Analysis Topic: Stock & Financial Markets
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Saturday, February 09, 2008
US Fed Interest Rates Cuts Save the World from Financial Meltdown? / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets
Just as the equity markets were pushing into their anticipated turn point in late January, the Fed makes a 75 basis point cut of the Discount rate. This was the most aggressive rate cut since August of 1982. The very next week at the regularly scheduled Fed meeting they cut yet another 50 basis points. To hear the spin from the mainstream these cuts were done to save the equity markets from the woes that first began in August. I have heard many of the analysts and commentators explain why the bottom is now in and how the Fed has finally made everything alright.Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Investors Waiting to See Clarity on the US Economy / Stock-Markets / US Stock Markets
Greetings from the Orlando Money Show 2008, America's leading bazaar of investment opinion and products. There are many ways to make money in the markets, just as there are many ways to lose it. Not everyone is going to be interested in everything at the show. But there are few better places for individual investors to see this much at the same time.Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Sovereign Wealth Funds - The Last Bastion's of “Dumb Money”? / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets
In recent months, Wall Street has taken comfort in the idea that Sovereign Wealth Funds will come riding to the rescue of banks that are up to their eyeballs in subprime sludge. First Citigroup, then Merrill Lynch and a host of other commercial banks have reported receiving “injections” of capital to help them reinvigorate their balance sheets. Some $40 to $60 billion of new capital has been promised.
After having stepped to the plate so willingly last year, the Sovereign Funds are now having second thoughts. The $8 billion loan to Citigroup made last year was more than likely made to protect their prior investments from an outright collapse. And the Chinese are becoming more sophisticated about their money as well. They are growing resentful that they are being considered the last bastion of “dumb money” for troubled banks. They may be right.
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Saturday, February 09, 2008
Holding Nasdaq Long Position Over the Weekend / Stock-Markets / Tech Stocks
I am not sure what to make of the intraday action in the major equity market ETFs, other than they are curiously quiet -- on the downside with apparently no buying interest ahead of the weekend. Is today's final hour of trading going to be similar to the last 4 out of 5 Fridays? That is, acute weakness into the closing bell? For one, it seems too obvious, and too quiet to me to argue for such a late session decline.Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, February 08, 2008
The Financial Tsunami Endgame: Unregulated Private Money Creation - Part IV / Stock-Markets / Liquidity Bubble
Asset Securitization - The Last Tango: What had emerged going into the new millennium after the 1999 repeal of Glass-Steagall was an awesome transformation of American credit markets into what was soon to become the world's greatest unregulated private money creation machine.
The New Finance was built on an incestuous, interlocking, if informal, cartel of players, all reading from the script written by Alan Greenspan and his friends at J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and the other major financial houses of New York . Securitization was going to secure a “new” American Century and its financial domination, as its creators clearly believed on the eve of the millennium.
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Thursday, February 07, 2008
Brazilian Stock Market Headed Higher - MSCI Brazil ETF EWZ / Stock-Markets / Brazil
While this week's decline in the SPY has given back about 60% of the Jan-Feb advance, let's notice that the decline in the iShares MSCI Brazil ETF (NYSE: EWZ) gave back "only" about 40% of the prior advance. In addition, the form of the decline off of the November high at 87.67 into the 1/23 low at 64.00 has the look of a completed corrective leg. Although all of the action off of the January low could represent the start of a new bull phase, my sense and experience warn me that it probably represents something much less bullish?as in an intervening upleg that separates two bear phases.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Financial Service Shares Turned Significantly Lower Today / Stock-Markets / Banking Stocks
Shares Of Investment Risk Manager Blackrock Fall Significantly Lower
Blackrock, BLK, is one of wall street's premier risk management and financial services companies with over 1.3 trillion dollars in assets under management.
Blackrock turned much lower, in late afternoon trading, falling 2.42%.
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Wednesday, February 06, 2008
The Coming Collapse of International Credit Ratings Agencies - Moody's, Standard & Poor, and Fitch / Stock-Markets / Global Financial System
So you thought the Ambac/MBIA bond insurers crisis was bad?You ain't seen nothin' yet
The problem, the challenge, the scandal, is not that the bond insurers are about to be downgraded. The real scandal lies in the fact that they haven't been downgraded a long time ago - and much deeper than from "AAA" to "AA". In fact, what needs to be downgraded are the major international credit ratings agencies, Moody's, Standard & Poor, and Fitch.
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Wednesday, February 06, 2008
The Help Wanted Index vs. the US Recession Question ... / Stock-Markets / US Stock Markets
For years, I have followed the government's Help Wanted Ad numbers. The Help Wanted Ads are a precursor as to what will be happening on Employment in the future. As such, it is an important indicator to watch relative to recession questions.
I created this chart on Saturday that shows the Help Wanted data going back to 2005. What is noteworthy, is that for the past 2 years, the December and January Help Wanted numbers have all shown a drop over the October/November numbers. The big event has been February, where the Help Wanted ads zoom up higher than the preceding 2 or 3 months.
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Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Sector Rotation for Recession - Lessons from the Business Cycle / Stock-Markets / Sector Analysis
In their never ending pursuit to uncover the next undervalued company, portfolio managers and investors often forget how equities, as a whole, fit into the stock market and business cycles. Though it is important to focus on the individual issues, it is never wise to forget about the surrounding environment and its positive or negative influences.
The basic pattern of the business or economic cycle has four steps. These steps, though never exactly unfold the same during each cycle, the basic structure remains firm and should be remembered.
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Tuesday, February 05, 2008
America and the Myth of Free Markets / Stock-Markets / Market Manipulation
Who's Been Goosing Goldilocks ?- The power of myth is extraordinary. Correctly applied, the ignorant will believe themselves enlightened and slaves will believe themselves free.
When credit markets began to unravel in the summer of 2007, central bankers and economists were surprised. In retrospect, they should not have been. Warnings of a speculative bubble were issued as soon as cheap credit began distorting housing prices in 2003. Denial, however, always trumps reason in the presence of profits—or ulterior motive in the case of Greenspan.
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Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Investors Gripped by Fear of Potential Financial Markets Meltdown / Stock-Markets / Financial Crash
Scared? You Should Be.I wonder if any member of the Federal Reserve almost choked on his barbecued brisket when world financial markets threatened to go into meltdown while Wall Street was closed over the Martin Luther King Holiday.
On “ Black Tuesday ” January 22nd, 2008 world markets crashed...Australia down 7%, Japan down 5.7%, Shanghai down 7.2%, Jakarta down 7.7%, Hang Seng down 8.7%, FTSE down 5.5%, Paris and Frankfurt down 7%. These drops were on top of earlier falls since January 1st which had Germany down 19%, London down 13%, Hong Kong down 13%, Japan down 16% and saw Emerging Markets also hit by double-digit losses. The Australian market was down a bruising 24% from its high last November.
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Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Dow Short ETF (DXD) Suggests Stock Market Strength / Stock-Markets / US Stock Markets
As many of you know, I examine the technical work of the inverted ultrashort equity ETFs to see if they provide clues about the direction of the major equity averages... Let's take a look at the pattern and technical underpinnings that have developed in the UltraShort Dow Diamond ETF (AMEX: DXD).Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Stock Market Awaiting Economic Signals and Follow-Through / Stock-Markets / US Stock Markets
Taking a cue from my old DJ days, this past week could be summed in a couple of tracks from some scratchy wax – Give The People What They Want and More, More, More. The Fed has cut rates by 125 basis points with the most recent 50bp cut in less than 10 days – and once done, the markets were wondering if there would be another 50bp cut before their next meeting at the end of March. It took the Fed a full month in Jan 2001 to cut rates by 150bp – in the midst of the beginning phase of a recession.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, February 04, 2008
Stock and Financial Markets Major Dangers! Massive Opportunities! / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets
When the number registrants for our recent online conference eclipsed the 25,000 mark, I was naturally surprised. It was the most widely attended event of its kind in history.
But I am not surprised to see that many of the changes we talked about are unfolding so quickly — new highs in gold, the worst job losses in four years, the biggest consumer retrenchment since 9/11, and the most rapid collapse of bond ratings of all time.
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Sunday, February 03, 2008
Stock Markets Cleanse House of Speculative Positions / Stock-Markets / Elliott Wave Theory
Free-Market Dynamics vs. Statist Intervention In this particular round (likely the start of the 15 th ), one may assume that at present, the round is even on points. Free Market Dynamics have scored in breaching some minor structural under-pinning's of the artificially-engineered perennial Bull - and the Statists have scored in response - thus far placing a perceived “floor” against the free markets natural propensity to adequately cleanse abuse and excess.Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Looking Past the Current Stock Market Crisis for Strong Financial's / Stock-Markets / Banking Stocks
The news keeps getting more disturbing for America's financial system.Just minutes after the US Federal Reserve slashed rates by half a point this week, the market turned its focus to an announcement by Fitch that it was slashing ratings of major bond insurance group Financial Guaranty Insurance Company (FGIC), triggering fears that it had others in its sights as well. That was compounded by the horrific fourth quarter earnings turned in by rival insurer MBIA, which was forced to defend itself against rumors that it could be headed toward insolvency.
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Saturday, February 02, 2008
Manipulation of US Employment Statistics - Revision Higher Next Month? / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets
Minimizing the (un)employment report - The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its January Employment Situation Report. According to the BLS, the employment situation was “essentially unchanged.” Buried in the report was the offhand mention that we had “a small January movement in nonfarm payroll employment (-17,000).” Small movement? The expectations were for a 70,000 increase!
Omitted from the report was the CES Birth/Death Model , which normally puts a positive spin on the employment report. Not this time! According to this model, all sectors of the economy suffered losses, with the grand total 378,000 jobs lost in January. Maybe this is a statistical fluke, but you can imagine some bureaucrat storming into the statisticians' offices and saying, “Fix it!” There will be revisions in next month's report.
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Saturday, February 02, 2008
Stock Market Tug o' War Between Bulls and Bears / Stock-Markets / US Stock Markets
If the palpable struggle between the bulls and bears was not obvious this week, from early on Monday, through the Fed announcement, and right up to Friday's close … I'm not sure you're paying attention. But even if you could feel the tension, there's nothing like a few charts to really spell out the situation.Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Short-term Upside in S&P 500 & Nasdaq Stock Market Indices / Stock-Markets / US Stock Markets
This week we're looking at some short-term patterns for trading this volatile market, starting with the hourly chart on the S&P 500 Depository Receipts (SPY), as of just before Friday's close.Read full article... Read full article...