The FOMC Talks and the Markets Shriek - June 19, 2013 22:50

The Fed  held its monthly meeting to determine the course of the world over the past two days wherein it was decided that the current QE program would continue indefinitely. But, the rhetoric surrounding said indefinite time frame was apparently hawkish enough to send everyone scrambling for cash.  In the wake of the press conference […]

Latest Hilsen-Rumor Put Cherry on Equity Rally - June 13, 2013 21:19

After last night’s thrashing on the TOCOM which saw the Nikkei 225 drop 843.94 points to close at 12,445.38 (or minus 6.4%) the US equity markets were looking at another potentially ugly day. But the Yen abruptly stopped appreciating and began turning back toward Â¥95, which it achieved just before the publication of the latest […]

The Beat Goes On — S&P Sets New Record - May 14, 2013 23:56

All of the money being printed by the major central banks simply has nowhere else to go.  Today the S&P 500 rallied again late in the session as managed money went bargain hunting with newly minted dollars, yen and euros.  The benchmark equity index closed at 1650.34 (+1.02%) while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose […]

Labor Report Sends Equities Soaring - May 4, 2013 15:33

While Friday’s jobs may have been more fiction than fact (see Dave in Denver’s breakdown of it here) that didn’t stop the computers from kicking the programs into overdrive and run some overhead short positions which took the S&P 500 over 1600 to close at 1614.42 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly over 15000 […]

Commodity and Equity Bifurcation Continues Towards Plaid - April 23, 2013 21:42

The markets have gone plaid.  We had horrible Chinese and German flash PMI data come out this morning which kept commodity prices under duress all day. Copper continues its trek towards $3.00 per lb.  Silver broke back below $23 after challenging $24 yesterday. The grain complex was whacked across the board in late session trading […]

Big Earnings Day in Technology Revealing of New Trends - April 18, 2013 23:18

Intel’s earnings yesterday just a week after an IDC report stated that PC sales had dropped 14% year over year in Q1 seemed to corroborate that report.  Profit was down 25% for Chipzilla.  Today Advanced Micro Devices announced earnings that were equally challenging, showing erosion of revenue and unit shipments in laptops, notebooks and desktops.  […]

Dow Momentum Carries S&P Without Conviction Higher - March 8, 2013 2:50

I’m going to call a spade a spade here and say that it’s pretty easy to move 10-12 stocks in a price-weighted index like the Dow Jones Industrial Average which can have huge spillover effects into other markets, creating momentum-driven buying or selling — especially in today’s algorithm-based pseudo markets — that are completely divorced […]

Dow Sets Record, Everything Else is Contained - March 5, 2013 23:17

When Alan Greenspan was brought out of his coffin — only at night by the way — a couple of weeks ago he made it clear that the Federal Reserve believes it can create economic prosperity through the manipulation of perception.  And the greatest tool for attenuating the strength of the Fed’sreality distortion fieldis the […]

S&P 500 Continues to Inch Towards All-Time High - February 15, 2013 2:53

With options expiration tomorrow — the 3rd Friday coming early this month — the S&P 500 continues to grind its way towards the all-time high near 1550.  The problem that many investors should be wary of as we approach this level, and at this point a re-test feels inevitable — one does not fight the […]