How Chinese Trade Issues Will Drive Market Trends

It is becoming evident that the US/Chinese trade issues are going to become a point of contention for the markets going forward. We’ve been review as much news as possible in an attempt to build a consensus for the future of the U.S. markets and global markets. As of last week, it appears any potential trade deal with China has reset back to square one. The news we are reading suggests that China wants to reset their commitments with the US, remove all tariffs and wants the US to commit to buying certain levels of Chinese goods in the future. Additionally, China has yet to commit to stopping the IP/Technology theft from U.S. companies – which is a very big contention for the US.

This suggests the past 6+ months of trade talks have completely broken down and that this trade issue will likely become a market driver over the next 12+ months. The global markets had anticipated a deal to be reached by the end of March 2019. At that time, Trump announced that he was extending talks with China without installing any new tariffs. The intent was to show commitment with China to reach a deal at that time – quickly.

It appears that China had different plans – the intention to delay and ignore U.S. requests. It is very likely that China has worked to secure some type of “plan B” type of scenario over the past 6+ months and they may feel they are negotiating from a position of power at this time. Our assumption is that both the U.S. and China feel their interests are best served by holding their cards close to their chests while pushing the other side to breakdown through prolonged negotiations.

Our observations are that an economic shift is continuing to take place throughout the globe that may see these US/China trade issues become the forefront issue over the next 12 to 24 months – possibly lasting well past the November 2020 US Presidential election cycle. It seems obvious that China is digging in for a prolonged negotiation process while attempting to hold off another round of tariffs from the US. Additionally, China is dealing with an internal process of trying to shift away from “shadow banking” to eliminate the risks associated with unreported corporate and private debt issues.

The limited, yet still valid, resources we have from within China are suggesting that layoffs are very common right now and that companies are not hiring as they were just a few months ago. One of our friends/sources suggested the company he worked for has been laying off employees for over 30 days now and he just found out he was laid off last week. He works in the financial field.

We believe the long term complications resulting from a prolonged U.S./China trade war may create a foundational shift within the global markets over the next 16 to 24+ months headed into the November 2020 U.S. Elections. We’ve already authored articles about how the prior 24 months headed into major U.S. elections tend to be filled with price rotation while an initial downside price move is common within about 16+ months of a major US election event. This year may turn out to prompt an even bigger price rotation.

U.S. Stock Market volatility just spiked to levels well above 20 – levels not seen since October/November 2018, when the markets fell nearly 20% before the end of 2018. The potential for increased price volatility over the next 12+ months seems rather high with all of the foreign positioning and expectations that are milling around. It seems like the next 16+ months could be filled with incredibly high volatility, price rotation and opportunity for skilled traders.

Our primary concern is that the continued trade war between the U.S. and China spills over into other global markets as a constricted price range based trading environment. Most of the rest of the world is still trying to spark some increased levels of economic growth after the 2008-09 market crisis. The current market environment does not settle well for investor confidence, growth, and future success. The combination of a highly contested U.S. Presidential election, US/China trade issues, a struggling general foreign market, currency fluctuations attempting to mitigate capital risks and other issues, it seems the global stock markets are poised for a very big increase in volatility and price rotation over the next 2 years or so.

Our first focus is on the Hang Seng Index. This Weekly chart shows just how dramatic the current price rotation has been over the past few weeks and how a defined price channel could be setting up in the HSI to prompt a much larger downside objective. Should continue trade issues persist and should China, through the course of negotiating with the U.S., expose any element of risk perceived by the rest of the world, the potential for further price contraction is very real. China is walking a very fine line right now as Trump is pushing issues (trade issues and IP/Technology issues) to the forefront of the trade negotiations. In our opinion, the very last thing China wants is their dirty laundry, shady deals and political leadership strewn across the global news cycles over the next 24+ months.

The DAX Weekly Index is showing a similar price pattern. A very clear upper price trend channel which translates into a very clear downside price objective is price continues lower. Although the DAX is not related directly to the US/China trade negotiations, the global markets are far more interconnected now than ever before. Any rotation lower in China will likely result in a moderate price decrease in many of the major global market indexes.

As we’ve suggested within our earlier research posts, U.S. election cycles tend to prompt massive price rotations when the election cycles are intense. In our next post PART II of this report, we talk about what happened in the past election cycles reviewing the monthly charts and weekly SP500 index charts which are very telling in what could be about to happen next for the stock market from an investors standpoint.

For active swing traders, you are going to love our daily trading analysis. On May 1st we talked about the old saying goes, “Sell in May and Go Away!” and that is exactly what is happening now right on queue. In fact, we closed out our SDS position on Thursday for a quick 3.9% profit and our other new trade started Thursday is up 18% already.

Second, my birthday is only three days away and I think it's time I open the doors for a once a year opportunity for everyone to get a gift that could have some considerable value in the future.

Right now I am going to give away and shipping out silver rounds to anyone who buys a 1-year, or 2-year subscription to my Wealth Trading Newsletter. I only have 7 left as they are going fast so be sure to upgrade your membership to a longer term subscription or if you are new, join one of these two plans, and you will receive:

One Year Subscription Gets One 1oz Silver Round FREE (Could be worth hundreds of dollars)

Two Year Subscription Gets TWO 1oz Silver Rounds FREE (Could be worth a lot in the future)

I only have 13 more silver rounds I’m giving away ​​​​​​​so upgrade or join now before it's too late!

SUBSCRIBE TO MY TRADE ALERTS AND GET YOUR FREE SILVER ROUNDS!

Happy May Everyone!

Chris Vermeulen
Stay tuned for PART II next!

This Left for Dead Sector is About to Explode Higher

By Justin Spittler 

A revolution has begun. It’s going to change America in ways you can’t possibly imagine. 

No, I’m not talking about a political revolution. I’m talking about an energy revolution. Rick Perry, President Trump’s energy secretary, explained this revolution in a press conference last week:

For years, Washington stood in the way of our energy dominance. That changes now.
We are now looking to help, not hinder, energy producers and job creators.

Perry makes a good point. From 2009 to 2016, the Obama administration held back America’s energy sector. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) alone enacted nearly 4,000 regulations during Obama’s tenure. These measures severely handicapped the energy sector. They even killed some companies. Of course, Obama’s no longer running the show. Trump is. And he wants to put American energy companies first.

This might sound like an empty promise. But if there’s one thing Trump’s done consistently since taking office, it’s support the energy sector. This is great news for oil and gas companies. But it’s even better news for an industry that many investors have left for dead.

I’m talking about the coal industry.…
The coal business is what Doug Casey likes to call a “choo-choo train” industry. It’s a dirty, dangerous, and downright difficult industry. It hasn’t changed much since the Industrial Revolution, either. That’s why environmentalists hate it. It’s also why the EPA passed more than 33,000 pages of regulations under Obama. These measures have cost coal companies $312 billion since 2009. That’s nearly $40 billion per year.

Obama basically tried to regulate the coal industry out of existence.…
He nearly succeeded, too. Just look at all these coal companies that have gone bankrupt in the last few years.

• Patriot Coal
  
• James River Coal
  
• New World Resources
  
• Walter Energy
  
• Alpha Natural Resources
  
• Arch Coal
  
• Peabody Energy
  

Just so you know, these aren’t second or third tier companies. They’re some of the biggest U.S. coal producers.

U.S. coal production fell almost 35% between 2009 and 2016.…
It’s also why the percentage of U.S. electricity fueled by coal plunged from more than 35% in late 2014 to less than 25% a year later. When most people see these statistics, they write off coal completely. They assume it’s finished. But coal isn’t going anywhere…at least not anytime soon. This dislocation between fact and fantasy has created a huge investing opportunity. Here’s why…

Trump wants to help coal companies.…
Everyone knows this. It was one of his biggest pledges during his campaign. But unlike many other things Trump’s promised, he’s actually delivered on this. In fact, one of the first things Trump did as president was roll back the Stream Protection Rule in February. A month later, he called for a review of Obama's Clean Power Plan. He also wants to make it easier for U.S. coal companies to export coal and build coal plants overseas. So far, Trump’s efforts have worked.

U.S. coal production is up 19% this year.…
Coal companies have also added 1,300 jobs since December. This tells us that Trump is breathing life back into the coal industry. Still, you should understand something important. The coal industry will never make a full recovery. That’s because natural gas and renewables have become much cheaper in recent years. Because of this, more and more U.S. power plants are using less coal.

That’s the bad news for the industry. The good news is that coal doesn’t have to return to its glory days for you to make a fortune. It just has to go from “terrible” to “not so bad.”

Here’s why that will happen.…

The rest of the world still needs coal.…
Right now, 1.2 billion people on the planet lack access to electricity. That’s 16% of the world’s population. That’s also 3.5 times more people than there are living in the United States right now. Most of these people live in China and India. These are two of the world’s fastest-growing economies. But these countries can’t keep growing like this without a lot of electricity. And that means huge demand for coal.

Why, you ask? Simple. Coal is still one of the cheapest, most abundant, and most dependable forms of energy. It’s also easy to store and transport. It’s the natural choice for emerging markets with massive energy needs. Just look at what China’s doing. It already burns 4 billion tons of coal every year. That’s four times as much as we burn in the States. And its appetite for coal is only going to get bigger.

This is a huge opportunity for the United States.…
After all, the U.S. has more than a quarter of the world’s coal reserves. Not only that, we have the desire and infrastructure in place to export coal. But don’t take my word for it. Take it from Corsa Coal, a major U.S. coal producer. Their CEO recently said that they plan to export 85% of the coal they produce this year. Most investors don’t realize this. They think the U.S. has to burn more coal for coal stocks to soar. But the industry just needs the government to leave it alone and for the rest of the world to keep burning coal.

Sooner or later, the masses will figure this out. When they do, money will pour into coal stocks. You’ll want to be ready for that. Here’s how you can set yourself up for big gains today….Buy the VanEck Vectors Coal ETF (KOL). This fund invests in 27 different coal and coal-related stocks. It’s a way to bet on a rebound in coal without gambling on one stock. That said, you could still make a killing in KOL. To understand why, look at the chart below. It shows the performance of KOL since it went public in 2008.

Two things jump off the screen here. Number one, KOL’s up 116% since the start of 2016. That tells us the bottom in coal stocks is already in. Number two, KOL is still down 74% from its 2011 highs. This means KOL could more than triple from here and still be cheaper than it was six years ago.

In short, there’s still plenty of upside in KOL. Still, you should understand that this is a speculation. Don’t put more money into them than you can afford to lose. Have an exit strategy. And use stop losses. This will allow you to capture coal’s massive upside while limiting your downside.

The article This Left-for-Dead Sector Is About to Explode Higher was originally published at caseyresearch.com

The First Ever ‘Codeword’ Leak

By Porter Stansberry 

Today, an emerging story about the secret civil war being waged right now in Washington D.C. It is about to have a HUGE impact on our country. Two warnings before we begin. First, what I know so far is deeply troubling. We're approaching what will be the most dangerous period in our country's political history since the Great Depression. What could happen next scares me. But I continue to be optimistic that what will unfold will be great for our country.

Also, I'm certain that you simply won't believe much of what you'll read in today's essay. In fact, until I did my own follow-up research to verify what I could from my sources, I disregarded this story as "political nonsense" or just another D.C. conspiracy theory. Besides… it was all too horrible to believe. But then… almost everything my sources told me would happen started happening.…

Let's begin here.…
Did you know the U.S. government has a secrecy designation so restricted that virtually nobody – not even lifetime members of the intelligence community – even knows what it's called? It's not "TOP SECRET." It's way beyond that level. In late 2009, President Obama created this new level of secrecy inside our government with an executive order (No. 13526) – so Congress never approved it. Administered by the CIA, this new level of secrecy has created a covert government within the government that almost nobody knows and absolutely nobody is monitoring.

If you've ever heard the term the "Deep State" – the secret government within the government that actually holds power – then you know why a level of secrecy beyond "top secret" is so important. This new, more restricted level of secrecy was created so that the most powerful leaders of our government could communicate in total isolation. This level of secrecy is such a closely guarded secret that the name of the program itself is classified – and divulging the name is a crime, punishable by at least 10 years in a secret prison. So this level of security clearance is known only as "codeword."

At the highest levels of our D.C. government, only two dozen or so people have codeword clearances.…
I learned about this earlier this month. I was invited to lunch with someone who has held that level of security clearance. He told me about the existence of the codeword-level program. This isn't a rumor. It's a fact. For the last 30-plus years, my source has worked for and around the highest levels of our government. He is currently regarded as the president's most likely choice to become our next Federal Reserve chairman. Today, however, his clients include the world's top hedge fund managers and the leaders of America's biggest corporations. He is, in short, America's corporate representative of the Deep State.

We call him the "Metropolitan Man."

We met about a year ago. He reached out to me through a mutual friend – one of the best, young hedge fund managers in New York. He asked me to join him for dinner at the Metropolitan Club in New York, one of the most elite clubs in the United States. (Legendary banker J.P. Morgan founded the club. It's where billionaire investor Warren Buffett held his 50th birthday party. And it sits at the southeast corner of Central Park, across from The Plaza Hotel, with a great vista of Columbus Circle.) At the time, the Metropolitan Man was forecasting correctly that the world's central bankers and their negative interest rate policy were failing and that they would soon trigger a global run out of paper money and into gold. Over the next several months, gold and gold stocks soared (as you may remember).

A few days ago, the Metropolitan Man asked to see me again.…
He wanted to talk about something he had never seen before in all his years working in the government. For the first time ever, a codeword-level secret was leaked to the press. Nothing this sensitive has ever been leaked before – ever. Among senior leaders in D.C., it is widely believed that the director of the CIA himself was responsible for the codeword leak. And the rumor is that this information was then passed to the press through New York Senator Chuck Schumer's office. What was leaked?

A codeword secret briefing the CIA produced about a meeting in Trump Tower last December between a Russian ambassador and two senior Trump administration officials – Jared Kushner and Michael Flynn.
When Flynn lied about the meeting to the White House staff, he was fired. But the deeper question is: How did the CIA know about the meeting? How did it know how long the meeting lasted? How did it know exactly what was discussed? And how did that information end up in the hands of a New York Times reporter?

This backstory explains how Trump knows the CIA was spying on Trump Tower. And the counternarratives – Trump's claim that Obama was spying on him and the Democrats' claim that Trump is in league with Russia – are the beginning of a serious war. A civil war inside the Deep State itself.

Reading the newspapers won't explain how this war is being fought.…
They will never publish a clear explanation of the battle lines – or even who is fighting or why. But the outcome of these battles is likely to determine the fate of our economy for the next several decades. Let me explain why and tell you what this fight is really about. For the last 40 or so years, the U.S. economy has been built around a model that created vast power in D.C. The model has a few important components.

First, we have a highly "progressive" income tax. That ensures that anyone who makes high wages will pay for the lion's share of the government's expenses. Without extremely progressive income tax rates – where about half the country pays nothing and the top 10% pay for roughly 80% – the electorate would never continue to vote for more and more government. But it does, mostly because it doesn't have to pay for it.

Second, the government has an incredibly powerful regulatory regime in place. This allows D.C. to essentially control vast segments of our economy. Take Wall Street, for example. Who gets to sell a bond or a stock to the public? Nobody the Securities and Exchange Commission doesn't like (i.e. yours truly). This power results in tremendous amounts of "tribute" – legal fees, fines, and hidden lobbying that flows into D.C. and feeds its economic ecosystem.

And finally there's the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and "free" trade. Our country has the ability to export all of the inflation generated by our central bank. This has led to decades of lower and lower interest rates and the government's ability to borrow essentially endless amounts of money without any serious inflationary consequences. These three components form the foundations of Washington's power.

Attack any of them and you risk a huge fight with the Deep State. What Trump is doing right now via his border adjustment tax, additional tax reform, and regulatory rollback is targeting all three of them at the same time. If he wins, all of the power that has been consolidated in D.C. over the past 40 years will evaporate.

Trump has put a metaphorical gun to the head of the Deep State…
And now, the Deep State is fighting back, tooth and nail, to protect the system it has built. Look at what has happened to the middle class in America over the last 40 years. Did NAFTA prevent price inflation by allowing America's consumer economy the luxury of accessing the world's cheapest labor? Yes, it did. But the flip side was devastating to the entire manufacturing industry in the U.S. And where did the resulting wealth flow? To D.C. and to the top 1% of America's wealthiest people who were able to access foreign markets and shield the resulting income from America's tax system.

Meanwhile, America remains the only industrial country in the world with global income taxation (you have to pay federal income tax, no matter where you live) and without a value-added tax. In short, we've chosen a system that punishes wage earners, while rewarding individuals and corporations who use overseas labor. The result has been a decline in real, after-tax wages over the last 40 years. That's a recipe to destroy the middle class – and that's what has happened.

Trump's plan to effectively lower income taxes to 25% and implement a value added tax to discourage foreign production of U.S. products will turn this entire economic structure on its ear and disenfranchise the Deep State that controls it. The winners will be the middle class, small business owners, wage earners, and America's manufacturing base. The losers? Those who have invested heavily in the current Deep State regime.

Why is this scary?
Well, unlike the health reform issue, the Metropolitan Man assured me that Trump's tax reform agenda would certainly pass. "It's a done deal," he said. He told me that his job lately "has been to help major corporations understand what will be in the new laws and how they will impact various markets." That means the Deep State has been pushed into a corner. What it might do next, no one knows. "That it would leak a codeword secret. Well, I would have told you that couldn't happen. I've never seen it before, not in more than 30 years in D.C. It's scary because if it'll do that, it'll do anything. Stage a terrorist attack? Start a war with China? Nothing is impossible anymore."

That's the downside. The next several months could see our government erupt into open civil war. The FBI accusing the president of treason… The president accusing a director of the CIA of breaking the law and having him arrested. Who knows where this will lead? On the other hand, assuming the government doesn't collapse into a civil war, Trump's new economic model will become a reality before the end of the year. For some industries (and for most Americans) these changes will bring massive prosperity. And for others – especially for companies and individuals who have been living at the government trough, tough times are looming.

Here's the best part.…
I believe these coming changes are so important and could lead to so much wealth creation that I've convinced the Metropolitan Man to come forward.

We will hold a meeting with him, at our offices in Baltimore, on April 5, 2017.
The meeting with start at 8 p.m. Eastern Time. It will last approximately two hours. Security will be very tight, so plan to arrive early. Everyone will be searched. At this meeting, the Metropolitan Man will "take off his mask" and tell you about his role in the Deep State. He'll explain the importance of the codeword-secret leak. And he'll discuss what the new Trump economic model will mean for various industries and parts of our country. He'll also explain how he knows the tax reform/border adjustment laws are certain to pass Congress and what those policies will mean for our country. If you'd like to attend the meeting via a live conference call, you can listen for only $19.95. Yes, that's right. $19.95.

This is easily the most important and valuable meeting I've ever arranged. 
It has taken more than a decade of work to gain access to information like this… And I want you to benefit from the incredible access we've gained. For successful investors and wealthy business leaders, meeting the Metropolitan Man in person and having the opportunity to ask him questions is invaluable. His normal consulting fee is $250,000. So I believe there's tremendous value at both price points. But no matter how you plan to attend, please do whatever you must to be at this meeting. There isn't a more important event you could attend this year.

Sign Up Here

Regards,
Porter Stansberry

The article The First-Ever ‘Codeword’ Leak was originally published at caseyresearch.com

The Most “Horrifying” Chart in the World

By Justin Spittler

Larry Fink is terrified. Fink runs BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager. The company manages a whopping $5.1 trillion. That's more than Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, or Wells Fargo. It’s more than the annual economic output of Japan, the world’s third largest economy. This makes Fink one of the most powerful people on the planet. Obviously, you don’t climb to the top in Wall Street by being easily rattled. But right now, Fink’s nervous. He’s worried about “a lot of dark shadows that could impact the direction of the marketplace.”

Fink’s especially worried about consumer confidence.…
Consumer confidence measures how everyday people feel about the economy and their own financial situation. It’s subjective. You can’t measure it. That’s why some investors don’t take it seriously. But they should. After all, sentiment is what really drives stocks. It’s far more important than earnings, valuations, or the health of the economy. It’s why stocks can rally despite serious fundamental problems. According to a recent survey by the University of Michigan, consumer confidence has been climbing since 2011. It recently hit the highest level since 2004.

Americans have good reason to be confident.…
After all, we just elected our first “investor” president. Unlike Obama, Donald Trump wants to put American businesses first. He also wants to cut taxes, ease regulations, and rebuild American infrastructure. These policies should help U.S. companies and workers. That’s why Americans are so confident. It’s why the S&P 500 has rallied 9% since Election Day. It’s why the Dow Jones Industrial Average just topped 20,000 for the first time ever. You can clearly see Trump’s impact on stocks in the chart below. You’ll also notice that consumer confidence hasn’t been this high since just before the 2008–2009 financial crisis.

Thanks to Trump, greed is in the air again…
But this isn’t a good thing. It’s a warning sign. Today, consumer confidence is even higher than it was in 2007. And we all know how that ended. The S&P 500 plunged 57% over the next two years. The Russell 2000, which tracks 2,000 small U.S. stocks, dropped 60%.

Fink doesn't think you should be buying stocks right now.…
He explained why in a Yahoo! Finance investor event last week:

When consumer confidence was at the lowest, that was the low point of the equity market. You should be buying then. And now consumer confidence is high and the S&P 500 is very high. Maybe you should be selling now.

Fink’s not the only Wall Street legend who thinks this, either. Sir John Templeton, one of the greatest stock pickers ever, famously said:

Bull markets are born on pessimism, grown on skepticism, mature on optimism, and die on euphoria. The time of maximum pessimism is the best time to buy, and the time of maximum optimism is the best time to sell.

This is why Fink thinks the chart above is “horrifying.” But that’s not the only thing keeping him up at night.

Fink says “we’re living in a bipolar world”.…

He continued:

In my conversations with CEOs in Europe and CEOs in the United States they may be very bullish about what may come but most business people are not investing today.

Some folks might find this confusing. After all, the stock market is supposed to reflect the health of the economy. But Dispatch readers know this hasn’t been the case lately. Since 2009, the U.S. economy has grown just 2% per year. That makes the current recovery one of the slowest on record. Meanwhile, stocks have been rallying for nearly eight years. That makes the current bull market one of the longest in U.S. history.

U.S. stocks are now incredibly expensive.…
Companies in the S&P 500 are trading at a cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings ratio (CAPE) of 28.9. That’s the highest level since the dot-com bubble. It means U.S. stocks are 73% more expensive than normal. And that’s just one measure. Last week, we showed you two other key metrics that prove how absurdly expensive U.S. stocks are today. In short, there’s not much upside in U.S. stocks, even if Trump can breathe life into the economy.

We recommend you take precautions today.…
You can get started by holding more cash and owning physical gold. Setting aside cash will help you avoid big losses if stocks crash. Gold will also help you weather the next financial crisis. That’s because gold is the ultimate safe haven asset. It’s survived everything from stock market crashes to full blown currency crises. It will survive the next financial crisis, too. To be clear, we aren’t saying U.S. stocks will crash this year or even the next. But these simple steps will protect you should the “unthinkable” happen.

---

Chart of the Day

Silver is rallying. Today’s chart shows the performance of the iShares Silver Trust ETF (SLV), whichs tracks the price of silver. It’s the most active silver fund in the world. Every day, investors trade more than 9 million shares of SLV. This makes it a great way to track investor demand for silver. You can see in the chart below that SLV has been in a downtrend “channel” since last summer. A channel is a range that an asset trades in. The bottom line acts as support. The top line acts as resistance.

You can see SLV just “broke out” of this channel. It’s now in an uptrend. This tells us that silver should head higher in the near future. If you own silver, this is great news. If you don’t, now might be a good time to buy some. Just don’t wait too long. Silver could be headed much higher from here.

The article The Most “Horrifying” Chart in the World was originally published at caseyresearch.com.

Forget Dow 20,000… This Indicator Tells the Real Story

By Justin Spittler

It finally happened. For the last six weeks, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has been bumping against a ceiling. Yesterday, it broke through. The Dow topped 20,000 for the first time ever. Most investors are excited about this. After all, 20,000 is a big, round number. It feels like a psychological win for the bulls.

But it’s not an invitation to dive into stocks…not yet, at least. We need to see if the Dow can hold this level.
If it closes the week above 20,000, stocks could keep rallying. If it doesn’t, nothing has really changed. It could even be a warning sign. Until then, sit tight. Don’t chase stocks higher…stick to your stop losses…and hold on to your gold.

Don’t lose sight of the big picture, either.…

Remember, U.S. stocks are still very risky:

➢ They’re expensive. The S&P 500 is trading at a cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings ratio (CAPE) of 28.4. That means large U.S. stocks are 70% more expensive than their historical average.

➢ We’re still in a profits recession. Profits for companies in the S&P 500 stopped growing in 2014.

➢ And Donald Trump is president of the United States. Trump could do wonders for the economy and stock market. But he could also unleash a major financial crisis. It's still too early to tell.

As you can see, "Dow 2,000" isn't necessarily a reason to celebrate. In fact, as we told you two weeks ago, there's something much more important you should be watching right now.

The bond market is flashing danger.…
The bond market is where companies borrow money. It’s the cornerstone of the global financial system.
It’s also bigger and more liquid than the stock market. This is why the bond market often signals danger long before it shows up in stocks.

The bond market started to unravel last summer.…
Just look at U.S. Treasury bonds. In July, the 10-year U.S. Treasury hit a record low of 1.37%. Since then, it’s nearly doubled to 2.55%. This is a serious red flag. You see, a bond’s yield rises when its price falls. In this case, yields skyrocketed because bond prices tanked. The same thing has happened in long term Treasury, municipal, and corporate bonds.

Bill Gross thinks bonds are entering a long-term bear market.…
Gross is one of the world’s top bond experts. He founded PIMCO, one of the world’s largest asset managers. He now runs a giant bond fund at Janus Capital. Two weeks ago, Gross said the bull market in bonds would come to an end when the 10-year yield tops 2.6%. Keep in mind, bonds have technically been in a bull market since the 1980s.

According to Gross, this number is far more important than Dow 20,000. And we’re only 50 basis points (0.5%) from hitting it. In other words, the nearly four-decade bull market in bonds could end any day now.
When it does, Gross says bonds will enter a secular bear market... meaning bonds could fall for years, even decades. This is why Casey Research founder Doug Casey has urged you to “sell all your bonds.”

If you haven’t already taken Doug’s advice, we encourage you to do so now.…
You should also take a good look at your other holdings. After all, problems in the bond market could soon spill over into the stock market. If this happens, utility stocks could be in big trouble. Utility companies provide electricity, gas, and water to our homes and businesses. They sell things we can’t live without. Because of this, most utility companies generate steady revenues. This helps them pay dependable dividends.

Many investors own utility stocks just for their dividends.…
That’s why a lot of people call them “bond proxies.” Utility stocks don’t just pay generous income like bonds, either. They also trade with bonds. You can see this in the chart below. It compares the performance of the Utilities Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLU) with the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT). XLU holds 28 utility stocks. TLT holds long-term Treasury bonds. XLU has traded with TLT for the better part of the last year. Both funds crashed after the election, too. But XLU has since rebounded.

You might find this odd. After all, the two funds basically moved in lockstep until a couple months ago.
But there’s a perfectly good explanation for this.…

Utility stocks pay more than Treasury bonds.…
Right now, XLU yields 3.4%. TLT yields 2.6%. That might not sound like big deal. But those extra 80 basis points (0.8%) provide a margin of safety. You see, the annual inflation rate is currently running at about 2.1%. That means the U.S. dollar is losing 2.1% of its value every year.

That’s bad news for everyday Americans. It’s also bad for bondholders. It means investors who own TLT are earning a “real” return (its dividend yield minus inflation) of 0.5%. Meanwhile, you’d be earning a real return of 1.3% if you owned XLU. Of course, utility stocks should pay more than government bonds. They’re riskier, after all. Unlike the government, utility companies can’t print money whenever they want. If they run into financial problems, they could go out of business.

Today, investors don’t seem to mind taking on extra risk for more income. But that could soon change…

Inflation could skyrocket under Donald Trump.…
If you’ve been reading the Dispatch, you know why. For one, Trump wants to spend $1 trillion on infrastructure projects. While this could help the economy in the short run, the U.S. government will have to borrow money to fix the country’s decrepit roads, bridges, and power lines. This would likely produce a lot more inflation. If that happens, real returns could shrink even more. And that could trigger a selloff in utility stocks and other "bond proxies," like telecom and real estate stocks. In short, if you own these types of stocks just for their dividends, you might want to consider selling them now.

We recommend sticking to dividend-paying stocks that meet the following criteria.…
The company should be growing. If it isn’t, you probably own the stock just for its dividend. That’s a bad strategy right now. It should have a low payout ratio. A payout ratio can tell us if a company’s dividend is sustainable or not. A payout ratio above 100% means a company is paying out more in dividends than it earns in income. Avoid these companies whenever possible.

It shouldn’t depend on cheap credit. After the 2008 financial crisis, a lot of companies borrowed money at rock-bottom rates to pay out dividends. If rates keep rising, these companies could have a tough time paying those dividends. If you own stocks that check these boxes, your income stream should be in good shape for now.

Chart of the Day

“Trump Years” stocks are on a tear. We all know U.S. stocks took off after the election. But some stocks did better than others. Bank stocks spiked on hopes that Trump would deregulate the financial sector. Oil and gas stocks rallied because Trump is pro-energy. Industrial stocks have also surged since Election Day.

Industrial companies manufacture and distribute goods. They include construction companies and equipment makers. E.B. Tucker, editor of The Casey Report, thinks these companies will stay very busy while Trump rebuilds America’s hollowed out economy.

He’s so sure of it that he recommended four “Trump Years” stocks last month. One of those stocks is up 11% in just six weeks. Yesterday, it spiked 8% after the company crushed its fourth quarter earnings report.
The company announced higher sales, fatter profits, and lower taxes. It raised its guidance for the year. In other words, it expects to make a lot more money this year…now that Trump’s in charge.

You can learn about this company and E.B.’s other “Trump Years” stocks by signing up for The Casey Report. Click here to begin your free trial.

The article Forget Dow 20,000… This Indicator Tells the Real Story was originally published at caseyresearch.com.