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We’re in the middle of earnings season, and the profits of many U.S. companies are being killed by the strong U.S. dollar - up 15% since mid-2014 against a basket of trade-weighted foreign currencies and up 12% in 2015 alone which was the biggest one-year gain since the 1970s. That's bad, bad news for American companies with significant international business and 6 of them are identified in this article.

UBS has warned that the seven-year cycle in equities is rolling over, we could see a sharp 30% correction in stocks and that as per the headline of their ‘Technical Outlook 2016′, it is time to “buy gold”.

The oil price bear market will have made it's final bottom BY early February at $25 and then embark on a bull market that will target a trend towards a late year high of $60...This oil price trend and the stock market's oversold state are also converging towards a stock market bottom for 2016 in a time window that probably runs for another 2-3 weeks. Here are the specifics.

[As outlined in this article,] there are no reasons to buy paper gold or silver. [That being said,] the reasons for buying and holding physical gold & silver are more compelling than ever, and we expect those reasons to become even more compelling.

A prominent European think tank contends that the Russian economy may be entering into a death spiral, driven by a combination of factors, including low energy prices, government mismanagement, a collapse in the Russian ruble’s value and Western sanctions.

Commodities as an asset class look like a great bet for 2016, especially with so many dangers lurking in both the stock and bond markets, and an allocation of 20-35% as part of a broader portfolio may be sensible.

Today’s infographic looks at the economic differences between the U.S. and China: total reserves, foreign direct investment, demographics, imports, exports, GDP per capita, energy, education, and much more. [Take a look.]

Each of the following charts on gold and silver contain their own message related to price volume behavior that has a convincing element of reason... See if you agree.

The main reason to buy gold and silver any time is as insurance against extreme negative events. The main reason for buying gold in 2016 remains the risk of an international monetary system collapse. Gold is money in extremis.

Seventeen million new vehicles were sold in 2015, the highest it’s ever been in United States history but, while the media claims that this record has been reached because of drastic improvements to the U.S. economy, they are once again failing to account for the central factor: credit expansion.