Kerry Lutz's--Financial Survival Network

The world's central banks are like a bunch of kids playing bumper cars. You control your collisions with one pedal, you can take your foot off the gas to slow down, or you can depress it to speed up. Either way, there's going to be a pile up. Now it looks like the Fed has gotten back into the action and who knows when the fun will stop. Perhaps with a massive power failure like Venezuela. In other news that's not so new, the Dems have finally found an economic system they can believe in - socialism/totalitarianism seems to be in vogue yet again. Everything old is eventually new again, like short skits and wide ties. But the Commitment of Traders (COT) is looking up again, at least if you believe in the yellow metal. Speculators have jumped the ship/shark and commercials have gone long. How much longer can it be? 

A tale of two companies/economies: Lowes Earnings vs Home Depot by Jeff Small, President of "Arbor Financial Author of new book, Turning Financial Planning, Right-Side Up."

Lowes Earnings
Lowes was one penny above expectation revenue slightly below projections. Same store sales and comps where 1.7% v’s expected 2.1%.
2.4 domestically relative to home depot which did 3.7%. 
 
Month of January comp of 5.8% for Lowes positive sign. Lowes is narrowing the gap but home depot is still in the lead on the metrics.

Lowes has a 5% deficit in operating margins with same store sales compared to Home depot. This should change with the new Home Depot management at Lowes. I pick Lowes to out perform HD over the next 12 months. Even though I believe we are at the top end of the range in upward stock movement for both.

The market investors are overly concerned about the housing market and the home improvement sector as a whole. But this fears are not unfounded with the slowdown that is occurring in the real estate sector. Contrary to this rising wages and strong employment look good for both HD and Lowes. However, despite this we are seeing slowdowns in consumer spending in retail, restaurants and real estate.

This ties in with the Democrats strategy of rolling back the economic reforms passed by the Trump Team. The problem is that we don't have to money to enact their programs. Free stuff is very expensive!

Canada’s government is in crisis. The former attorney-general has blown the whistle on corruption and abuse of power. Of course it’s all in the name of protecting jobs for Canadians. But that tale is quickly unraveling. While the political situation continues to deteriorate, so too does the Canadian economy. Home sales have declined and household debt is at record levels. So much for soft landings. 

Well known financial expert Jim Puplava joined us. As we all know the current situation is unsustainable. Deficits are increasing, the economy is weakening - even after the stimulus of profiligate government spending and the tax cuts. This will lead to a situation where hard assets may well become popular again. Jim is extremely concerned that the government and the Fed are the main movers of the markets and the economy. This has led to volatility and an element of unpredicability, especially in the era of Trump And we’re in for lots more of it. 

Throughout the millennia people have sought out and acquired gold. Perhaps it really is the world's third oldest profession. That's why it's appropriate that Aton Resources (FSN Company Sponsor) has gone back to Egypt in search of the Pharaoh's lost gold. And geologist Javier Orduña may just have found it. He's currently exploring Rodruin, an ancient Egyptian mine that hadn't been touched in over 1600 years. Preliminary results are highly encouraging with even the old tailings piles showing 20 grams per ton. We'll be checking in with him regularly for updates. 

As Eric said on a number of occasions, gold would rise into Q4 of 2018. In fact, it continued its rise into February and promptly broke down. Eric's not see any further moves until the summer. Perhaps then we'll see the highly anticipated bull market resumption. He believes we're seeing the emergence of a bear stock market. Dollar is getting toppy but it could be a multi-year process. Many markets will trade within defined channels for quite a while before it's on to the next trend. 

Jordan Roy Byrne joined us for a look at the latest precious metals smackdown. As he said at the Vancouver Metals Investor Forum in January, gold is still technically in a bear market. Until it starts making higher highs and higher lows, this will continue. He was hopeful during gold's recent advance that it would break the trend line on the upside, but alas the rally ran out of gas. We probably won't see a steep decline, but we'll have to wait for the later in the year and see where it goes. 

Gold and precious metals as man expected were slammed on Friday. Fifth time since approaching the magical 1350 resistance point. The decline will probably continue on for several more months until a summer rally or Q4. Not to worry though, the Fed is in a box again. With stock markets rising, the impetus to ease off rate hikes has diminished. But tightening could well send the markets into another decline, which the Fed doesn't want to trigger. So it's a matter of Speak Loudly and Turn Up the Printing Presses and hope that no one notices. 

Jeff Berwick understands trends. He was on the Bitcoin band wagon when it was $3 and was a seller at $19000+. Now he believes that it's gone full cycle and will be going even higher than before. The time to buy something is when it's beaten up and down. Perhaps he'll be right again. Certainly debt keeps piling up and there's no solution in site, so it could well be cryptos to the rescue. 

Big month for Oil, Bitcoin, US Stock Markets, Copper and Palladium. Downer for U308 and Silver. Look at the chart below for more info.