[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfINBYmGD1A 450 300]

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I don’t often talk about the University of Kentucky on this site, being a “mostly” Louisville Cardinals fan (and they don’t like it much around here when you’re “both.”  You might as like to try to “borry” from a man’s still instead).   However, UK freshman, SEC “Player of the Year,” “Newcomer of the Year,” and quite possibly #1 NBA draft pick John Wall makes for a nice metaphor for today’s dollar discussion.

Wall, while deified in the Blue Grass for his eye-popping offensive talents, is going to be the number one (or #2, his teammate DeMarcus Cousins may go #1) draft pick because of his defensive capabilities, which are sometimes similarly eye-popping.   It’s arguable, for instance, that he beat Vanderbilt at Vanderbilt all by himself with a last second shot block on a dead-eye three-point shooter, followed by a clean pick of the ball right from said startled shooter’s hands.  

What’s that?  Of course Youtube has the clip!

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZzXhhd6CRA 450 300]

Pretty spiffy, no?   You don’t see that kind of instinctive defensive thinking in a lot of freshman.

And that kind of defensive, er… “wall” brings to mind our old weekly dollar chart and the “fib wall” we’d identified as going to be a tough area to breach.   It turns out, the 200-week exponential moving average (“EMA”) served as a barrier as well.   Look at the slow topping we’ve seen here, keeping in mind this is a weekly chart:

I think this bodes well, at least in the near term, for our commodities “risk trade,” and especially the precious metals, which are perking up quite nicely this morning as the dollar (DXY) drops below $80.00.    [[AGQ]] is taking all it’s friends out for a champagne party, and purchasing them Norma Kamali handbags.   Fellow silvers [[EXK]] , [[CDE]] and even rag-tag Hecla Mining Company [[HL]] are also again off to the races.  As always, the best name in silver is Silver Wheaton Corp. (USA) [[SLW]] .  On the gold side, you know my favourites (sic) but NovaGold Resources Inc. (USA) [[NG]] is really picking up steam as it matures here.

Keep an eye as well on our dollar proxy [[UUP]] , which we’d like to see stay below $23.60 for our shiny metal dominance to continue.

On top of our usual metal trades, it seems that the regional banks [[KRE]] are also back on thier horses.  You know I love BB&T Corporation BB&T Corporation [[BBT]] as a long term hold, but don’t be afraid to grab a little Fifth Third Bancorp [[FITB]] and Huntington Bancshares Incorporated [[HBAN]] here as these “Ohio chancres” will someday soon be able to cover up their cold sores and sashay out into the bank M&A saloons once again, all a-flooze.

Last, don’t forget about Elite Eight  pick Cree, Inc. [[CREE]] which is still getting its wind back (thankfully, so is SanDisk Corporation [[SNDK]] ) and it’s sister Veeco Instruments Inc. [[VECO]] , which has really been gaining some nice ground recently.   I like both as hedges against future “Inflato-rama Drama.”

My best to you all.

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Krull Leaves the Poker Game for a Quick Smoke Break
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Up 3% yesterday, even with all my hedges still in place, I must bow to the volcanic power of the precious metal rebound we experienced yesterday.

That doesn’t mean I’m abandoning my post on the 12th slippery rung of the main municipal sewer — the cosy seat next to the extrusion pipe but before the extrusion weld.   No, I’m still expecting a pullback today from yesterday’s Ode to Joy/Bunny Rabbit Massacre, unbounded. 

But the dollar (seen on the intraday as [[UUP]] or DXY) still continues to fall off here, and I’m wondering if we will ever get back up to that $80.10 or so pivot (on DXY)  I’d talked about as a trigger for another downturn last week.    I won’t be surprised, however, if we get another exogenous shock out of Davos, the PIIG’s or even President Obama’s recently unveiled near $4 trillion FrankenBudget. 

For now, I’m liking what works on the rebound, and thus far, it’s the fast movers of the junior golds like Allied Nevada Gold Corp. [[ANV]] , Eldorado Gold Corporation (USA) [[EGO]] and “the X-factor” — Exeter Resource Corp. [[XRA]] .   I also like IAMGOLD Corporation (USA) [[IAG]] and Royal Gold, Inc. [[RGLD]] of course, and Lindsay made a nice rec yesterday on the nicely pivoting Taseko Mines Limited (USA) [[TGB]] .

Of course silver is my true Tsar Bomba play in 2010, as it has been lagging the 2009 move in gold, along with platinum [[PTM]] , Stillwater Mining Company [[SWC]] and palladium [[PAL]] .   Right now, in this first updraft, I like the double silver play [[AGQ]] a whole lot, and of course my core group of miners — in order — Silver Wheaton Corp. (USA) [[SLW]] , [[EXK]] , [[PAAS]] , [[CDE]] , [[SVM]] , Silver Standard Resources Inc. (USA) [[SSRI]] and the lowly Hecla Mining Company [[HL]] .

All of these should be gnawed at opportunistically, as one would a bread wheel from the boulangerie, deep under the steam pipes of Manhattan.

I am still not taking down my hedges (in  [[SPY]] puts and [[QID]] and [[BZG]] ), and will happily bleed money on them here, as that insurance policy has served me well these last weeks.   Nothing could please me more than taking them down at lower balances, however, as that would mean all of my other plays are working well, as they did yesterday.

Don’t forget about the banks, here, as they’ve never really suffered much of a pullback, even in last week’s deluge.  Today, they seem to be leading the red dogs, which may turn out to be an opportunity for you.   Again, I like BB&T Corporation [[BBT]] for the longer term hold, Fifth Third Bancorp [[FITB]] and Huntington Bancshares Incorporated [[HBAN]] for the Ohio pop, and Pacific Capital Bancorp [[PCBC]] for the lotto play (stay small and remember, it’s only a game).

Best to you all, First Amendment scholars.

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Mr. Limm Likes Cash!
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We’re getting another mini-rally in the greenback, thanks largely I believe to the perceived death of Obamacare and the attendant printing those increased expenditures would have brought with them.    Of course, there are trillions in deficits rolling down the pike with or without socialized medicine on the table, so I don’t expect this dollar bounce to be particularly long lived.

Let’s have a look at  our dollar proxy [[UUP]] to see what we might expect.   First the daily chart:

As you can see, we gapped up pretty significantly yesterday, but we’ve been turning up for over a week now, stochastically speaking.   I don’t think it’s a major coincidence that the dollar rebound coincided with the increasing possibility of the Dem’s losing their filibuster-proof Senate and the markets perhaps getting the notion that spending might slow.   That said, there’s already many wheels in motion on the spending front, and I think perhaps this move reflects more “hope” than reality for the currency markets.  

As you can see, on the dailies we’re running into some decent resistance at both the $23.20 mark and then at the 200-day EMA at $23.32.   We’ll have to see if those levels hold, but looking at the weekly chart, you might think they will not.  The coil on the various oscillators seem to indicate we’re not done with this rebound yet:

As you can see, my near term weekly target at the 34-week EMA ($23.21) coincides with my above daily targets.   However, if that level is breached, it looks like the next levels of serious resistance will be $23.75 or so — which is a mile in terms of overall market, and especially commodity reaction.   

So be prepared to gird your loins if the dollar continues to strengthen.   For my part, I will be laying in wait to accumulate back more of the silver and gold names I dis-horded in December.   I added more Silver Wheaton Corp. (USA) [[SLW]] under $16 yesterday, and began buying Fronteer Development Group Inc. (USA) [[FRG]] for the first time at $4.87.    I like how it pulled back to the breakout area from the mid $5.20’s, as I had hoped it would.  

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In the mean time, it’s seems the banks really like this dollar move, as our favourite (sic) bank index (that Jeremy won’t fix the price indicator for) [[BKX]] has been cheering on this dollar move like they use them for inventory or something.

What’s wacky is that President Obama is currently jaw-boning the hell out of the banks with a threatened “extra-tax” to “pay back the American people” (despite the American people being paid back very favorably for TARP by all but the worst Congressional satraps at Fannie, Freddie, GM and Chrysler who, needless to even mention, are not included in aforesaid punitive tax).  

Could it be that everyone is whispering to one another and saying “he’s bullshitting us?”   Maybe.   Could it also be that this just today new threat from Goldman’s Favourite President about “limiting the size of banks” is going to end up yet another barrier to entry which will — soo-prize! soo-prize! — end up benefitting the largest banks by limiting competition?

Would Congress really do something like that??  (Stifling laughter)

Well, whatever the cause, the banks are off to the races like a drunken Irishman on Derby Day (or “like Jake”) in the last two days, even in the teeth of an overall market downdraft.    Check out the Index That Shall not Be Displayed — $BKX :

“What the horse,” no?

And now look at a current Jake Favourite, as I’ve been mentioning on The PPT for these last few days, Southern Powerhouse BB&T Corporation [[BBT]] :

Looking good, no Cisco?  

Here’s the weekly for the longer term play:

You can see my ultimate target on this one is $38, and if things continue as they have been, I don’t think that will be a long wait.   For the gamblers out there’s Pacific Capital Bancorp [[PCBC]] which Ragin’ Hat Tipped me towards a couple of weeks back at $1.08.   It’s been berry berry good to me.  I also like Huntington Bancshares Incorporated [[HBAN]] for the potential buy-out and PNC Financial Services [[PNC]] and UBS AG (USA) [[UBS]] for “best survivors” status.     For large banks, I continue to think JPMorgan Chase & Co. [[JPM]] will end up on top.    

Best to you all.

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[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCvIw7DMHXc 450 300]

Courtesy  of my 12-Year Old:  the New Fly Theme Song!

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I mentioned today that I was looking at banques, and by Banquo’s Ghost I’m excited by what I’ve been seeing…  Let’s look at the “big bank index” first in [[BKX]] —

Sure, it’s overbought, but it’s also broken away from EMA’s that were keeping it down since Mid-October.  With the strength of this move, you have to believe there’s more juice in the banks, and consequently, the market.

Even more interesting is the smaller cap regional bank holding ETF [[KRE]] .   It’s not so overbought and really just breaking out today.  

It’s full of crazy stuff like Bank of Hawaii Corporation [[BOH]] and East West Bancorp, Inc. [[EWBC]] , but that’s not the point.  

At least not for me. 

What it means to me is that the regionals are getting healthy, and what’s more, getting bought in this market.  Check Huntington Bancshares Incorporated [[HBAN]] for an audacious example, but I like the stronger more conservative plays like PNC Financial Services [[PNC]] and BB&T Corporation BB&T Corporation [[BBT]] .  

We’ll explore this more next week, perhaps after a bit of a drawback from all this giddyness.   Or Jake Gittes’ness, if you will.  

 The good news is that, because we are coming out of a consolidation, we should have some nice low hanging fruit to gather, ovah heah.

Best to you all.

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