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A look into the future of the cooling industry
Andrew Gaved EngineeringWhat will the cooling industry look like in 2030? It's a bold question that was asked just before Christmas by the European cooling and ventilation groups EPEE and EVIA. In their collaborative conference named "EUREKA 2016: Heating, Cooling & Ventilation: Sustainable technologies for a better life," they brought experts from around the industry together to imagine what the so-called Generation Z would require from their refrigeration and HVAC — and thus how the industry would need to adapt to create the conditions.
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Metals Thoughts: Mandate death trap
Brad Yates Natural ResourcesFor the second time in a month, gold has challenged and failed the downsloping 200 DMA, but this time having significantly more support from other macro inputs, DXY and rates particularly. President Donald Trump seems to prefer personal experience to observed wisdom by undertaking the Sisyphean task of healthcare reform, only to be chased down the hill by the rock. The loss has many punters doubting the strength of his mandate for reform and considering the many factions within the GOP to perhaps be more formidable than prior thought.
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How can we apply democratic principles to risk management?
Rasoul Abdolmohammadi Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementFormer British Prime Minister Winston Churchill seemed to have a problem with democracy. He famously said, "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried." Greek philosopher Plato agreed, putting democracy near the bottom of his list of five types of government (aristocracy, timocracy, oligarchy, democracy and tyranny).
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Metals Thoughts: When the levee breaks?
Brad Yates Natural ResourcesAfter the FOMC hike Wednesday, we saw a nice little relief rally, driven mostly by spec short covering. The last couple of days have been quiet, with $6-$8 daily high-low ranges abounding. Implieds are getting sold with both hands, with both one-month and one-year tenors at multiyear lows.
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Metals Thoughts: The heavy load
Brad Yates Natural ResourcesThe pace of headlines not directly related to President Donald Trump seems to be picking up a bit: Fed hikes, inflation vector shift higher, crude volatility, Brexit, whatever cute name Scottish Exit will get this time, Dutch/French elections, just to name the primary ones.
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Metals Thoughts: Light at the end of the tunnel
Brad Yates Natural ResourcesGold prices are off about $25 in the last week and silver off an impressive $1.50. Our gold longer-term models based on rates and currencies still show some further weakness to come, but I think that with the Fed March hike now priced in and some support from moving averages, it’s more of a mixed bag. We’ve been doing some work here at analyzing prior recent low-volatility regimes and their duration/outcomes, which can be seen in Table 1 of this edition of Metals Thoughts.
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Metals Thoughts: Pick your paradigm
Brad Yates Natural ResourcesGold broke but could not hold the 200 DMA at $1,262 Monday, and we are viewing that as a technical failure here. It is the first time since Nov. 10 that we have looked at the other side of that fence, so there is still some encouragement to be gained from the experience.
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Metals Thoughts: Channel surfing
Brad Yates Natural ResourcesWhen I left the desk two weeks ago, gold was trading at $1,235 and hasn’t gone more than $20 either way from there since. With most headlines these days high on apoplectic shock and low on actual economic substance, we are all basically reduced to spewing ideological confirmation bias instead of looking at asset prices.
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Metals Thoughts: Are you not entertained?
Brad Yates Natural ResourcesIt seems we have gotten a small dose of the "Bad Trump" effect we spoke of last week. Sure enough, DXY and yields are slightly lower, all while the Chinese New Year has many out of office. We still face some technical resistance through the recent $1,220 highs and will likely need help from the FOMC to talk down the dollar a bit further with some dovishness, but at least the rollover from a week ago has been stemmed for now.
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Scotland takes brave approach to climate change
Andrew Gaved Waste Management & EnvironmentalIn the U.S., the HVACR industry waits with bated breath to see what new President Donald Trump is going to do with regard to climate change policy — and what sort of restrictions he will put on the EPA. Meanwhile, across the Pond in the U.K., the Scottish government has shown a heartening amount of ambition for carbon cutting with its own draft climate change plan. In fact, the Scottish plan is so ambitious that it has thrown the spotlight on the U.K. Westminster government's own somewhat-more-conservative carbon cutting plans.
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