Interesting Article Quantity

While much of whether I find an article interesting and think worth commenting on is like beauty, in ‘the eye of the beholder’, I have been seeing over the past week a remarkable increasing in the number of articles that I now have in my ‘backlog’ of topics I plan to comment on. What I think I am seeing is an increasing concern on the part of some commentators as to the near-term state of world ‘economic affairs’, and a widening and polarization of the differences between positive and negative attitudes among writers, commentators, and pundits with respect to the future of U.S. economic recovery, the Eurozone sovereign debt difficulties, potential China economic issues, prospective commodity prices, the prospective physical gold price, etc. etc.

If I am right in that, and the widening and polarizing ‘attitude gap’ I think I am seeing manifests itself in stock, commodity price, and money market activity, I think we may see increasing volatility in those markets in the near-term. Just today, the price of physical gold is down U.S.$25 to U.S.$1,345 as I write this, and the price of physical silver is down U.S.1.30 to U.S.$27.50 – ostensibly as a result of things such as an increase in the Brazilian interest rate, overnight bearish economic data from China, and technically related selling pressure. Technical selling in a declining market as a factor in a sizeable physical gold price drop makes sense to me. A 50 basis point increase in the Brazilian interest rate and ‘bearish’ economic data from China both make less sense to me as significant gold price ‘one day drivers’.

Liebig’s Law

A recent article titled ‘Structural Unemployment in America and Liebig’s Law‘ – reading time 2 minutes – doesn’t really discuss Structural Unemployment but does discuss Liebig’s Law which it states as: “growth is controlled not by the total of resources available, but by the scarcest resource (limiting factor)”. To me this is a different way of stating the old adage that ‘a chain is only as strong as its weakest link’.

While the article does not discuss Structural Unemployment directly, I assume the author is attempting to make the point that he believes Structural Unemployment exists in the U.S. – and that this will curb what otherwise might be U.S. economic growth. As readers of these e-mails know, I believe the U.S. suffers from Structural Unemployment, and consider that to be a very ‘weak link‘ in the U.S. economic ‘chain’.

The ultimate point of this comment is that I suggest you focus on the ‘weakest link‘ principle, whether you are contemplating prospective macro-economics, the prospective price of any particular commodity, or the investment or trading potential of any given commodity, resource equity, or other equity.

U.S. Initial Jobless Claims

The U.S. Department of Labor issues its Initial Jobless Claims report weekly (or in the past many months one might say ‘weakly’) on Thursday at 8:30 ET each week, reporting on the previous week’s initial claims. This morning the U.S. initial jobless claims report came in at 404,000 for the week ended January 15, down 37,000 from the week ended January 8 reported last week. The four week moving average changed downward from 415,750 to 411,750. This has been reported this morning as ‘good news’. From my perspective the moving average (I think, as do others, the better gauge of improvement or deterioration) is not much of a change, and so I for one don’t place much weight on such comparatively minor weekly fluctuations – and so far am not seeing meaningful employment changes in the U.S. Read ‘Initial jobless claims drop by 37,000‘ – reading time 2 minutes.

The Great Unknown

I think a recent article from The Economist titled ‘The great unknown’, sub-titled: ‘Can policymakers fill the gaps in their knowledge about the financial system?‘ is well worth reading and thinking about – reading time 2 minutes – thinking time, more than 2 minutes.

Three years ago, when I first started writing blog posts and e-mails, I commented on the ever, increasing complexity of the economic and financial world by suggested that the simple agrarian life lead by most people before the advent of the automobile was one in which the economic interactions of each small ‘rural economy’ was generally understood at a ‘working level’ by the those who lived in that economy. I went on to trace the development of provincial (state) and federal governments and their respective increasing interference with, and influence on, those small ‘rural economies’ and how those small rural economies began trading outside their own economy in an ever increasingly complex and ‘hard to get one’s head around’ (1) national economy (where at least the ideology can be assumed to be consistent, or largely consistent), and (2) globalization (particularly in the past 10 years) where the ideologies, value systems, rules and regulations are in some cases quite disparate between and among countries.

I suggest you read The Economist article and think about what it says carefully. In essence, as I read the article it says that while policymakers have vast arrays of data at their respective fingertips, they suffer from “vast gaps in knowledge” with respect to the ever-evolving national and international financial systems. I have long believed that, and consider it something to think about hard as we all move forward. Decisions made from an inadequate knowledge base, or by people who have access to knowledge but are not fully informed or necessarily competent to make good decisions, are decisions that prove to be good ones at least in part by happenstance. Something to think about as you follow media reports, and observe decisions made by elected representatives – regardless of country, state, province, or municipality.

Q&A Forums

Two recent Stock Research Portal Question/Answer Forums Posts you might find interesting are:

• United States Economic Forum: Is the US Federal Reserve really printing money? There is one Answer to date – read it here.
• Investment Education Forum: What is meant by “arms length operation”, “due diligence” and “a going concern”? There is one Answer to date – read it here.

I encourage our Subscribers to contribute to our over 1,600 Educational and Company Forums. If you are a Subscriber to Stock Research Portal and have not as yet registered to contribute create your Q&A Forums Profile.

Additions to Stock Research Portal’s Company Universe

Today we added the following Companies to our Company Universe:

Auriga Gold Corp. (TSXV:AIA). We currently categorize Auriga Gold Corp. as a gold explorer operating principally in Canada (Manitoba). Auriga Gold Corp.’s current market capitalization is approximately Cdn$11 million. Review research data on Auriga Gold Corp. (Note: market capitalization according to the TSX is Cdn$11 million, our data feed currently reports Cdn$2.7 million. We have reported this to our third-party data provider and expect our feed to be corrected later today or tomorrow)

URSA Major Minerals Incorporated (TSX:UMJ). We currently categorize URSA Major Minerals Incorporated as a base metals producer operating principally in Canada (Ontario). URSA Major Minerals Incorporated’s current market capitalization is approximately Cdn$11 million. Review research data on URSA Major Minerals Incorporated.

Veraz Petroleum Ltd. (TSXV:VRZ). We currently categorize Veraz Petroleum Ltd. as an oil & gas explorer and producer operating principally in South America (Peru). Veraz Petroleum Ltd.’ s current market capitalization is approximately Cdn$22 million. Review research data on Veraz Petroleum Ltd.

Press Release Highlights

The following table summarizes the companies in Stock Research Portal’s Company Universe who yesterday issued Press Releases and whose shares increased in price from the previous day’s close by more than Cdn$0.05, more than 10%, and whose share volumes yesterday exceeded their trailing 3 month average trading volume. You can research each of these companies by clicking on the company name in the table.

* Yesterday’s data, or latest trading day’s data, as applicable

Insider Trading Highlights

The following table summarizes the companies in Stock Research Portal’s Company Universe for who our system yesterday reported insiders who filed reports indicating they had acquired shares through ‘purchase’ transactions. You can research each of these companies by clicking on the company name in the table.

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Possibly Related Posts:

• Greek Eurozone Exit Consequences?
• Q1 2012 Europe and Eurozone GDP!
• An Accident Waiting to Happen, or ‘Ever Closer To The Cliff’!
• After Spain, is Italy Next?
• Spain and Spanish Bank Dilemma!