On November 27, 2015, staff at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado were forced to take cover after gunfire erupted outside their building. Over the course of the attack, a dozen people were shot. Three of the victims died, including one police officer and two civilians.
What kind of person could open fire on pregnant women, doctors, and police officers? A man with an exceptionally checkered past: 57-year-old Robert Lewis Dear.
According to reports from The Daily Beast, Dear had many previous run-ins with police, including accusations of domestic abuse, stalking, leering, and animal cruelty.
In 2002, Dear was arrested on “peeping tom” charges. His neighbor, Lynn Roberts, “noticed Mr. Dear in the bushes by their house.” The police report reads: “Since March 2002, he has been leering at Ms. Roberts on a regular basis.”
In 2003, he was arrested for animal cruelty, suspected of shooting his neighbor’s service dog. The police report for that incident reads: “His dog was walking down the driveway when a shot was fired from residence next to his and dog yelped out and ran over to him.” The dog had been shot with a BB gun, but luckily survived.
Dear wasn’t convicted on either charge.
Previous to those arrests, police responded to a domestic dispute between Dear and his wife, Pam. According to the police report, Dear “took her keys from her and locked her out of their residence.”
“The victim then walked around the residence to gain entry through a window,” it continues. “The victim entered the residence and the suspect then hit her and pushed her out the window.”
Mrs. Dear didn’t file any charges against her husband or take advantage of Colorado’s domestic violence laws. She did, however, indicate that she “wanted something on record of this incident occurring.” The report also notes that she had bruises on her body. Mrs. Dear told police she got the bruises when Mr. Dear pushed her in the chest.
In 2004, another complaint was lodged against Dear, this time by his neighbor. The police report says Dear “told him that he was going to do bodily harm to him because the suspect thought the victim pushed his motorcycle over on the ground.” This was the same neighbor whose dog was found shot near Dear’s house.
The report also notes: “This is ongoing problem between the victim and the suspect.”
Ozy Licano, who survived the shooting at the Colorado Spring Planned Parenthood center, described a terrifying moment when he encountered Dear as he was fleeing from the scene in his car. “He came out, and we looked each other in the eye, and he started aiming, and then he started shooting,” Licano told the Associated Press. “I saw two holes go right through my windshield as I was trying to quickly back up and he just kept shooting and I started bleeding. He was aiming for my head. It’s just weird to stare in the face of someone like that. And he didn’t win.”
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Investors might find it somewhat difficult to decide on where to put their money this year because the headlines coming from investment circles are mostly depressing. The weakness in Chinese economy is weighing down much of Asia and American manufacturers are starting to feel the pinch. Geopolitical tensions in the Middle East remain unresolved and oil prices are in troubled waters. Economic data in the U.S. is mixed and the fact that 2016 is an election year doesn’t provide much of an economic direction.
It is already obvious that 2016 will be very volatile year in the global economic scene. The move by the U.S. Federal Reserve to raise interest rates at the end of 2015 was the harbinger of things to come. Economic events in the first three weeks of 2016 has shown that 2016 will be characterized by a rollercoaster of exciting highs and depressing lows in the global economy. This piece seeks to explore the outlook in stocks, precious metals, and global oil prices so that investors might pitch their tents on the winning side.
Stocks are swimming in wild swings
If you have investments in the equities market, you'll have already seen the handwriting on the wall that stocks will be volatile this year. On Wednesday, all the major U.S. market indices were down. For instance, the S&P 500 was down by a significant 1.56%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.17%, and the NASDAQ Composite was down 0.12%. More so, all the major market sectors (except healthcare) were down in yesterday's session, with the energy sector taking the biggest hit with a 3.14% decline.
The global equities scene was also not impressive. In Asia, stocks are suffering in China as the Shanghai index dropped 3.23%. The situation was not different in Japan as Nikkei 225 had a 2.43% decline while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was down 1.82%. The situation also appears to be worse in Europe as Euro STOXX 50 was down 0.19% and France's CAC 40 was down 0.16%.
It is well known saying in the equities market that as "January goes, goes the year"; hence, stock investors will not be surprised if they make massive gains in a session and then lose everything in the next session.
The outlook for oil is uncertain
Crude oil has been facing significant headwinds since last year and it seems that the situation has taken a turn for the worse this year. Oil futures have dropped to the lowest price since September 2003 this week, as a glut in the supply of oil and drop in demand (especially from China) has caused the price to fall lower. On Thursday, Benchmark Brent was down 3.2%o $27.10 per barrel. The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down an incredulous 6.7% to $26.55 per barrel. The decline marks the largest monthly fall since May 2003.
Hans van Cleef, senior energy economist at ABN Amro in Amsterdam notes that "There are worries surrounding demand and oversupply". Dominick Chirichella, oil analyst at the New York-based Energy Management Institute also notes that “no matter how one looks at the fundamental data every angle points toward lower prices as supply is continuing to outstrip demand.”
However, the uncertainties in oil prices provide smart traders with an opportunity to benefit from trading oil futures. If you know how to trade oil, you'll find the current weakness in oil prices as a good opportunity to make consistent gains from the economic dynamics of oil. It is obvious that oil prices are searching for a bottom and you can make gains when you sell. When the geopolitical tensions in the Middle East are resolved, you can expect oil prices to recover and then you'll buy oil futures.
The safe-haven status of gold might be back
The weakness in the global equities market as discussed earlier is already causing investors to think twice about investing in stocks and they are running into the inherent stability of gold. Gold is considered a safe-haven asset because it tends to keep its value over time, because it is a good hedge against inflation and because it tends to outperform fiat currencies.
The reigniting of the safe haven status of gold suggests that 2016 might be the year of precious metal investors. A Bloomberg data analysis shows that in the five days to January 14, investors have bought 26.8 metric tons of gold through ETFs that are physically backed by the bullion. Gold prices per ounce have climbed more than 4% since the market opened this year in sharp contrast to the decline in equities.
Citigroup analysts in their 2016 commodities outlook note, "gold's safe haven rationale is back in vogue". They also mentioned that "geopolitical issues typically tend to be short-lived in terms of lending support to gold prices; we expect ongoing global macro concerns to lend support this quarter, aided by a modestly more benign U.S. dollar outlook."
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