Thursday, 11 August 2011

Energold Drilling

EGD has the ability to be the fastest growing company in a sector that is experiencing a once in a lifetime secular bull market of epic proportions....

- EGD has strong balance sheet, capital discipline, a permanent cost advantage over competition, a capital light operation with a variable cost structure and Fred Davidson, the best CEO in the industry
- Man portable rigs are both environmentally friendly and allow drilling in remote areas
- 2011 total exploration spending by base and precious metals producers - $14 billion
- Junior miners raised £12 billion last year for gold related projects, so 2012E spending should improve.
- Firm and stable spending, high, rising commodity prices, declining reserves, cash rich major & junior miners
- 50% of total industry spend will go towards gold exploration
- Frontier drilling, EGD's specialty, has been declining but is now stabilising
- EGD is the low cost producer in the sector and will get a growing share of a growing sector.
- Frontier drilling demand should overwhelm supply, leading to strong demand and pricing power for EGD
- Expect strong growth in volume and pricing for existing and new rigs
- EGD is the sole source provider of man-portable rigs; competition is non-exitent and likely to stay that way
- 80% of crews are locals; company reinvests 1-2% of revenues in local community projects each year
- Excellent money printing hedge
- Low valuation, misinterpreted by the market as EGD amortises newly acquired rigs aggressively, meaning earnings are under-reported during times of high growth. EGD has grown rigs at 30% CAGR historically.
- EGD trading at 5x normalised EPS with very strong future EPS growth rate


http://beforeitsnews.com/story/929/941/Energold_Drilling_EGD_CN.html


Wednesday, 10 August 2011

MSFT vs NASDAQ

MSFT should outperform NASDAQ on the equity market rally over the next 3-6 weeks, through to the next daily cycle top.

Tuesday, 9 August 2011

Week 31/2011: Gas 'Em Up Benny..... America Needs You!

As stock markets plunge across the globe and the safe havens of bonds and gold rally strongly, pressure is mounting on central bankers to come up with a solution. As interest rates are already on the floor, all central bankers have left in their tool kit is the printing press. We are about to see co-ordinated intervention on a global scale. It may work in the short-term, but will not ultimately succeed. The debt-deleveraging process is a long and painful one that cannot be cured by juicing the money supply.

The model portfolio returned -3.7% last week. Equities plunged -7.4%, bonds gained +0.5% and gold in euro terms rallied +3.0%. I am going to hold off on making a change to the model portfolio this week due to the severe oversold condition of the markets. So, there is no change to the 60% equities / 20% bonds / 20% gold split. In July, the model portfolio returned +1.3% compared to -1.2% for the average managed fund. Equities declined -0.9%, bonds were flat and gold in euro terms soared +9.3%. YTD through end-July, the model portfolio has returned +0.3% compared to -1.6% for the average managed fund. Equities fell -3.1%, bonds rallied +0.1% and gold in euro terms gained +6.5%.


DJIA
11,445
Dollar Index
$74.60
CRB Index
326.80
DJTA
4,694
CAD/EUR
1.4025
Gold
$1,664
DJUA
415
USD/EUR
1.4280
Silver
$38.35
NDX
2,194
JPY/EUR
111.95
Copper
$4.10
S&P 500
1,199
JPY/USD
78.40
Oil WTI
$87.30
ISEQ
2,506
USD/GBP
1.6390
Natural Gas
$3.95
FTSE
5,247
10 Yr. Tsy.
127.05
Soybeans
$13.45
Nikkei
9,300
30 Yr. Tsy.
132.20
Corn
$7.15

EQUITIES:
Another spectacularly volatile week came to a close with a late day rally on Friday afternoon in the U.S. Then, after the markets closed, the ratings agency S&P downgraded America's AAA credit rating one notch to AA+ with a negative outlook, sending futures markets into a tailspin on Sunday night when markets re-opened and trading resumed (US equity markets are scheduled to open down -2% as I write).

Prior to the rally late Friday, equity markets had sold off aggressively all week on fears the States may be slipping back into recession. There were also rumours that Germany was balking at having to open its cheque book once again, this time to shore up Italian and Spanish debt markets, as yields in those countries continue to rise. The Eurozone is creaking and liquidity is drying up. Rumours of a run on bank deposits had many Italians choking on their pizzas on Wednesday. Stocks were halted on the Italian bourse and government bond yields there breached 6%. It was a similar situation in Spain. At least the focus is off us for a while.

What's a central banker to do? While Merkel and Sarkozy are on their five week summer sojurns, a certain US central banker is rubbing his hands. Bernanke believes his time has come. I think he is ready to launch phase three of his monetary experiment to save the world from credit excess. Bernanke is about to gas up the helicopters and launch QE3. Stock markets were sniffing this out on Friday and may be close to turning higher. In fact, I think we are either about to accelerate higher or lower (crash) this week. Much will depend on the extent of government intervention and the ability of traders and investors to hold their nerve. Hopefully we get a rally. It is difficult to pinpoint such a rebound in equities, but in the short-term, markets are ridiculously oversold relative to bonds (see next chart) and due for a bounce. As noted above, the bounce could be quite strong in the lead up to a QE3 event. I don't believe QE3 is a long-term solution, and will only cause further problems down the road when the next recession will be exacerbated by a currency crisis.

Longer-term, the game has changed. I think the market action of the past couple of weeks has confirmed that the 2-year bull market is over and the bear market has returned. I don't expect the next rally will make new highs. We are still in an extended topping process. Remember, equity markets took 15 months to form a top in 2000 before coming crashing down. It took 12 months in 2007 before a similar outcome. This time round, markets peaked at the beginning of May 2011, so we are only three months in. I had previously thought the return of the bear would be a 2012 event, but it might come earlier than I had expected. I will be able to tell more based on the quality of the next rally in stocks.

From a technical perspective, we broke long-term support this week. Since markets are oversold to such an extreme – there are fewer stocks above their 50DMA's now than at the March 2009 bottom – I want to give this market a little more time before moving to a defensive position. Like I said, markets should be close to turning around here and crash-type events are low probability outcomes.

BONDS:
German 10-Yr Yield at 2.35% DOWN from 2.83% last week
Irish 10-Yr Yield at 10.00% DOWN from 11.90% last week

Italian 10-Yr Yield at 6.10% UP from 5.65% last week

Greek 10-Yr Yield at 15.24% UP from 14.69% last week

Spanish 10-Yr Yield at 6.05% UP from 5.77% last week

Portuguese 10-Yr Yield at 10.95% UNCH from 10.95% last week



COMMODITIES:
Gold closed on Friday at $1,664/oz, +2.2% for the week in USD. The USD rallied +0.8% versus the EUR over the week, so gold in euros gained +3.0%. Year-to-date, gold is up +9.7% in euro terms.


In the short-term, gold is very overbought and rallying strongly ahead of a QE3-type announcement, I think. We may get such a statement from the Fed this week, which could mark a short-term top in gold, as traders who "bought the rumour, sell the news". I wouldn’t go chasing gold here, even though it is rocketing higher again this morning and currently trading at $1,708. Bull market anyone?

MODEL PORTFOLIO:
The model portfolio returned -3.7% last week. Equities plunged -7.4%, bonds gained +0.5% and gold in euro terms rallied +3.0%. I am going to hold off on making a change to the model portfolio this week due to the severe oversold condition of the markets. There is no change to the 60% equities / 20% bonds / 20% gold split for next week. In July, the model portfolio returned +1.3% compared to -1.2% for the average managed fund. Equities declined -0.9%, bonds were flat and gold in euro terms soared +9.3%. Year-to-date through end-July, the model portfolio has returned +0.3% compared to -1.6% for the average managed fund. Equities declined -3.1%, bonds rallied +0.1% and gold in euro terms gained +6.5%.

TOP 10 INVESTMENT IDEAS FOR 2011:



Top 10 For 2011
28/01/2011
Comment
1
Long Gold
$1,337
Conservative inflation hedge
2
Long CEF.A
$18.95
ETF backed by 50% gold, 50% silver
3
Long NEM
$55.00
Miner leveraged to rising gold prices
4
Long EGD
$4.20
Mining services company that sells equipment to the sector without taking the exploration risk.
5
Long GDXJ
$34.60
Junior miners ETF – when gold hits bubble territory, GDXJ will best capture the mania that follows.
6
Short 30 Yr Treas.
$121.45*
28 year bond bull market over, with US 10-year yields troughing at 2.4%.
7
Long MSFT
$27.75
The cash machine of the technology sector; single-digit P/E with double-digit EPS growth.
8
Long CAD/ Short JPY
JPY 82.00
JPY must decline so Japan can regain competitiveness and reduce its massive debt burden (200% of GDP).
9
Long Sugar
$0.34/lb
Commodity play with strong supply/demand imbalance
10
Long Soybeans
$14.05/ bushel
Commodity play with strong supply/demand imbalance

YTD PERFORMANCE OF 2011 BEST IDEAS:
28 January 201105 August 20112011 Return YTD
1Long Gold$1,337$1,66424.5%
2Long CEF.ACAD 18.95CAD 23.4623.8%
3Long NEM$55.00$54.41-1.1%
4Long EGD$4.20$3.98-5.2%
5Long GDXJ$34.60$32.73-5.4%
6Short 30-Year Treas.$121.45$132.20-8.9%
7Long MSFT$27.75$25.68-7.5%
8Long CAD/Short JPYJPY 82.00JPY 79.85-2.6%
9Long Sugar$0.34$0.28-17.6%
10Long Soybeans$14.05$13.45-4.3%

PERFORMANCE OF 2010 BEST IDEAS:
01 January 201031 December 20102010 Return
1Long Gold$1,097$1,42129.5%
2Long Silver$16.88$30.9183.1%
3Short 30-Year Treas.$115.38$122.10-5.8%
4Long NEM$47.31$61.4329.8%
5Long PAAS$23.81$41.2073.0%
6Long DVN$73.50$78.516.8%
7Long CAD/EURCAD 1.5100CAD 1.335611.5%
8Long Nikkei10,54610,229-3.0%
9Long Sugar$0.27/lb$0.321/lb18.9%
10Long Soybeans$10.54/bsl$14.09/bsl33.7%