Analysis Topic: Stock & Financial Markets
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Monday, April 11, 2011
Rising Interest Rates Could Jolt Stock Markets / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2011
Jon D. Markman writes: Stocks traded with all the precision of a baseball skipping into the Boston Red Sox outfield over the past week, which is to say it was pretty sloppy. The major equity averages settled near the flat line, but it was a mess getting there after the European Central Bank raised rates for the first time since mid-2008, there was a 7.1 magnitude aftershock in Japan, and Texas Instruments Incorporated (NYSE: TXN) bought a rival chip maker at incredible premium.
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Monday, April 11, 2011
Was The Preview To The 2011 Blockbuster / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2011
The world is evolving a lot faster than I suspect most realize. The Fed has created the aura of a V shaped global recovery in the form of continually rising equity markets. Bernanke has created the mirage of prosperity. The unemployment rate has fallen below 9% as more disgruntled workers leave the work force. Paper stock wealth is up nearly 100% in two years. Indeed the Russell 2000 is up 43% since QE2 as the chairman has so eloquently declared.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, April 11, 2011
Stock Market Should Get Another Attempt at Going Higher / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2011
Current Position of the Market
Very Long-term trend - The continuing strength in the indices is causing me to question whether we are in a secular bear market or two consecutive cyclical bull/bear cycles. In any case, the very-long-term cycles are down and, if they make their lows when expected, there will be another steep and prolonged decline into 2014-15.
Long-term trend - In March 2009, the SPX began an upward move in the form of a bull market. Cycles and P&F projections point to a continuation of this trend for several more months.
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Saturday, April 09, 2011
World Stock Markets Uptrending / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2011
A very interesting week from a worldwide perspective. All the foreign markets we follow: Asia +1.4%, Europe +0.8%, the Commodity equity group +0.7% and the DJ World +0.9%, were all higher on the week. But the US ended mixed to negative: SPX/DOW mixed and the NDX/NAZ -0.6%. Economic reports for the week were sparse but mostly positive. On the downside ISM services and the M-1 multiplier. On the upside consumer credit rose, along with the WLEI, excess reserves and the monetary base, wholesale inventories remained positive and jobless claims declined. Bond yields are now uptrending again, Crude soared 5.1%, Gold gained 3.2% and the USD is making new lows. Next week we have the FED’s Beige book, the CPI/PPI and Options expiration.
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Saturday, April 09, 2011
Stock Market Gap To Gap...Hesitation At February Highs... / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2011
What a boring market. I'm sure every one of you feel the same way. This is what happens when a handle is trying to be put in place. The market finds an area of resistance it will struggle with, but also finds an area of support it appears it doesn't want to lose. Those lines seem to be clear, especially on the Nasdaq where we find gap resistance at 2808, which is stopping all rally attempts. We hit 2808 today on the nose for the high of the day. The bottom has two areas that come together as one. The 20-day exponential moving average is at 2759 with massive gap support at 2760. 2759/2760 will be very tough for the bears to take down and keep down. Today was boring at its best. After a gap up that tested 2808 we spent basically six trading hours in a back and forth market. Neither side could do a thing all day. They both tried.
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Saturday, April 09, 2011
Stock Market Trends, Remember the Past Remember the Wolf / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2011
“The so-called ‘surprises’ of history have emerged not because other countries did not have information, but because they refused to believe it.” (pg 919) Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time (1966)
Any serious student of financial markets studies the relationship between credit, markets, and crowds. In addition, they are always fascinated by mathematical patterns that unfold in markets; math being used in our markets today more than any time in human history.
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Saturday, April 09, 2011
Stock Market Seasonality May Be Especially Important This Year / Stock-Markets / Seasonal Trends
It’s that time of year again when I always remind you of the market’s seasonality, its proven tendency to make most of its gains between November and May, and experience most of its losses in the opposite period.
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Friday, April 08, 2011
Burgeoning Bubbles and Popping Protection / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2011
“Last week I was both surprised and pleased when the Supreme Court upheld lower court decisions requiring the Federal Reserve Bank to comply with requests for information made by Bloomberg under the Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA"). Bloomberg simply wanted to know who received loans from the Fed's discount window in the aftermath of the 2008 financial market crisis, and how much each entity received. Surely this is basic information that should be available to every American taxpayer. But the Fed fought tooth and nail all the way to the Supreme Court to preserve their privileged secrecy…
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Friday, April 08, 2011
Tracking Stock Market Cycles in Search of the Business Cycle Top in 2011 / Stock-Markets / Cycles Analysis
One of the contributions to market cycle analysis by the late financial analyst PQ Wall was the discovery that there are nine dynamic market cycles in every business cycle. This cycle is widely known as the 20-week cycle. Investors and traders have been aware of this cycle for decades, although its exact length has been a point of disagreement. If there actually are nine cycles in a business cycle, it is a remarkable and important discovery, and has major implications for investors and traders seeking to understand current market action, and identify the market top expected in 2011.
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Friday, April 08, 2011
Q2 Forecasts for Investor Profits / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2011
Shah Gilani writes: With the first quarter of 2011 behind us, there's a lot to take away and learn from - especially when it comes to the direction of oil prices, interest rates and stocks.
Granted, we're right now navigating one of the most uncertain periods in modern global history. But if you're a trader or an investor, knowing how markets have been reacting to recent news and events provides you with some valuable insights that you can use going forward.
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Thursday, April 07, 2011
Investing in South Korea is Still a Better Bet Than Buying Japan / Stock-Markets / South Korea
Jon D. Markman writes: As we get further and further from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan, investors are going to be looking for opportunities to benefit.
But if you're looking for buying opportunities in Asia, investing in South Korea actually is a much better bet than Japan.
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Thursday, April 07, 2011
Investors Don’t Get Stung by the U.S. Government Shutdown Debate / Stock-Markets / US Debt
Keith Fitz-Gerald writes: U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is once again worried that we're going to hit our debt ceiling (this time by May 16), and the resultant debate has once again brought our government to the brink of a "shutdown."
I don't know why: The entire debt ceiling concept - as well as the investor fear, political-posturing, self-aggrandizing behavior and government-shutdown debates this budget limit repeatedly spawns - is a joke, albeit it a very bad one.
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Thursday, April 07, 2011
April Key Events And The Outlook For Stocks / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2011
7th April: ECB rate decisionA rate rise is priced in. The Euro is currently threatening to break out from long term resistance against the US Dollar, but the bearish sentiment against the Dollar suggests a bounce is overdue. If the Euro does break out then Dollar index support levels at 75 and then 72 may provide that Dollar rally. Although Portugal appears to be edging closer to a bailout, the Euro strength reflects the fact that Spain's troubles have eased, as shown in the inverse relationship in the chart below. It appears the markets are confident that bailouts will be limited to the smaller economy nations.
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Thursday, April 07, 2011
Bearish Sentiment... Stocks Bull Market... / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2011
Make no mistake when trying to understand what's in play here. Yes, we have a major headache with sentiment. No one would argue that a 41.6% spread of more bulls to bears is a real problem that'll have to be dealt with in time. No one, I believe, would also argue that we're still in a bull market. If you don't think we are then you haven't been watching for the past year or so. When sentiment becomes a problem it means that some decent selling is out there, but with a printing machine in place from fed Bernanke, the bull market lives on until the liquidity he's providing goes away. It's really that simple folks. When you have this type of spread in place, (57.3% versus 15.7%) it tells you that the time has come for reigning in the bullish attitude to some degree, but again, not completely.
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Wednesday, April 06, 2011
BullBear Market Report / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2011
In the last BullBear Market Report, I called for a bottom to the Middle East/Japan panic selloff while at the same time laying out the parameters for a bearish turn in the markets. The bearish conditions did not come to fruition and BullBear Traders were able to catch the exact bottom of the move after having lightened their positions at the exact top. I emphasized an overweight position in BRIC and Emerging Markets and that has proven to be an accurate call as well. We also jumped on bottoms in Grains and Agriculture as well as a long term breakout in Clean/Alternative Energy.
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Wednesday, April 06, 2011
How Investors Can Avoid the Growing Inflation Threat / Stock-Markets / Inflation
Martin Hutchinson writes: Pretty much everyone but U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke sees that inflation is returning: After all, even Bernanke's favorite inflation measure, the Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) deflator, was up 0.4% in February - which hints at an annualized inflation rate of almost 5%.
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Wednesday, April 06, 2011
Stock Market Investing with Cycle and Bartels Theory / Stock-Markets / Cycles Analysis
A stock price time series wiggles by nature. These wiggles may or may not be in tune. If they are in tune their common frequency can be called a 'cycle'. To determine the cycle period we can do several measures.
Eyeballs: Viewing the chart for common distance between highs and lows.
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
Stock Shrug Off Dwindling Consumer Confidence / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2011
Jason Simpkins writes: High prices for commodities last month sent consumer confidence spiraling to a three-month low, but that doesn't necessarily mean the stock market will suffer.
On the contrary, stocks over the past two years actually have performed remarkably well in the months following sharp declines in consumer confidence.
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Tuesday, April 05, 2011
Stock Market Quiet At Resistance...After Hours Buyout... / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2011
What else can you say about today! The market refused to sell all day, even though we tested and failed at the test of the old highs on Friday. You would have thought that the bears could have done some damage today based on Friday's failure off a long run up, but that was not to be. The market moved up a bit at the open, but then spent the rest of the day trading on either side of the flat line with the Nasdaq leading down and the Dow leading up. Apple Inc. was a drag along with Google Inc. That's really the only reason why the Nasdaq was red at all. So nothing to talk about all that negative with technology. The NDX has under performed for some time now, but again, that's mostly due to Apple, which is taking a long and much needed rest from going up every single day for seemingly years.
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Tuesday, April 05, 2011
Stock Market Flash Crash Assets Move to Bullish Camp / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2011
Despite recent calls for a new bear market, the bulls still have a few things going for them as we kick off the week of trading:
- Friday’s labor report came in above expectations.
- Defensive assets are lagging again.
- Energy investments continue to perform well.
- The Fed is still on track to complete QE2 as originally planned.