Bernanke’s testimony to Congress gave stocks a monstrous boost early on Wednesday. Why? He suggested that the Fed may buy more securities with dollars that didn’t exist several years ago. Then investors thought twice about the implications, as stocks gave back most of their Fed-inspired gains. After all, if the Fed is seriously considering QE3, unemployment and economic malaise may be [...] Continue Reading...
In the Los Angeles area, decision-makers are closing a key stretch of the 405 freeway for an entire weekend. Television hosts are calling it, “Carmageddon,” as anyone foolish enough to get in a car July 16 or July 17 may need to develop an appreciation of perpetual gridlock. In Washington D.C., the debt ceiling debate between Democrats [...] Continue Reading...
The S&P 500 will require a 19% return from its 7/12/11 close to capture its previous bull market high set in October, 2007. Yet many “ex financials” indexes are already back, as are a number of key cyclical sectors. For instance, a number of Tech ETFs have recovered the highs of the previous bull market (October, 2007). Most of the [...] Continue Reading...
Get used to the term, “uneven recovery.” You’re going to hear it out of the mouths of nearly every CEO this earnings season. For instance, profits at Alcoa (AA) doubled from the year-ago period. In the year-earlier quarter, revenue surged a whopping 27%. Yet CEO Klaus Kleinfeld didn’t hold back from stating, “Although the economic recovery is uneven, [...] Continue Reading...
The hottest thing in the tech universe may be “cloud computing.” Moreover, there’s little doubt that corporations dealing with computer applications, services, processing and storage via a remote server are witnessing phenomenal appreciation in the price of their stock shares. That said, the mutual fund industry witnessed a burst of gimmicky products near the end of [...] Continue Reading...
Market Overview And ETFs, ETF Investing Themes, Asia ETFs, India ETFs, Small Cap Japan ETFs, Large Cap China ETFs, Small Cap China ETFs Click here to listen to the show: 7-10-2011 Continue Reading...
With a variety of benchmark ETFs hitting multi-year highs on 7/7/11 – Powershares Nasdaq 100 (QQQ), iShares Russell 2000 (IWM), iShares DJ Transports (IYT) — investors have placed the May-June swoon in their rear view. What’s more, economically sensitive sectors like tech and consumer discretionary are leading the charge. In fact, some analysts believe that the momentum in cyclicals is a clear sign that the [...] Continue Reading...
It was a mere two weeks ago that big-wigs began uttering the bearish phrase, “double-dip recession.” They had rising jobless claims, ridiculously poor housing numbers, a “were-not-sure-why” Fed and several bad jobs reports. Then, as quickly as confidence waned, it returned. FedEx gave a confidence booster in its assessment of its business and industry. The European Union extended [...] Continue Reading...
Conventional commentary on Wednesday, 7/6/2011, described the trading as light and lackluster. Yet S&P SPDR Gold (GLD) climbed back above a critical trendline, PowerShares Developed Market Ex US (PXF) experienced 30x the normal trading volume and iShares DJ Transports (IYT) notched a new 52-week high. Beginning with the yellow metal, some surmised that the “risk-on” trade [...] Continue Reading...
A simplistic assumption is that bonds are safer than stocks. Indeed, bonds are typically less volatile in price. What’s more, you are less likely to lose all of your principal with a debt instrument than with an equity vehicle. Nevertheless, when safety is reclassified in terms of risk-reward, certain stock assets may indeed be safer than certain bond assets. (Or as [...] Continue Reading...
