Analysis Topic: Stock & Financial Markets
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Financial Markets Review 2008 and Forecasts For 2009 / Stock-Markets / Investing 2009
What a year! Where are we?
Financial advice - Everyone’s saying ‘thank goodness that year’s over! Phew! That was terrible’. Of course, they’re also saying ‘No-one could possibly have predicted the downturn, the housing crash, the stock market collapse etc’.
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Monday, December 22, 2008
Stock Market Late Snapback Rally Pares Losses / Stock-Markets / US Stock Markets
The markets had another negative session to start the week. They were down for most of the session and stair-stepped lower until about a half hour to go. Then they staged a very strong snapback rally, taking back half the losses on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100, and three-quarters of the losses on the Dow.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, December 22, 2008
Stock Market Dangerous Developments as Corporate Earnings Contract / Stock-Markets / Stocks Bear Market
“One swallow does not a summer make”. (Aristotle) That may be true, but it’s possible that I saw two swallows today, and “summer” is not the season occupying my mind at present.
First, there were reports from across the Northern Hemisphere (USA, Canada, Europe and China) that the sudden cold weather “shouldn’t” be as cold as is being experienced. Commentators are clearly surprised by the ferocity of the savagely cold weather in an era of so-called “man-made global warming”.
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Monday, December 22, 2008
Why Credit Crisis Bail-outs are Bad News for Investors / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis Bailouts
The banks were too big to fail. Everyone agreed on that, it seemed.
But once you give one lot of badly run, bust companies a bail-out, it becomes a lot harder to justify knocking back the rest. And soon everyone has their hand out.
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Monday, December 22, 2008
Auto Bailout Fails To Cheer the Stock Market / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets
So the US auto industry is the latest in the seemingly endless stream of disasters that has resulted in a temporary TARP plaster being applied to a haemorrhaging wound . Indices failed to bounce on the bailout news as they have seen all of this before.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, December 22, 2008
Why Falling VIX Could Mean NO Stock Market Rally / Stock-Markets / Volatility
The answer to a subscriber's puzzling question: "The VIX goes down, and the S&P moves up. The VIX goes up, and the S&P goes down. But, sometimes the VIX goes down and instead of going up, the S&P moves in a sideways trading range . Can you tell me why?" Thanks, DJ
Thanks for the question, it is an important one because if you don't understand why, then you will not trust the VIX (Volatility Index) as an indicator. Investors need to trust their indicators, and when they can't trust them, they need to know why.
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Sunday, December 21, 2008
Gold and Stock Market Bear Attack Warning / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets
Broad Market Outlook: - Friday the market closed mixed with light volume due to the holiday season. I always use the DOW (DIA) as a market indicator for the overall strength. The chart below shows a simple chart on where the market stands. Currently all the moving averages are trending down or sideways as the market trades at resistance. Prices have been drifting higher on light volume which is not a good sign for the bulls (longs). We are at a point now where the market is going to make a nice run higher or possibly another leg lower.Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Zero Interest Rates, Plunging Bond Yields, Slumping Oil Price, Stocks Santa Rally? / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets
“Americans have always been able to handle austerity and even adversity. Prosperity [greed!] is what is doing us in,” said James Reston , former New York Times journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner.
Another chapter in dealing with the current credit and economic adversity was written on Tuesday when the US Federal Reserve announced a no-holds-barred set of measures in a determined attempt to fix the broken credit machine, revive economic activity and stem the deflationary tide.
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Saturday, December 20, 2008
Stock Market Santa Rally Due to Begin / Stock-Markets / US Stock Markets
The good news is: A Santa Clause rally is due to begin Wednesday.
Short Term - Seasonal considerations overwhelm everything else.
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Saturday, December 20, 2008
Stock, Commodities, and Bond Markets 2008 Review / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets
A high altitude view of global markets can be gleaned from monitoring a relatively small group of broad index funds. We think these ten asset categories and related proxy ETFs, provide a quick summary overview of world markets.
Certainly, more granularity could be more helpful, but these ten major asset categories are a good place to start.
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Friday, December 19, 2008
Stock Market, Gold and Oil Fall on Auto Bailout News / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets
GM and Chrysler will get $13.4 billion in loans. General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC will get $13.4 billion in initial government loans to keep operating in exchange for substantially restructuring their businesses under a rescue plan announced by President George W. Bush. The money will be drawn from the Troubled Asset Relief Program set up to bail out financial institutions. An additional $4 billion would be allocated in February provided the second half of TARP's authorized $700 billion is released by Congress. The funds would allow GM and Chrysler to keep operating until March.Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, December 19, 2008
How to Play the Obama Infrastructure Building Boom / Stock-Markets / Infrastructure
U.S. infrastructure is crumbling... trillions could be spent in the next few years... and President-elect Obama has told the states to “Use It or Lose it.” Here's how to profit. If you drive on U.S. roads, you probably don't need to be told – the country's infrastructure is in pretty bad shape.
As a nation, Americans like to look forward. We prefer to spend our money building new things (rather than fixing up old things). Issues like repair and maintenance are back burnered for other priorities in state and federal budgets. Over time, the cost of neglect rises.
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Friday, December 19, 2008
Stock Market Crash Wave Count Update / Stock-Markets / Elliott Wave Theory
Catch A Wave - Brian Wilson, Beach Boys: Catch a wave and you're sittin' on top of the world.There is another interpretation of "catch a wave". That interpretation is Elliott Wave. I talked about waves at length on October 10th in S&P 500 Crash Count .
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Friday, December 19, 2008
Extreme Technical Levels Point to Stocks and Crude Oil Snapback Rally / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets
As we speak, the VIX is trading BELOW its 11/04 low at 44.25, which COULD imply that the e-SPH (890.25) and cash S&P 500, including the SPDRs (AMEX: SPY), are about to take off to the upside. As I noted on Thursday while the VIX was at 44.62 and the e-SPH at 903.50: "Purely from a chart perspective, the pattern that has developed-- and its near-future implications-- suggests that the VIX has lower values directly ahead-- possibly acutely lower when compared to where it has come from since late-October.Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, December 19, 2008
Stock, Commodities and Currency Futures Markets Analysis 19th December / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets
The March NASDAQ 100 was lower overnight as it extends Thursday's decline. Stochastics and the RSI are overbought and are turning neutral signaling that sideways trading is possible near- term. If March renews the rally off November's low, the reaction high crossing at 1321.75 is the next upside target. Closes below the 20-day moving average crossing at 1181.77 would confirm that a short-term top has been posted.Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, December 19, 2008
Despite the Crash, Stock Markets are Not Too Cheap to Buy / Stock-Markets / Stock Market Valuations
Keith Fitz-Gerald writes: For many investors, a low Price/Earnings (P/E) ratio is a sign of value. But don't you bet on it – at least, not yet.
According to Michael T. Darda , chief economist for MKM Partners LLC , analysts have overestimated earnings by an average of 30% to 35% in the last three recessions. For millions of investors who use low P/E ratios as a litmus test for selecting their investments, that's going to be a rather unpleasant shock.
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Friday, December 19, 2008
Stock Markets See Red Despite Collapse in Crude Oil Prices / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets
US equities finished down yesterday as various pieces of bad news emerged. GE's giant financial arm GECC has been downgraded to negative by S&P . Also there's a delay in the decision by the US administration whether to bail out US automakers although there is speculation that an announcement could come as early as today. On top of all of this was a further drop in oil prices below $36 per barrel (the low since June 2004) which weighed on energy stocks, despite the 2.46M barrel output cut by OPEC. So consumer joy in Dublin, Washington and London = panic in Moscow, Tehran and Caracas. The only good news for investors was the decline in equity volatility with the VIX index dropping to its lowest level since October 3rd.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Credit Collapse Financial Market Impacts and Implications / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2008
The Big, the Bull, and the Bankers - Over the last few years, in my search to understand how we arrived at this historic juncture, I have been confronted with how ignorant the general public is regarding the history of money. But, after five years of researching and writing about this period, I still find it difficult to understand the day-to-day machinations of things like Collateral Debt Obligations, Credit Default Swaps, and Currency Swaps. So, the public's confusion is understandable. Bundling hundreds of debt products and layering them one on top of other, as collateral, is just too complex. But, I am not alone in this.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Stock Market Consolidation Day Ends Lower in Late Sell-Off / Stock-Markets / US Stock Markets
The markets had a consolidation day, but ended on the downside. They were lower in the morning, rallied mid-day, and then backed and filled into the close, but in the last 10 minutes took a quick hit to close near the afternoon lows.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, December 18, 2008
The Free Market has Failed, and Officialdom is Perpetuating that Failure / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2008
Ever since the two Bear Stearns hedge funds defaulted 17 months ago triggering a global financial crisis, the Federal Reserve has been busy putting out one fire after another. Fed chief Ben Bernanke has slashed interest rates to .25 percent, handed out billions in emergency funding to teetering insurance companies and mortgage lenders, and provided $8.3 trillion in loan guarantees to keep the financial system from collapsing.Read full article... Read full article...