Equities Roar Back and Metals Follow

Since FED announcements last week, the US500 (and ASX200) found their feet again and look to have begun their next cycle upwards. We’ve included charts on their movement here today for you.

News from economic reporting was subdued, with markets, as usual, reacting to the FED’s address, rather than the actual figures reported.

Consumer confidence shrunk from 114.8 to 106.1 for the month of August.

Job openings shrunk from 9.2M to 8.8M for the month of July.

Pending home sales shrunk from 0.3% to -0.5% for July.

S&P Case Shiller home price index lost another 1.2% for June.

Jobless claims are up slightly from 230,000 to 235,000 for August.

So on the back of reasonably lacklustre results, we see sharemarkets and metals zoom. People hedging into metals makes sense considering the above news, but we’ll briefly discuss the phenomenon behind sharemarkets that is driving retail investment.

Sentiment on sharemarket investment continues to improve, as consumers look to a FED that will likely begin easing monetary policy in the next year and start reducing rates.

A growing consensus in retail investment is that as this easing occurs, and companies gain access to cheaper debt again, GROWTH is back on the table.

By this reasoning, share prices today could well be a bargain when considering what pricing could be in 2-3 years.

But as history has foretold many times before, markets are fickle and are influenced by many factors that are completely uncontrollable. As we continue to see metals hold strong and start another ‘bullish’ cycle, it reminds us to take a balanced approach when investing. Clearly identify where risk lies and be sure to cover your base where you can.

Here’s today’s pricing charts.

SP500 with 200MDA

ASX200 with 200MDA

Gold daily, with 200MDA

Silver daily, with 200MDA