Month: October 2011

Oct. 21 (Bloomberg) — European Central Bank Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny talks about the central bank’s monetary policy and role in the region’s sovereign debt crisis. He speaks from Vienna with Francine Lacqua on Bloomberg Television’s “Countdown.”

Little-Known Phenomenon Could Send Natural Gas Skyrocketing

by David Fessler, Investment U Senior Analyst
Thursday, October 20, 2011

Every summer and fall, oil and gas drillers, producers and traders have one eye on what they’re doing and the other one on something even more important: the weather.

They all know a major hurricane that tracks up through the Gulf of Mexico could have devastating effects on their operations.

And they have have plenty of reason to worry. Take a look at the graph below produced from data from the National Hurricane Center. It shows the tracks of all the hurricanes that formed between 1851 and 2005.

Plenty of them traversed the Gulf of Mexico, now a major offshore production region for oil and natural gas.

The most devastating of those were Hurricane Andrew in 1992, Katrina in 2005 and Ike in 2008. Together, they caused an estimated $137.1 billion in damages. A lot of that damage was to oil and natural gas infrastructure.

Hurricanes normally cause oil and natural gas production to be suspended until the weather system blows through. As a result, they all had an effect on the price of natural gas and oil, regardless of the amount actual damage

Higher Natural Gas Prices Coming? Depends on the Weather This Winter…

With the advent of more and more natural gas coming from onshore wells, the risks have shifted from summer hurricanes to winter chill. Let me explain.

Few folks outside of the natural gas industry are familiar with the term “wellhead freeze-off.” It happens when the outside temperature drops below freezing in the vicinity of the wellhead.

At most natural gas wells, there’s a small amount of water that comes out of the ground along with the gas. If it’s below freezing, that water turns to ice inside the wellhead. If the cold snap persists long enough, it can completely shut off the flow of natural gas from the well.

There are three ways to fix the problem:

• Wait for milder weather

• Pump methanol through the pipes

• Apply external heat

The last one has to be done very carefully. Open flames impinging on natural gas piping can have devastating consequences.

Back in January 2010, thousands of wells were knocked offline in Texas and Louisiana. This region is home to one-third of U.S. natural gas production, so the stakes are huge.

Since it rarely freezes down there, wellheads aren’t built to withstand wellhead freeze-off. Back in January and February of 2007, 1.5 billion cubic feet per day (Bcfd) of supply was knocked offline.

The above graph illustrates the point. As you can see, the disruption this past February, due to a wellhead freeze-off, rivaled that of major hurricanes.

The problem with supply disruptions due to freeze-offs, as opposed to those that come from hurricanes, is that they occur in the winter, when the demand for natural gas is at its greatest.

Profiting From Mother Nature

From my perspective, natural gas companies are increasingly a great investment. Natural gas use is on the rise, for a number of reasons I’ve previously discussed in this column.

But unlike supply disruptions that occur in the aftermath of a hurricane (which can last weeks or months), wellhead freeze-off disruptions typically last no more than a few days.

As production shifts from the Gulf of Mexico to more unconventional shale plays, long-term disruptions to our natural gas supply are becoming more short-term oriented.

That means companies like Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE: CHK), Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE: WMB) and Cabot Oil and Gas Corporation (NYSE: COG) won’t be affected as much.

Most of their natural gas is produced from onshore wells. Newer wells have equipment installed that prevents wellhead freeze-off.

It’s one more thing investors who are active in natural gas stocks should bear in mind when choosing a company to invest in.

Good investing,

David Fessler

Article by Investment U

Oct. 21 (Bloomberg) — Richard Whittall, chief executive officer of Newstrike Capital Inc., talks about the outlook for gold. He speaks with Owen Thomas on Bloomberg Television’s “Countdown.” (Source: Bloomberg)

By Amy Calistri, DividendOpportunities.com

I have a chart that I want to show you. It’s nothing complex or hard to understand. In fact, I take pride in how simple it is to read.

You’ll be surprised that the information shown in this chart is the result of less than two years of work; you’d never know it at first glance. I’m betting you’ll think it took a decade to cultivate.

You might also think that replicating what my chart shows takes a fortune to pull off. I’ve done it with $200,000 invested. That’s nothing to sneeze at, but it’s far from an extraordinary amount of money.

The results are also fully scalable. If you only have half that amount to invest, you’ll receive half of what my chart shows — still a considerable amount of money. If you have $400,000 at work, just double my numbers. Anyone — and any dollar amount — can replicate my performance.

But the best news is that what this chart shows is the result of a strategy you can start today. It doesn’t take a Ph.D. to follow. You don’t have to track the market every day — or every week for that matter. The beauty of this strategy is that it takes care of itself.

In fact, the primary investing “skill” you need is patience. If you can allow yourself to build a portfolio without having to constantly fuss over it, make unnecessary trades, or live and die by daily fluctuations, you can achieve these results.

My chart below shows what I’m talking about. Listed are the total amounts of the “paychecks” I’ve received over the last six months using my Daily Paycheck strategy. As you can imagine, I’ve been pretty happy:

The strategy is simple — I’ve succeeded in building an income machine that pays me each and every day.

Since April, my “paychecks” (that’s my nickname for dividend and interest payments from my holdings) have added up to more than $1,150 each month — and a couple of months the checks have added up to more than $1,400.

Imagine if you’re a retiree — that’s a nice stream of cash from your investments to supplement any other income you might have.

So far, the paychecks have ramped up quickly as I’ve rolled out my $200,000 portfolio in my Daily Paycheck advisory (and yes, that is real money).

But there’s another step if you really want to see your income stream accelerate over time… it’s why patience is key.

It’s tempting to take the cash. Who wouldn’t want an extra $1,400 per month in the bank? But I strongly recommend reinvesting your paychecks. By using your dividends to purchase more shares, compounding takes over. Your next payment will be larger, even if the dividend payment doesn’t increase.

I won’t lie, reinvesting does take a little time to see a major impact — that’s why patience is so important. (And before you start, give your broker a ring to make sure they offer reinvestment at no extra commission.)

But I think you can see from the performance so far that the Daily Paycheck strategy is one of the most promising ways to capture the most income from the market.

Always searching for your next paycheck,

Amy Calistri
Chief Investment Strategist — The Daily Paycheck

P.S. — If you want to learn more about setting up a Daily Paycheck machine of your own, then take a look at this link. It will tell you exactly how the strategy came to be, and how one man used it to collect $6,015 in just one month. Click here to start reading.

Source: ForexYard

Reports out this afternoon on the Canadian consumer price index (CPI) revealed an economy which may be experiencing a modest boom in growth. The figures revealed better than forecast numbers, helping the Canadian dollar (CAD) gain in today’s end-of-week trading.

The core reading of Canada’s CPI posted a 0.5% growth, beating expectations for a meager 0.2% expansion. The nominal figure also rose 0.2%, above what economists were forecasting to be a 0.1% growth. The numbers paint an economy better off than last quarter and holiday shopping may be playing a large part in this overall picture.

Forex Market Analysis provided by ForexYard.

© 2006 by FxYard Ltd

Disclaimer: Trading Foreign Exchange carries a high level of risk and may not be suitable for all investors. There is a possibility that you could sustain a loss of all of your investment and therefore you should not invest money that you cannot afford to lose. You should be aware of all the risks associated with Foreign Exchange trading.

Source: ForexYard

The Philly Fed Manufacturing Index for October, published yesterday afternoon, revealed a strong upturn in manufacturing output for Pennsylvania. The forecast for yesterday’s report was for a negative reading of -9.0, but actual results came in at positive 8.7.

The turnaround from contraction in Philadelphia manufacturing to optimistic surge suggests a widening level of optimism in consumer demand, rising inflation, and transportation costs for raw materials with crude oil prices also holding steady. The index highlights an impending speed-up over the winter months and a likely better-than-forecast fourth quarter for manufacturing and industry.

Forex Market Analysis provided by ForexYard.

© 2006 by FxYard Ltd

Disclaimer: Trading Foreign Exchange carries a high level of risk and may not be suitable for all investors. There is a possibility that you could sustain a loss of all of your investment and therefore you should not invest money that you cannot afford to lose. You should be aware of all the risks associated with Foreign Exchange trading.

Bioprinting Video: The Next Medical Breakthrough in Action

by Louis Basenese, Wall Street Daily
Friday, October 21, 2011: Issue #1626

I’m always on the hunt for the next innovative and game-changing technology. And I’ve gone to great lengths in the last year to explain why mobile devices qualify.

After all, the mobile industry is only the fourth industry in the history of mankind to generate more than $1 trillion in annual revenue.

The good news is that I’m convinced we just uncovered the fifth trillion-dollar industry! (Hat tip to my colleague, Justin Fritz, for putting this game-changer on my radar a few months ago.)

So what is it? Well, it’s a form of 3-D printing, whereby objects are constructed by laying down successive layers of material.

Only in this case, instead of using plastics and metals, the printers use biological material. That’s right, living cells. And the products these printers create are living organs.

The specific technology is known as bioprinting. I know it sounds completely far fetched. And a tad too complicated to be realistic. But that’s what I thought, too, until I started doing some more research.

Today, I’m featuring a video in an effort to convince you, as well. So take a look, because I guarantee this is a technology you’re going to be hearing about in the years ahead.

It holds the potential to revolutionize the entire medical world, which is more than a $5-trillion industry!

Researching Today, Bioprinting Profits Tomorrow

In terms of investment opportunities, it’s still premature to look for a pure-play bioprinting company. But research efforts are ramping up across the country…

For instance, researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina are trying to grow kidneys with printers.

A team at Wake Forest University is developing a printer-based method to grow new tissue to treat burn victims.

And over at the University of Texas at El Paso, engineers received a grant from the National Institutes of Health to perfect bioprinted cardiac patches.

So it shouldn’t be too long before bioprinting applications jump from the laboratory to the marketplace.

I recommend adding privately held Organovo to your watch list. The company developed the first commercial 3-D bioprinter for manufacturing human tissue and organs. Should it ever go public, it promises to be one hot IPO.

For those looking for an immediate opportunity, consider Stratasys (Nasdaq: SSYS) and 3D Systems (NYSE: DDD).

Both are pioneers in the broad 3-D printing space. (If you want to get a better understanding of 3-D printing technology, check out this New York Times video.)

And if bioprinting takes off as I expect, there’s no doubt both companies are going to be involved in the growth – either by making bioprinters or via licensing their intellectual property.

More favorably still, shareholders won’t have to wait for bioprinting to gain traction for the stocks to push higher, as both companies are enjoying explosive growth for traditional 3-D printers.

In the most recent quarter, sales jumped 24.9 percent for Stratasys and 56.9 percent for 3D Systems.

Bottom line: It’s time to officially put 3-D printing, and more specifically, bioprinting, on your watch list.

The technology promises to change medicine forever and make switched-on investors a bundle of money in the process.

Ahead of the tape,

Louis Basenese

Note: This article was originally published by Wall Street Daily.

Article by Investment U

Source: ForexYard

The German Ifo (Information and Forschung) Business Climate report was published earlier this morning, surprising many investors with a very mild uptick beyond expectations. Most analysts had expected the report to show a stronger downtick than even the forecast 106.3. The actual reading of 106.4 gave little support to Germany, but has held many traders steady.

Explaining such random optimism is difficult from the short-term view this blog tends to take. Given the large sample size of 7,000 survey respondents, the Ifo report could have caught some of the optimism from earlier in the month and only recently hit the snag of the Greece bailout concern. It could also be that recent reports on confidence are expected to rise following the impending dismal third quarter. Either way, the report has helped many investors turn to higher yielding currencies, and the EUR seems to be on the rise as a result.

Forex Market Analysis provided by ForexYard.

© 2006 by FxYard Ltd

Disclaimer: Trading Foreign Exchange carries a high level of risk and may not be suitable for all investors. There is a possibility that you could sustain a loss of all of your investment and therefore you should not invest money that you cannot afford to lose. You should be aware of all the risks associated with Foreign Exchange trading.

Oct. 21 (Bloomberg) — Ron William, a technical strategist at MIG Bank, talks about his analysis of the gold price and euro. He speaks with Linzie Janis on Bloomberg Television’s “Countdown.” (Source: Bloomberg)

Source: ForexYard

The upcoming weekend EU economic summit is the event that has captured the headlines but it may be a potential monetary policy move that is on the minds’ of FX market participants. At this time it is unclear what type of agreement France and Germany will come to though investors appear to be approaching the weekend with a bit of optimism given the gains European bourses have booked today.

With the German DAX up 2.80% and the French CAC up 1.80%, the hefty equity gains display a hint of optimism leading into the weekend. This weekend’s EU summit had quite the buildup but France and Germany have yet to come to an agreement and the scheduling of an additional summit this Wednesday to hash out the two nations’ differences regarding the legalities of the EFSF may just be delaying the theory that the two will eventually see eye to eye. Disagreements over the involvement of the ECB in any post July 21st agreement seem to be the largest gap. France is for the inclusion of the ECB while Germany counters with an insurance scheme that could cost France its AAA credit rating.

Despite the uncertainty and lack of an agreement between Europe’s two perennial powers investors are approaching the weekend with a glimmer of optimism. European equities are poised to finish the day with strong gains while the EUR/USD has moved above its recent consolidation pattern. At print time the USD is lower versus the majors. While European matters are getting a majority of the headlines, perhaps a WSJ article that discusses the next possible round of US monetary policy easing is having an impact on the USD?

Read more forex trading news on our forex blog.

Forex Market Analysis provided by ForexYard.

© 2006 by FxYard Ltd

Disclaimer: Trading Foreign Exchange carries a high level of risk and may not be suitable for all investors. There is a possibility that you could sustain a loss of all of your investment and therefore you should not invest money that you cannot afford to lose. You should be aware of all the risks associated with Foreign Exchange trading.