/11 of “Operation Twist” not much progress has been made at the long end of the market to reduce yields. The yield on the 10-year T-note has gone from 1.88% to 2.3% and the 30-year bond went from 3.03% to 3.41%. The episode has been marred by hedge fund and sovereign selling, which has left the short end a little higher, but the long end much higher. The question now is how much did this cost the Fed for such disappointing results?
• Gold Blossoming in Colombia
  Impressed by Colombia as a country and as a setting for exciting mining and geological opportunities, Paul Harris relocated from England, by way of Chile, and hasn’t looked back. In an exclusive interview with The Gold Report, the publisher of the Colombia Gold Letter offers hope for the near future.
  The Gold Report: Colombia’s mining and energy sectors received about $12 billion (B) in foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2011, making it the largest recipient of FDI relative to gross domestic product of any country in Latin America. Although there are excellent geological potential and dozens of junior mining companies exploring Colombia, not one of those juniors has successfully permitted a mine. Does the country risk losing some of that free-flowing capital if it doesn’t start to permit mines?
• S&P 500 Best Quarter Since 1998
  Courtesy of Doug Short. : The S&P 500 closed the day with a modest gain of 0.37%, breaking a three-day losing streak. But the financial media was quick to point out that this is the best quarterly gain in the index (and the Dow) since 1998.
  In honor of this achievement, I’ve added a chart below, courtesy of BigCharts.com, to illustrate the quarterly behavior of the S&P 500 since the mid-1990s — hardly a random walk!
• Money Is Starting to Burn a Hole in Households’ Pockets
  February personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased 0.8% month-to-month in nominal terms and 0.5% in real terms. In real terms, the February PCE increase was the strongest since last September. From some of the naysayers out there (David), we keep hearing that the economic “green shoots” that have emerged this past winter were due to the unusually mild temperatures. Really? One area of consumer expenditures that has not been boosted by the mild temperatures is electricity and natural gas.
• Should Investors Activate Gold and Silver Airbags?
  Earlier this week, a fully loaded Brinks truck carrying between $3 million and $5 million in uncirculated loonies and toonies crashed on a snow covered highway in Ontario, Canada. The truck crossed the centre line and slammed into a rock, launching the coins in every direction. The accident is an unfortunate event, but can serve as an analogy about today’s fragile fiat currencies.
• Stock Market Trend Similarities to the Last Two Aprils
  Almost a year ago in this column I pointed out the eerie similarities in April (2011) to conditions the previous April (2010). And sure enough the similarities continued into almost identical 20% market corrections before the bull market resumed.
  And here we are again this year looking at eerie similarities as March draws to a close, this time to the last two Aprils.
• Why We Don’t Use The Stock Market Trading 7-8% Stop Loss Rule
  The recent action in SWI and notes in the chart below are why we don’t use the 7-8% rule.

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