Notes You Need for April 13: Google and right to be forgotten, Amazon, BA, rig count, Uber, USPS, NFLX, gold ETFs
In my daily trawling through the market I come upon lots of tidbits of knowledge that I think are important to investors but that don’t justify a full post. I’ve decided to start compiling these notes here each day in a kind of running mini blog that I’m calling Notes You Need. This item from today is a representative example of an entry: “This morning the Trump administration issued an executive order setting up a task force to examine the operations and finances of the U.S. Postal Service. Section 3 says “The Task Force shall conduct a thorough evaluation of the operations and finances of the USPS, including:  (i)   the expansion and pricing of the package delivery market and the USPS’s role in competitive markets.” Think that could mean Amazon’s (AMZN) contract for package delivery?”
Goldman Sachs turns bullish on gold
Goldman Sachs has turned positive on gold for the first time in five years. Â “Our commodities team believes that the dislocation between the gold prices and U.S. rates is here to say,” Goldman Sachs says. Drivers for higher gold prices include signs of an uptick in inflation and increased risk in equity markets.
Rebalancing my Perfect 5 ETF portfolio to hedge against a break through the February 8 low
When I last rebalanced my Perfect 5 Active Passive ETF Portfolio on January 16, I said that I’d rebalance it again on July 1–unless events intervened to force an unscheduled rebalancing. Well, events have indeed intervened. The S&P 500 index closed within a handful of points of the February 8 low today, March 23. If the index and the U.S. stock markets were only going to drop another few points and then hold (or even bounce on that low), I wouldn’t feel the need to rebalance. But there’s a good chance the market will fail its test of the February 8 low.
Trump administration pushes a weak dollar at Davos
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin gave the markets a green light to push the U.S. dollar lower in remarks at Davos. Currency traders, already on board the lower-dollar train, didn’t waste time before pushing the throttle. The Dollar Spot Index (DXY) is down 0.86% as of noon New York time to 89.347. Traders have been eyeing the 90 level on the index to see whether support would hold at this level or if the index would break below 90 and set up a move lower.
Gold keeps climbing on rising demand from ETFs
Gold held by ETFs that invest in the yellow metal rose to 2,250 metric tons on January 22, according to Bloomberg. That’s the highest level of gold held by ETFs since May 2013. After turning in its best year since 2010 in 2017, gold has continued to climb in 2018
My third pick for my new ETF portfolio: A gold ETF
For my third pick for my new Perfect 5 ETF Active Passive Portfolio I looked to fill the Commodities slot in the portfolio with an ETF that would provide a hedge for the portfolio if the market tumbled but that would also produce a positive return if the market didn’t fall but other recent trends continued. The pick that achieves those two goals is the SPDR Gold Shares ETF (GLD)
Keep that gold trade on: A more aggressive stance from the Fed on interest rates doesn’t produce a dollar rally
Even after the Federal Reserve said it aimed to raise interest rates once more in 2017 and then three times in 2018–and scheduled the drawn down of its balance sheet for an October start, the U.S. dollar has been unable to stage a convincing rally.Â