Two stories hit today that sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average soaring, ending up 339 points and almost 3%. A deal to restructure Greece’s debt was struck in Europe, and the US Bureau of Economic Analysis issued that Real GDP increased 2.5% – that’s growth from last quarter, not for the year. Here’s quarterly GDP growth...Read More
Right now Wall Street and talking heads are speculating about the possibility of a “double-dip recession.” This is semantics. The U.S. economy has been in recession for years now and has never truly recovered. A double-dip, therefore, is an impossibility. To plug the gap in GDP caused by the “financial crisis” of 2008 the US government has gone on an...Read More
When you know how “the market” works it’s much easier to predict than the weather. That makes stormy days like today easy to see coming, which in turn makes them easier to handle and manage. Nothing has changed. Recession isn’t a real possibility — it’s a reality. A global currency crisis still exists, and unlike the “financial...Read More
Here’s today’s key Wall Street Journal headlines: Stocks Retreat Moody’s Cuts U.K. Lenders (banks) Fitch Cuts Spain, Italy EU Steps Up Crisis Response Payrolls Rise as Striking Workers Return Even though mixed signals are part of the game, it’s easy to see that investors are scared and Europe is in real trouble. Nothing’s changed. XRef these blogs for more info: Asset...Read More
Stock market hostilities won’t subside until central governance stops throwing money around and starts fixing the Market’s problems. President Obama’s speech today was another desperate plea for more money; and he’s looking more like a subprime mortgage borrower did during the housing collapse – please, please, just one more re-finance – than a chief executive officer. And it’s hurting the...Read More
Today is a very sad day. Apple icon Steve Jobs died today. May God rest his soul and bless his family, friends, coworkers and employees – and every investor at every corner of the world. Today we lost someone very special. And those in the iCloud got one legend richer. Godspeed!Read More
First things first, it’s quite hypocritical for the US government to continually excoriate the Chinese for manipulating its currency by not allowing it to appreciate. I don’t understand the US stance. The Chinese currency has risen steadily and in dramatic fashion for more than a decade while at the same time the US government has been...Read More
Extreme stock market volatility often pushes the average investor into making bad investment decisions. “Panic selling” is a common term used to describe stock market selloffs. Rarely, however, is the term “panic buying” used to portray strong, triple-digit stock market rallies, as indicated by the DJIA. Panic goes both ways – in buys and sells – which...Read More
All major market indicators fell today – the DJIA lost 3.5%, gold was down 4%, oil declined 6.5%, and the 15-51 Indicator lost 2.8%. This is what happens when amateur fiscal and monetary policies meet championship caliber threats. This is what happens when central governance treats symptoms instead of ailments. Is the world economy in recession? Of course. The world’s...Read More
Once again the Dow failed to hold onto the action zone’s midpoint, dropping 284 points or 2.5%. The 15-51 Indicator lost 1.3%, with construction, industrial, financials, and energy leading the decline. One reason the stock market sold off today was the Federal Reserve’s announcement to employ “Operation Twist” – the act of selling short term duration...Read More
