In the world of biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, arguably the largest in the field is the company known as Roche.  Roche discovers, develops, and provides innovative diagnostic and therapeutic products and services that deliver great benefits to patients and healthcare professionals, from early detection and prevention of disease to treatment and treatment monitoring.

Roche was founded in 1896 by Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche, and is based out of Basel, Switzerland. The companies revenue as of 2014 was reported at 47.462 billion Swiss francs, approximately $49.43 billion USD.

Geographic Regions

Roche employs over 80,000 employees all around the world including Africa, America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. One of the companies greatest values is in Roche being a world leading supplier of cancer medicines, and the number one in vitro diagnostics, or tests on samples of tissues and or bodily fluids.  The company is known to be very innovative when it comes to this field of testing for disease.

Another value the company holds for biotech investors is being the only drug company authorized to manufacture Tamiflu, which is a drug used against swine flu. Tamiflu is, however, only one of the company’s 14 biological products on the market, and these products have made the argument for Roche to be the biggest in biotechnology.

Potential Weaknesses

Some of the companies weaknesses also are related to the products themselves, however. Very many of these products have imitations or fake medicines supplied under the brand’s name which can have a poor effect on the companies reputation. Another certain flaw that has been seen at tech investor news outlets is the fact that Roche is making some of its key products available only to certain countries, and not to others; surely limiting the consumer potential and upsetting distribution.

Further into the future, Roche faces a risk of unsuccessful new products, regulatory changes stalling or halting design of new products, and other economic slowdown possibilities. As for the time being, however, Roche is a pharmaceutical conglomerate; second perhaps Johnson & Johnson by value, and second to none in the field of biotechnology.

Dollar strength has been the dominant trend as we head into the second half of the summer, with the PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF (NYSE: UUP) starting the month at new highs.  These moves have been propelled largely by geopolitical concerns in areas like the Ukraine, Gaza, and Iraq.  Typically, the summer months tend to be market by slower price volatility, but geopolitical concerns like these can have the potential to influence short-term trends in illiquid markets.  Here, we look at the latest technical developments in the forex majors.

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AUD/USD – Australian Dollar vs. US Dollar

Critical Resistance:   0.9505

Critical Support:   0.9210

(Chart Source:  CornerTrader)

AUD/USD Forex Strategy:  Wait for additional pushes lower before getting long again.  Buy at 0.9110, with stop losses below the 0.90 mark in AUD/USD.

The Aussie is starting to show slowing momentum and prices are now rolling over after hitting highs at 0.9505.   Further downside is now expected, given that the AUD failed at 78.6% Fibonacci retracement at 0.95.  Critical support can now be found at 0.92 but any approach of this level would create a head and shoulders pattern on the hourly charts, and a break of 0.92 could be defined as the neckline.  Daily RSI is approaching oversold territory, so bounces are still possible.  The data in these trends has also been confirmed by reports released by FXPips.

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GBP/JPY – British Pound vs. Japanese Yen

Critical Resistance:   1.7530

Critical Support:   1.6950

(Chart Source:  CornerTrader)

GBP/JPY Forex Strategy:  Stay with the positive trend but wait for better buying opportunities, after prices move into oversold territory.  Go long at 1.7050, with a stop loss below 169.50.  

The GBP/JPY is showing a strong uptrend, with long-term highs posted at 175.30  But we are seeing prices drop below the 100-day moving average and break the uptrend line that started back in February.  This suggests that the forex pair has further to fall, and the RSI still has more room to the downside before becoming oversold.  Strong support is not seen until we reach 1.6950, so it is prudent for forex traders to wait until price reach these areas before buying again.

When we think of traditional investments, stocks and mutual funds are probably the first things that come to mind.  But when we think in historical terms, precious metals have been around far longer, and are still actively used by investors today.  Assets like gold and silver have set a strong historical precedent in the marketplace but there can be difficulties when trying to figure out when and how to invest.  There are common market instruments like the SPDR Gold Trust ETF (GLD) and the iShares Silver Trust ETF (SLV), but these are typically referred to as “paper assets” because they do not allow you to take ownership is physical assets.

Physical Assets vs. Market Funds

In these cases (GLD and SLV), you are buying into a fund.  This is very different from buying a gold coin or gold bar, and these two asset types will generally not trade at the same value.  For these reasons, most traditional investors feel much more comfortable owning physical gold or silver, which generally comes in the form of jewelry, gold coins, or gold bars.  There is a variety of ways to buy these types of assets but it is important to understand that much of what you might typically see in the financial news headlines does not actually refer to gold prices, but instead to funds that are designed to trade close to the underlying prices in the physical metal.

When To Buy Gold

Now comes the real question:  When is the best time to start buying gold?  Traditionally, investors have used gold as a hedge against price inflation and a falling US Dollar.  When the Dollar is buying, your cash purchasing power is falling, and it will often make sense to start moving into safer assets in order to gain additional financial protection.  Most investment managers recommend that you have at least some precious metals exposure as part of your portfolio.

Gold also tends to perform well during times of uncertainty.  If we think back a few years to the financial crisis of 2008, gold markets began trading in an incredibly strong rally that ultimately reached valuations above $1,900 per ounce.  This was largely because investors were looking for asset security during a time of financial turmoil.  Since gold has one of the longest histories as a stable financial market asset, gold tends to be one of the first choices when the economy starts to look gloomy and negative.

But even when we understand these historical tendencies, there are still difficulties that can be found when you first start trying to invest in gold and other precious metals (like silver or platinum).  Daily commodities market updates at ForexMinute offer a good way for investors to stay ahead of the market and to monitor gold prices as they begin to change.  It can be easy to miss new information and start to make position mistakes if this is not done correctly.  Fortunately, these mistakes can be avoided when we take a conservative approach.

How Long Should You Hold a Gold Investment?

Gold investments tend to be long-term investments.  This means that most people buying exposure in these sectors tend to avoid the “day trader mentality” and hold their positions for extended periods of time.  When price moves occur in gold and other metals, those moves tend to unfold over years (rather than months or days).  This is the reason that a majority of investment advisers recommend obtaining exposure with a “retirement mindset” rather than to assume you will be actively buying and selling your assets on a regular basis.  Fortunately, this makes investments in these areas much easier as you will not be forced to “time the market” and risk significant losses if you happen to buy or sell at the wrong time.

When we look at the price activity seen in recent weeks, it certainly looks like the tide is turning for the Euro and that we are ready to see lower market valuations into next quarter.  From a chart perspective, we have already seen a break in critical support in the 1.3630 region and was a highly bearish move that has built in momentum and sent prices much lower as we head into the middle of June.

On the other side of the coin (looking at the fundamentals), there are plenty of factors that support these moves.  So while the US Dollar has been on the receiving end of most of this year’s selling pressure, there have been many developing reasons for why forex traders should have expected bearish moved in the Euro shared currency.  For stock traders, it will be important to see how the PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF (NYSE:UUP)  and SPDR S&P 500 Trust ETF (NYSE:SPY) behave in response.  But there is likely to be some carry over into precious metals, as well.  So watch for increased volatility in the SPDR Gold Trust ETF (NYSE:GLD) and the iShares Silver Trust ETF (NYSE:SLV).

New investors should consider researching these topics further, and learn finance online at Global Finance School.

Sovereign Debt Crisis

Most important is the fact that there is little reason to believe that the Eurozone has officially recovered from its sovereign debt crisis from just a few years back.  If you remember, these negative economic scenarios tyrannized financial news headlines for an extended period of time and then quickly disappeared.  But when we look at the underlying economic data, this lack of attention makes little sense.  What makes even less sense is the fact that the currency has been rallying against the Dollar for most of this year even though the Federal Reserve has made it abundantly clear that its QE stimulus programs will be completed before the end of this year.

Since this essentially means that fewer Dollars will be running through the global economic system (and no real change in the underlying demand for the US currency), the implications here should be bullish for the currency.  But the broader cross-currency correlations have snowballed and the resulting forex news stories for most of the year have involved higher market valuations in the EUR/USD and GBP/USD.  These latest moves signal that a change is afoot and that the market is now ready to correct back toward its fundamentals.  This means that forex traders will need to acknowledge the 11.3% unemployment that is seen in the region as a whole along with the fact that annual growth numbers as measured by GDP clearly favor the US economy on a relative basis.

Chart Perspective:  EUR/USD

But while most of the market has ignored the fundamentals and traded almost entirely using momentum based strategies, the break of 1.3630 has confirmed that a new environment is in place and that the Euro itself is likely to encounter prolonged weakness.  “Critical support for the EUR/USD was originally found at 1.3630, but since this area was invalidated we are not likely to encounter additional support until we reach 1.3480,” according to the expert market analysis team at ForexAbode.  “1.35 is likely to give some psychological support in the interim but the overall bias is clearly bearish given the latest price trajectory.”