Open: New York Session | Forex, Metals, Oil, Agriculture December 15, 2020

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Agriculture

Ivory Coast, the world s top cocoa producer, is in the dry season, which runs from mid-November to March, so these latest downpours have provided some unexpected relief.

Currencies

Meanwhile the WSJ Dollar Index, which tracks the U.S. currency against a basket of others, rose 0.1%. Interestingly enough, the US debt clock puts it into perspective with their calculation of a $33,890 dollar to gold ratio. could boost market sentiment and weigh on the US dollar. The second important driver of GLD is the US dollar. The company also has had a solid dollar-retention rate of 109%, 107%, and 108% for the years 2019, 2018, and 2017, respectively, indicating the strength of its product offering.
– and there is fresh room for optimism for euro bulls.

Metals

In global markets, gold prices edged higher today as investors assessed the likelihood for further virus-related economic restrictions amid surging Covid-19 cases in many countries. Tracking positive global cues, gold prices edged higher in Indian markets as new coronavirus-related restrictions in some countries lifted the safe-haven appeal of the precious metals. The weight of the evidence (technical, fundamental, sentiment) argues that the correction in gold and gold stocks is nearly complete.
The analogs argue Gold could grind out a bottom over the coming weeks and work its way higher in the first half of 2021. After reaching a new all-time in early August, gold (GLD) has been gradually consolidating in the past 4 months against most of currencies despite rising inflationary pressures. The rebound in gold stocks began November 24, but after five days of selling, there is potential for a bullish bottoming pattern. Gold prices are trading up 0.6% at Rs 49,224 per 10 grams.
Copper was little changed as concerns over the economic impact of new coronavirus-induced lockdowns eclipsed strong industrial output data from China. “Stainless steel deliveries are estimated to increase by approximately 5-10% due to a stronger than expected market recovery”, said Outokumpu, which has been hit hard by the pandemic. Gold Correction Analog The takeaway is that a sustained rebound will require more time, which does not mean we should abandon our constructive views on the sector.

Oil

OPEC revised down its oil demand growth forecast by 350,000 bpd to 5.9 million bpd, while estimates for 2020 was cut by 20,000 bpd to minus 9.77 million bpd. This appears to be a decent price for the North Park Basin, which averaged around 2,200 barrels of oil production (NPB production is 100% oil) in Q3 2020. I have worked in the areas of oil refining, natural gas production, synthetic fuels, ethanol production, butanol production, and various biomass to energy projects.
That poses a risk that OPEC is putting more oil into an already oversupplied market, with the risk that this will send oil prices down yet again. SandRidge’s oil percentage is declining over time, as its oil decline rate appears to be higher than its overall base decline rate. SandRidge now has 20,000 BOEPD of remaining production (based on Q3 2020 production levels) with approximately 14% of that production being oil, 35% NGLs and 51% natural gas. The International Energy Agency warned Tuesday that the roll-out of vaccines this month will not quickly reverse the destruction wrought on global oil demand.
A potential end to the pandemic offers some hope of recovery in global oil demand that has plummeted since the start of the pandemic. The oil markets rallied because there was some concern that OPEC could increase production by 2 million BPD. The oil market has been buoyed by expectations of a demand recovery, as coronavirus vaccines are rolled out across the globe.

United States

The company has beaten Wall Street expectations for the last 6 quarters, implying that analysts are overlooking the company and that the stock price may have room to run. Today, Wall Street continues to use Zacks research including the Zacks Rank and Zacks Equity Research, which combines the best of quantitative and qualitative analysis. Why are the US real estate and the stock market worth so much more, relative to GDP, than they had been for decades?
HealthEquity (NASDAQ:HQY) is a custodian of Health Savings Accounts (HSA) with leading market share in number of accounts as well as assets under management.
At a 22x FWD P/E, Artesian Resources Corporation (NASDAQ:ARTNA) is trading a significant discount to its peers, even though their business operations largely have the same opportunity and risks. Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported a law firm hired by the bank found two more employees had been put under observation previously. Maybe it will come back, but there is no guarantee since both parties seem enamored with the idea that China’s technology is a threat to the US.
Mainframes are still a big business and so is IBM; PCs are still a big business and so is Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). Since leaving Wall Street I’ve dedicated my financial career towards studying this situation and helping people understand what’s actually happening. Here’s a figure showing the wealth-to-GDP ratio for the US economy (generated using the ever-helpful FRED website maintained by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis).

Europe

However, a breakthrough may have to wait for another day, as Chief EU Negotiator Michel Barnier said the path to a deal is narrow.

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