As many of you already know I expected the dollar index to put in a major three year cycle low sometime this year. The normal timing band would have been for a bottom in the spring. The recent breakout and move to new highs has confirmed that the May bottom did in fact mark the three year cycle low. As expected that also marked the top of the cyclical bull market in stocks.
It's widely expected that the Fed will announce operation Twist at today's FOMC meeting. Obviously if printing several trillion dollars didn't save the economy, then rotating the Fed's balance sheet from short-term interest rates to long-term in the attempt to hold down the long end of the yield curve isn't going to have any effect at all as the approaching recession intensifies. Interest rates are already at historic lows.
Interest rates aren't the reason why people are not borrowing.With continued high unemployment There simply isn't enough demand for businesses to expand their operations. The American consumer is so deeply in debt that he can't service it. Unfortunately, we can't print money like the US government so it doesn't help us to go deeper into debt. The US consumer will not be borrowing money any time soon.
The bottom line is operation twist will be a miserable failure just like QE1 and QE2.
The stock market, and gold are now moving into the timing band for the next daily cycle low (selling event). The only question now is whether the announcement of operation Twist this afternoon will initiate a short term knee-jerk reaction higher, or whether the market will immediately continue to sell off into that next cycle low that is due to bottom sometime in the next 11 days.
I expect gold to bottom a little sooner as its daily cycle tends to be slightly shorter.
But gold also is at a critical stage. It must hold above the prior daily cycle low of $1705. If it fails to do that it will signal that an intermediate degree decline has begun. It would also signal a left translated intermediate cycle which would have high odds of moving below the prior intermediate degree bottom of $1478.
As you can see in the chart below gold began to struggle just as soon as the aggressive stage of the dollar rally began.
As the stock market moves down into the next daily cycle low and the selling pressure intensifies, this should drive the dollar index much higher. It remains to be seen if gold can reverse this pattern of weakness in the face of dollar strength, especially since the dollar will almost certainly be rallying violently during the intense selling pressure that is coming in the stock market.
All we can do now is wait to see what the initial reaction to operation Twist will be this afternoon. Will there be a temporary knee-jerk rally that quickly fails, or will the market just continue down after yesterdays reversal?
The stops and trade trigger link has been updated.
I realize that most people that come to this blog are bullish on gold. I myself am definitely bullish long-term. That being said warning signs are starting to build.
Since gold is down this morning there's a good chance that the mining stocks are going to break the intermediate trend line today. The complete failure to follow through on the move above 600 is also concerning. Usually after an asset has tested an area three times the breakout occurs with strong follow-through.
Gold is also in jeopardy of breaking the intermediate trend line.
A move below $1705 would confirm a failed daily cycle and a left translated intermediate cycle. That would almost certainly lead to a D-wave decline.
Every D wave so far has retraced 50-62% of the preceding C-wave advance. If it turns out that $1923 was the top of the C-wave then we can expect a move back to the $1400 to $1500 level.
Moreover as this would be a left translated intermediate cycle it should move below the prior intermediate low. Taking that into consideration it would be more likely that gold would decline to test the consolidation zone around $1400 before putting in a final D-wave bottom.
I've mentioned before that C-wave tops tend to occur slightly above a big round psychological number. We currently have a 2b reversal at $1925.
For those people holding gold or mining stocks your position size needs to be small enough that you don't do serious damage to your account if gold takes out $1705 as that would confirm that a D-wave decline has begun and probably still has another $300 to go before a final bottom.
It portfolio change has been posted.
A portfolio changes been made.
A possible portfolio change has been posted to the website.
A portfolio change has been posted to the website.
