Earth Hour - Tonight 8pm

You may have heard of it or you may not have, but tonight at 8pm everyone is asked to turn off their lights. Sonic - an Edmonton radio station - has been promoting the event and will have one hour of "unplugged" music at 8pm tonight.Read More...

[Source: The Money Blogs]

Google Goes Black

Google went black today in honor of energy savings. It admittedly recognized that turning the monitor black does not save any energy, but it is supposed to make us aware of Read More...

[Source: The Money Blogs]

How Can I Save For My Childrens’ Retirement?

I read the article, "The best investment I’ll ever make: Turning $10,000 into $20,000,000," about potentially turning $10,000 into millions of dollars for the benefit of a grandchild by using a variable annuity within a irrevocable living trust. Do you think I can accomplish the same goals by making an a $10,000 investment in a tax efficient fund such as an index fund. I would like to do[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

How Not To Write American History

In a never-before-published essay, Murray Rothbard points to a book on American history as an archetype of how not to write history. "The first test of a historical work then, and one that the author fails, is a richness of factual material. But the historian is more than a chronicler; he must also have a command of the significance of events, he must be able to convey to the reader the meaning and interpretation of the past. If we would be grandiloquent, we might even use Schumpeter’s term of "vision"; the histori[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Plunge Protection Team Working Overtime

There has been talk that another hedge fund within a US investment bank is on the verge of imploding. Ordinarily, short sellers would be signaling the market where the trouble is. But after the run on Bear Stearns, regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission opened an investigation into possible "stock manipulation." This adds a new element of risk to selling short the shares of any financial stocks. The SEC does not want these shares to plunge. [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Down, But Not Out (so Far)

NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.It was a tug-of-war between the bulls and bears yesterday, as the stock market see-sawed throughout the entire session. The bears eventually grabbed the upper hand, causing the main stock market indexes to post significant losses and finish near their worst levels of the day. The Nasdaq Composite lost its relative strength and fell 1.9%. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.2% and 1.0% respectively. The small-cap Russell 2000 closed 1.4[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

What Happened To Good Ol Fashioned ’window Dressing’?

The market is getting a small boost at the open, but nothing to write home about.Lehman (LEH) was upgraded to Buy at Citi, a rare buy rating to be slapped on one of the brokers. Especially when rumors are swirling about more writedowns at Merrill (MER). The analyst at Citi said LEH has ample liquidity.JCPenney (JCP) warned that its profits would come in below expectations this quarter, and that is weighing on the retail stocks. Tech is higher across the board, as are biotechs again. Asian stocks were high[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Irrational Obstinancy

I love how Marin County house sellers are being used in Read More...

[Source: The Money Blogs]

Why Was The Correction In Pms So Sharp?

Gold has regained ground lost last week, with the April COMEX contract closing up more than $16 an ounce on Tuesday, March 25 at $935. There is a double-bottom in the daily chart of gold that should offer support around $904. I would like to see closes in the April contract at $936.40, the 50-day moving average, to confirm the lows are in, and the market came close yesterday. Confirmation in the way of a close above that level, and I think gold can move to new highs. However, I am not sure the recent washout is quite done yet, and I want to see some confirmation before Id be stepping back in.[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Tech Under Pressure This Morning After Oracle (orcl) Comments

The market is under selling pressure in early trading, despite a relatively positive economic report.Last night, Oracle (ORCL) reported a so-so quarter, and made comments that its customers got a little more cautious at the end of its quarter. That started the selling in tech, and a report that showed Google’s (GOOG) paid clicks didn’t grow as fast as hoped for hit that stock as well.In economic news, Q407 GDP was left unchanged at +0.6%. Many feared it would be revised lower. But the consumer spending component was [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Canslim.net Morning Comment And Links (for Traders)

MORNING MARKET COMMENTARY- Thursday, March 27, 2008Major Averages Edged Lower on Lighter Volume Totals - Kenneth J. Gruneisen, CANSLIM Certified, Registered Principal, Source Capital Group, Inc. (Members NASD, SIPC)Stocks closed lower on tepid data from the economic front. Volume totals were lighter on both major US exchanges which suggested that investors were not aggressively selling stocks. Decliners led advancers by a 19-to-14 ratio on the NYSE and by a 17-to-13 ratio on the Nasdaq exchange. There were 12 hig[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Unaware-ites

You know those people who just have no idea what is going on around them? They cut you off in traffic (pedestrian or car), or they almost get hit in the head with a flying puck and have no idea they were inches from a trip t[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Real Real Estate Cycle Changes

Ah, the balm of perspective. We hear a lot nowadays about cycles and how long this one will take to rise again and so on and so forth. And frankly, things are really crappy out there due to a crisis of confidence in just about everything.Take heart. I’ve been enjoying a book entitled "Annals of the Former World," by John McPhee. It’s a history of the geology of the United States (actually it’s a book about writing). I[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Google Adwords For Real Estate

The mystery around Google stems from it behaving like an evolving, living breathing organism. And this organism spins baby.For years they have spun their positioning algo into a multitude of layers of complexity. Making it impossible for mere humans to get into a top search engine position.Along comes AdWords (their money Enterprise) and the mystery has continued. They constantly keep their methods shrouded with their eye on profit:"Read More...

[Source: The Money Blogs]

Play That Funky Music White Boy.

My prediction: Until we get this energy mess addressed, stocks as represented by the whole market/indexes aren’t going to do anything worth writing a Page One Wall Street Journal article about. On a side note, ever notice how white (and generally older) the Peak Oil establishment is? Sheesh. [Okay, some exceptions, but generally..] This mostly has to do with them being older oil types, I know.Next prediction: Peak oil ain’t gaining real traction until we pull in some hot chicks. And maybe Read More...

[Source: The Money Blogs]

Those Idiots In Sales Just Don?t Get It

I’m presenting a workshop this week titled - How to get sales and marketing on the same page.The point of the discussion is to help the audience, made up of marketers and the sales people for those marketers, understand that while they may indeed perform unique and necessary functions, they have shared objectives.So, while, as the title of this post suggests, the gap between what sales does and what marketing does in support may seem vast (and perhaps even at odds) there is an absolute need to strike a balance between their independent and interdependent selves.What [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Seeking An Angel

In a press release today, TheHomeBuyingCenter.com is seeking angel investors and venture capitalists for a new online real estate brokerage. To make their case, they write that $50 million was invested in real estate related businesses on the internet by angel investors, private equity companies and venture capitalists and they cite 3 other web-based real estate firms who have received venture capital in the las[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Bank Concerns Back In The Headlines

There are lots of crosscurrents this morning, but the negative bank headlines are back in the news today, and weighing on financial stocks.Last night, rumors swirled that the Clear Channel (CCU) deal may be in jeopardy. Then, early this morning, Deutsche Bank (DB) said that it may not meet its full year profit projections. No shocker there, but that knocked the futures lower and set a negative tone for the morning.Oppenheimer analyst Meredith Whitney cut estimates again for the big 4 banks (Citi, BofA, JPM
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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Bird’s Eye View: March 25, 2008

"You know what the news is-- in a minute, you’re going to hear the rest of the story"- Paul HarveyWe arrived in Ft. Lauderdale late yesterday afternoon, and I want to share a few observations with you.The first observation may be obvious to some, but I was shocked to see the price of diesel fuel. I was seeing prices like $4.10- 4.15/ gallon for diesel. This is unbelievable!The other thing I noticed was the scarcity of trucks on the road. Normally when we go on a trip we see several semi trucks on[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

A Reisman Must-read

Professor of economics George Reisman has penned a must-read article about the credit crunch. It is long but absolutely worth your time. Plus, he once again makes the case for gold: Despite the certainty that a proposal of this kind will be almost completely ignored and has virtually no chance of being enacted in the foreseeable future, it still must be made. This is because the most fundamental and important consideration is not what people are willing to ac[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

John Mauldin Defends Alan Greenspan! Why?

I hope he doesn’t remove me from his mailing list because John Mauldin’s Friday night e-letter is an essential part of my weekly reading schedule.But, last week’s edition contained such a remarkable piece of blather that it made me wonder if he was having some sort of a personal crisis.Even erstwhile sychophants like Read More...

[Source: The Money Blogs]

Chart Of The Day: Goldman Sachs (gs)

The banks and brokers are lower today, and GS is flirting with support in the form of a recent trend line dating back to its October highs. I am watching this trendline to see if it holds, but I still like GS fundamentally. I think they should be a[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

A Healthy Day Of Consolidation

NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.The main stock market indexes oscillated in a tight, sideways range throughout yesterday’s session, as stocks digested their recent gains. Lazily drifting into the closing bell, the major indices finished with mixed results. The Nasdaq Composite continued to show relative strength by gaining 0.6%, as did the small-cap Russell 2000 Index. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped just 0.1%, while the broad-based S&P 500 ticked 0.2% higher. The S&P Midcap 400 advanced 1.0%. All th[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Low Volume

The market reacted well after disappointing economic news and closed mixed the yesterdays session. Major indices hit their sessions low just after the release, but the sellers wasnt resolute enough to trigger more downside. Volume was extremely low again and this is not the kind of action I like to see when the indices test their 50EMA. Here an interesting chart: priceline.com IncorporateRead More...

[Source: The Money Blogs]

Reader Question: Can Unpaid Credit Card Debt Be Added To My Mortgage?

"Marcia" from Texas contacted me because she was considering entering a debt settlement program (with a company I&39;d never heard of) to negotiate payment on the substantial debt she owed. But therepresentative warned her that since one of her larger credit card balances was with thesame company that held her mortgage, she should leave it out of the program.Otherwise, the creditor could add her unpaid credit card debt to her mortgage loan. "Is that true?" she wondered.

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Abbey's 130 penalty for one credit card mistake

I've become a victim of the sharpened practices of Britain's wily credit card industry. One late payment has just cost me hundreds of pounds.

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[Source: This is Money | Money blog]

Another Step In The Right Direction

Yesterday’s price action was very bullish, even though volume was not as high as I would have liked to see. If you look at this chart, the S&P 500 Index broke above its downtrending 50-day average for the first time since 12/27. Ditto the Nasdaq. This is a big technical improvement, and a step in the right direction.This morning’s consumer confidence report was awful, but that is to be expected with all of the talk about a bear market and recession. Nonetheless, it took the market lo[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Live Blogging: Josh Porter On Effective Social Interface Design

Josh Porter, Bokardo.com has blogged about social design for 7-8years. Is lead designer for Chi.mp, a next generation social network.In August he started his own design company to design interfaces thatfocus on enabling people to talk to each other. Main issues: how doyou get people to engage with your site. How do you get them to signup? He’s had clients who got Techcrunched, had a spike, and then overtime they all leak out. How to provide value over the long term?Five principles:1. The Del.icio.us Lesson. Delicious let you [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

The Semiconductor Index Is Waking Up

NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.As anticipated, stocks followed through on the bullish momentum that began developing last week, enabling the major indices to score another round of solid gains. Led by a rare show of strength in the Semiconductor Index ($SOX), the Nasdaq Composite powered 3.0% higher. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average both climbed only half as much (1.5%). The small-cap Russell 2000 and S&P Midcap 400 indices rallied 2.9% and 2.3% respectively. Each of the [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Defining Yourself - It’s Not So Easy!

We are all proponents of the art of self branding. We all practice it every single day, most of us without even realizing it. We all makes choices everyday where the resulting outcome is a much an extension of our personality than any logical thought process.We all have a basic need to define ourselves, our place in the world and our role within our various social circles.We crave acceptance but also individuality and all our choices are ultimately guided by this.Do you drink wine or beer? Buy Nike or Adidas trainers? Shop in bargain stores or stick to the bi[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Sharing Practical Experience

My partner Ryan related amusing story about leaving his brand new MacBook Air on a recent flight. I had a similar experience myself last week, which unfortunately didn’t end up quite as happily (although fortunately didn’t involve a $3,000 piece of technology). I left the office for a meeting on Friday afternoon with my hands full: I had my computer bag in one hand and was carrying my jacket and a garment bag in the other. In addition I was on my phone as I dragged all of this down to the parking ga[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

More Details (and Questions) On Fedization

I don’t know if there is a textbook on how to create fiat money but the latest statement by the Federal Reserve New York is at least a good attempt. I allow myself to fill in some of the gaps, trying to explain what really happens and who will make the most money. If your guess is the Fed, you have just won a free subscription to this blog.In an effort to explain the Fedization of Bear Stearns the Fed NY put out another release in order to clarify such details as the actual cost of financing to JP Morgan after earl[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Today’s Open: Up

Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 Index Join Dow Industrials Above 50-Day AveragesPICTURED BELOW: The S&P 500 Index’s gain on lighter volume than the prior session (not plotted on the above graph) helped it close above its 50-day moving average (DMA) line on Monday. This marked its first close above that important short-term average since December 26, 2007. The major averages surged on Monday as traders returned from a long holiday weekend. Volume totals were lighter on both major US exchanges than Thursday’s inflated quadruple witching related levels. Despite [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Some Signs Of Credit Market Easing Spur False Hope

A: Sorry for the lack of content as I have been very busy over the past week or so; lets get back to work. The fed has showered the markets with stimulus since the Bear Stearns debacle and the huge $200Bn TSLF announced on March 11th that kicks in on Thursday. Thus far, the fed has poured over $478B worth of liquidity injections + expanded what may be used as collateral for these short term loans to ease the distress in the credit markets. Some Read More...

[Source: The Money Blogs]

Post Office acts badly for Dame Judi Dench

Save our post offices:Despite attracting the attention of Hollywood actress Dame Judi Dench, 74, to fight for its cause a branch in the stunning village of Laycock has failed the Post Office audition for survival.

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[Source: This is Money | Money blog]

Consumer Confidence Hits Lowest Level Since 1973

The market fared very well today, imo. After yesterday’s outsized rally, I would not have been surprised to see some minor profit taking. But instead, investors used the brief dips today to put more money to work, yours truly included.Biotechs were the strongest group today (+1.34%), while retailers were the biggest laggard (-1.08%). The Nasdaq outperformed the S&P, while the Dow was slightly lower.Oil also rebounded from its declines this morning, and finished slightly higher at $101.54. Boone Picke[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Who Don?t You Want As A Customer?

I often write about defining a narrow target market and communicating only with what I call your ideal customer.The idea behind this is that, if taken to heart, you will find that you are able to attract the perfect customers without succumbing to the pressure to compete on price alone.Many times, when I mention this notion to small business owner they have a tough time coming up with the description of the ideal narrowly defined customer until I suggest that we start by describing who they don’t want as a customer.It’s just human nature I guess, but we seem to have [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Anthony Henday Interchange Open House

For those who live in the west end or drive on the Anthony Henday... the government of Alberta is having an open house tomorrow to discuss the detailed plans for the interchanges on the Anthony Henday and Callingwood Road and Lessard Road interchanges.Wednesday March 26, 20082:30-7:30Willowby Community Hall6315 184 st.It is an informal drop in event with displays and consulting team members available to answer questions and listen to comments and suggestions.According to an Read More...

[Source: The Money Blogs]

Positioning

Marketing is to a large degree about positioning. Redfin claims advantage over their competition. Their Unique Position seems to be superior savings . So they did a customer survey and found:95% Customer Satisfaction (CSI).On average their clients net $5,048 more.On average they refund back $10,520 in real estate commissions.What are you doing to Read More...

[Source: The Money Blogs]

Canslim.net Morning Comment And Links (for Traders)

MORNING MARKET COMMENTARYfor Monday, March 24, 2008Dow Jones Industrial Average Produces Follow Through Gains - Kenneth J. Gruneisen, CANSLIM Certified, Registered Principal, Source Capital Group, Inc. (Members NASD, SIPC)The major averages surged on Thursday, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average scored a follow-through day which confirmed the market’s latest rally attempt. The benchmark S&P 500 Index ended its most volatile week in 70 years, according to an S&P study of daily price swings in the S&P 5[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Why Now Is A Terrific Time To Buy A Home

John L Scott just released a PDF that I recommend you read and take as a guideline for your own current marketing materials. Titled, "Why Now is a Great Time To Buy a Home."I have said before that you should build up your own "positive" real estate arsenal of news and material to get into the hands of your buyers and sellers. Contrary to the current Internet mantras being published, real estate sales is about, um selling. If you are not going to tell [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Provident Year End Results

Last Wednesday, Provident Energy (PVX: chart, web, Y!) came out with their 2007 year-end and Q407 report, and also provided an update on reserves.All around a positive report, and I’m curious as to why the stock dropped almost a dol[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Debt-reduction Carnival

Time for the latest Carnival of Debt Reduction.Some great tips on savings and reducing debt.Check out my bookstore.[All content is copyright of Adventures In Money Making][...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

The "not So Great" Generation

This USAToday story about the rise and fall of many baby boomers is, unfortunately, probably a sign of things to come.The plan wasn’t very sound, when you think about it, but it sure worked pretty well for a while - have everyone buy lots of stuff that they don’t need with money they don’t have until everyone is in debt up to their eyeballs.As long as the economy was booming, stocks were rising, and real estate prices only went up in one direction - up - the plan worked pretty well.
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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Intermediate-term Strength On Its Way?

NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.Stocks wrapped up a whippy, seesaw week on a positive note last Thursday, ahead of the three-day holiday weekend. The major indices opened slightly lower, grinded their way higher throughout the morning, then saw more substantial buying interest in the afternoon. The S&P 500 climbed 2.4%, as both the Nasdaq Composite and Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 2.2%. The small-cap Russell 2000 and S&P Midcap 400 indices were higher by 2.6% and 1.9% respectiv[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Are You Smarter Than A 6th Grader?

The other day my 11-year old daughter was watching one of those house flipping shows on HGTV. When I came home she exclaimed "Dad! There was this woman doing a flip, and when she bought the house she didn’t even get a[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Market Breadth

Posts have been light recently because the insight we can offer comes as more in-depth research that does not lend itself to a blog post. Short-term market analysis seems to be almost useless, since any conclusions are squashed by whatever news the market decides to pounce on that day. The chart below shows that little attention has recently been paid to stock picking, but more that traders jump on the back of the market and drive all stocks down together. Birinyi Associates measures market breadth as the number of advancing names minus the number of declining n[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Free Markets In Good Times, Big Government In Bad Times

Larry Elliott in the Guardian writes thatEvery parent with a stroppy teenager knows the feeling. After relentless pressure, mum or dad gives in to demands that they drop the oppressive rules that govern the home and, with reluctance, allow their progeny to do their own thing. The last words the teenager hears as they slam the door and head off for a life of freedom is: "Be it on your own head. Don’t come running to me when it ends in tears."But, inevit[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Local Employment Growth Falters

The California Employment Development Department&039;s employment estimates for February indicate that San Diego job growth has essentially flattened out. The sectors that thrived during the housing boom are now suffering through the bust, and while employment is growing outside of the housing boom industries, it is doing so barely enough to offset the housing-related losses.<[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Buy Or Rent - The Eternal Question

I hesitate to post this, almost dread posting it for the battle that might ensue because of it, but I thought this was pretty cool. The New York times has this rent vs buy calculator that takes more things into consideration than what you normally see - such as opportunity costs.Read More...

[Source: The Money Blogs]

Some Time Wasting Resources

In case you’re looking for a few new ways to kill some time (right - like we need more of those):Fancast has entire episodes of many tv shows available online - free. And yes, they have Firefly and Buffy.

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Closer To The Poststravaganza Of A Lifetime.

March 24, 24 Hours, 24 Articles, and 1 soon to be struggling with carpal tunnel writer. It’s beginning to dawn on me just how extensive this project will be. I have come up with ideas for some of the posts, and jotted down a few ideas so far. I want to do the majority of the writing on the 24th.To many bloggers 24 posts is not a very significant amount for one day. Then again that is their full time job. I’m not sure how they don’t get blocked up. Of course many of them are looking at a newsfeed, commenting on other posts, or bringing up weird stories. Not that there is anyt[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

It Certainly Looks Like A Silver Shortage

Worried by the steep correction in silver? Don’t worry, just reduce your leverage. Silver has always corrected by roughly a third after its sharp ascents in the past 5 years. This is due to the extreme tightness of this market where a billion of whatever fiat currency still can do a lot of damage. At one point the short sellers will be run over by the very real freight train of exploding physical demand that has led to what looks like a worldwide shortage in bullion.Read More...

[Source: The Money Blogs]

More Bad News On The Horizon?

CoBank is one of the largest American cooperative banks serving rural America. Recently, the company said its shareholders approved a plan to issue up to $250 million in preferred stock in 2008 or 2009.The stock may be issued in one or more issuances, the firm said, and in addition, CoBank shareholders also agreed to amend bank bylaws to increase the amount of preferred stock it can issue to $1 billion from $500 million. The bank has already issued $500 million in preferred stock since 2001 along with $500 million in subo[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Nike How Did You Do It?

Nike (NKE) swooshed out and reported Q3 results. Revenues were up 16%. Cost of goods sold grew by only 14% and therefore margins are up 18%. Hey thats pretty good. Commendable even when costs grow more slowly than revenues the shareholders win. But wait a second. In the press release there was scant mention of this triumph. Also no mention if this was sustainable into the near future. One passing sentence was attributable to revenues reading ’Changes in currency exchange rates increased revenue growth by 6 percentage points for the quarter’ but what about cost of goods sold most o[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Discussion Forums

Please check out the Marin Real Estate Bubble Blog Forums (MREBBFs?). These are discussion forums in which you have a lot more control -- start your own threads about realtors/agents, specific properties, POSs, whatever you want. If you would like to see a forum dedicated to something not already provided, just send me an email. Read More...

[Source: The Money Blogs]

Selling Short The Oil Sector

NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.Just as Tuesday’s roaring session sent the bears running for cover, yesterday’s sell-off kept the bulls on their toes. Stocks retraced sharply, causing the major indices to give back all their post-Fed gains. Both the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.4%, while the Nasdaq Composite and small-cap Russell 2000 suffered matching declines of 2.6%. The S&P Midcap 400 lost 2.5%. Completely opposite of the previous day’s action, all the main stoc[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Update On The Negativity Bubble

Yesterday I penned a column for TheStreet.com on the negativity bubble, and how I felt Monday was likely the bottom for this decline. (I will post it on my blog tomorrow) No sooner did my post appear than the market swooned nearly 300 points.Many readers asked me whether I had altered my stance? The answer is no, but felt a little silly for sticking my neck out. There will likely be many tests, but my thesis is that the negativity peaked on Monday, and future negative headlines[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Thursday Salvaged The Week To Close Green

Thursday ended the week on an up note. This nice rally also left the week in the green and equities had higher volume. This was our first up week in four weeks, what a nice sight to see. Maybe the bulls like the idea of a four day week to motivate them. The markets volume hasnt been this high since the week of January 27th and this was a short week. Futures volume was not higher on Thursday, it was our lowest volume of the week, but the four days combined was very impressive. Gold fell again today down $25.30 to $920 an ounce. Crude [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Us Economy Going South?

Note: The following post will depress you, unless your sense of humor is based on schadenfreude.I’ve been maintaining my belief that we’re going to see a pretty bad recession for over a year now. Until very recently, the newspapers were all cheerleadering the economy and how everything was just peachy. Even Ben Stein and other economists said everything’s great last November.Read More...

[Source: The Money Blogs]

Alan Greenspan And A River In Egypt

For somevery good insight into how opinions regarding Alan Greenspan are slowly changing, have a look at Greenspan Stands His Ground in the Washington Post today.There are a few excerpts from a recent interview with the former Fed chairman in a separate story, but the bulk of the main article by Steven Mufson consists of other economists bashing the man some still call the Maestro.[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Liquidation & The Fed&#8217;s New Found Sweet Spot

A: All commodities got destroyed the past two days in what appears to be a combination of liquidations, or the unwinding of speculative/hedged trades, PLUS the fed’s new found methods of targeting the credit markets without the negative effects to the US dollar. Lets discuss.YES, the fed cut its discount rate 100 bps and the funds rate 75 bps in the past week. But these are not normal times. In the past 9 days where we saw a bear get shot & killed, check out all the stimulus that the f[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Four Reasons To Believe In A Bottom

When I originally penned this piece on Monday night, after informally polling most of my contacts and asking them if they thought last Monday was the bottom, the response was almost universally "no." (65% of the respondents to a "Fast Money" poll on CNBC said the same thing.)I wrote on my blog on Monday that I thought it was likely we had seen the lows. Still, I wanted to see how the market fared on Tuesday, so I held off submitting my column. I never thought Tuesday would see such a huge rally, but it just reinforces my view.Technical Evidence<[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Wall Street Lingo: Capitulation

I’ve been hearing the term "capitulation" being thrown around a lot lately on many of the talking heads programs. In context, it’s used like this: "...we won’t see the bottom of the market until we see capitulation".So what exactly does that mean?In street sense, capitulation means to surrender or give up. You hear it in military history discussions frequently in terms of a s[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

More Real Estate Scams On Craigslist

I received an email last week from a guy inquiring about an ad he saw on Craigslist:Are any of these units for rent? There is currently an ad on Craigslist for one of these units, http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/apa/601697121.htmlIs this a real ad? I’ve replied to a few ads recently that end up being fake, and I thought I’d check with someone that seemed legit before I bothered this time. It would also be good for you guys to know if someone is out there misrepresenting your property.[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

A Standard Deviation Of Governance

Encouragingly, the mainstream economics profession has been prating for some time now about the connection between the "rule of law" and economic prosperity and growth.Most libertarians might take this increasingly popular term as mainstream code for "freedom and property rights," as I do. I feel it’s what they’re trying to get at while: (a) maintaining the obligatory mumbo-jumbo that the profession relies upon to awe the natives; and (b) not saying anything that seems to lack compassion, such as that some people deserve to be rich and perhaps even grow richer.Read More...

[Source: The Money Blogs]

Oversold Rally

The Fed approved another cut of 75 basis point from 3% to 2.25% the lowest level since 2004. The market rallied on the news with the groggy financial sector leading the way. Following good news from GS and LEH, the sector was the best performer posting a 8,5% gain. The volume was just above average, but nothing stellar considering the strong move. This rally could have a follow-through in the near-term, but its hard to predict a bottom here. For this reas[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Another Silly Bio-generics Bill

by David E. WilliamsHealth Business BlogTwo Congressional Reps have introduced a bill to create a pathway for generic biopharmaceuticals. It seems to me like a big waste of time.The bill has the following key provisions, according to Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report:12-14.5 years of market exclusivity for the original product before generics can appear Clinical trial requirements for follow-on products, which could be waived by FDA (I dont have more d[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Junior Oil Stocks And Gold Stocks Your Time Has Arrived

Many a frustrated junior resource investor is asking when will the pain end?It is one thing to be entirely wrong on the market, it dents the ego and you get over it. It is quite another to be right and still not make any money! Thats been the case for most junior resource stock investors.With Gold over $1,000, Oil over $100 and Natural Gas over $10 its incredulous that junior mining companies are not more highly valued. Take Gold miners for example, the average cost to mine an ounce of Gold is about $400 (but varies enormously depending on company specific[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Midday Check: The Day After

The markets are pulling back today, after yesterday’s huge rally. The big culprit today is the energy and commodity complex. Profit taking is underway in these sectors, and all of the stocks are down big.Oil and gold are down -3.4% and -3.9%, respectively. This is causing big declines in the energy stocks, and even bigger declines in the agriculture and mining names. Take a look at the DBA commodity ETF to see what I am talking about. It is piercing below its 50-day moving average on surging volume. These stocks have been so strong for so long tha[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Top 10 Sectors&Stocks By Relative Strength (weekly Update)

Use this tool to buy the right sector ETFs or their leading stocks by RS:Weighted - Industry Name - Chart - Top Names Alpha+71.65 Agricultural Chemicals
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[Source: The Money Blogs]

The Downside Of Commodities Trading

There was some heavy selling in the market today, which centered around anything commodity related. I could have picked a lot of charts to post above, and they all would have looked similar. This chart is of the DB Agriculture commodity ETF (DBA).
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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Update: Goldman Volatility Crush Pounds Out Profits

Strategy Update: Volatility play books 44.8% in four days.Over the weekend we highlighted a volatility play on Goldman Sachs to coincide with their earnings that came out this morning (See original article - March 16). The market seemed to like what it heard from Goldman and launched the stock $24.57 or 16.27% today.This favourable outcome demolished the risk premium factored into Goldman options, setting up a very quick and profitable play. Referring back to the original article, it didn’t matter which way Goldman’s stock went[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Is It For Real, At Least For Now?

NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.Stocks gapped significantly higher on yesterday’s open, then built on their gains ahead of the Federal Reserve Board’s afternoon announcement on interest rates and economic policy. The aggressive three-quarter point rate cut initially sent shares to new intraday lows, but they zoomed higher only minutes later. The major indices thereafter rocketed to their best levels of the day in the final hour of trading. Exceeding their impressive gains of March 11, the S&P 500 [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Top 10 Ways To Get Out Of Debt

We&39;re deep in the heart of debt season. Most of us are still working on catching up from holiday spending and many are facing a big tax bill in the next few weeks (I know I am!). If you&39;re struggling with debts, here are ten ways you can get out: 1. Stop Charging - This one may seem obvious but you&39;d be amazed at how many people continue using their credit cards while also trying to get them paid off. It doesn&39;t help. 2. Bank Online - Sign up for a free money management program online. I use a program called Read More...

[Source: The Money Blogs]

Yen Hits Thirteen Year High

Last week I showed the Japanese Yen testing major chart resistance its 2000/2004 peaks. On March 4th, I showed Why A Rising Yen Isn’t Good For Stocks. Today’s 2% gain against the dollar put the yen over 100 for the first time in thirteen years (1995). While that’s good for the yen, it’s not necessarily good for global stocks which have been falling as the yen has been rising since last summer. Another low-yielding currency had a strong day today. The Swiss Franc gain of 1.5% made it th[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Fed Lowers Rates 75 Basis Points

Many market participants were looking for 100 basis point cut, which I think the Fed should have done, moral hazards aside. But I don’t think that Bernanke could have gotten enough votes from the other memebers, so the market will have to settle for 75 bps.Here are the headlines from the FOMC announcement:FOMC lowers Fed Funds rate by 75 bps to 2.25%Fed cuts the discount rate 75 bps to 2.50%; move follows the emergency 25 bps cut over the weekendFed says will act in timely manner to promote [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

10% Time

Last week I listened for the third time to Marissa Mayer’s amazingtalk at Stanford about Google’s culture of innovation. (I can’t linkto it right now. I’m blogging from my blackberry.) She lists the top 9reasons that Google is innovative.One of them, of course, is that every Google engineer gets to work ontheir own pet project for 20% of the time. Marissa says that in thesecond half of 2005, 50% of the products Google introduced came from20% time.Another was that "ideas come from everywhere," including custo[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

February Foreclosure Chart Extravaganza

As with the data quasi-rodeo, I&039;m going to be light on verbiage and just update the charts for this month whilst applying a liberal interpretation of the term "extravaganza."Seems at first like a decline from January, but it really isn&039;t.read more[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Silencing A Blogger

I had written about EPerks before, noting their odd campaign of paying bloggers to say nice things about them and wondering about their effectiveness.The post received several comments, including one from a Vlad Zablotskyy, discussing his concerns he had with the firm. Several months later I received a request from Mr. Zablotskyy asking me to please delete his comments, as he had received a Cease-and-Desist letter from attorney representing EPerks, and he didn’t want any further trouble.It’s b[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Despite Media Carping, Americans Largely Trust Drug Companies

by Nathan BurchfielBusiness & Media InstituteMedia attacks on pharmaceutical companies don’t resonate with the public, which overwhelmingly believes drug makers improve quality of life. Seven out of ten Americans believe prescription drugs developed over the past 20 years have made life better for their fellow Americans in spite of journalists incessant attacks on pharmaceutical companies a new Read More...

[Source: The Money Blogs]

House prices peaked in 2003

In early 2000 our readers were worried about their debts - then they went on an eight-year binge fuelled by rising house prices. It is now starting to unwind. Read my story.

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[Source: This is Money | Money blog]

Market Reaction To Fed Rate Cut: Another 400-point Rally

Now that’s what I call a rally. The S&P 500 surged +4.2% today, its biggest one-day gain since October 2002. Remember that date? It was the bottom of the last bear market.Yesterday, I went out on a limb and said that it was likely that the "Bear Stearns Bottom" would mark the lows for the market. Today’s action solidifies my views.From a technical standpoint, I think that the SPX came close enough to my 1250 target to satisfy me. We also had a 90% up day (90% upside volume on NYSE) last Tuesday, and then again toda[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Indices Rally Back From Oversold Intraday Condition To Close Mixed

Indices Rally Back from Oversold Intraday Condition to Close MixedBy Harry Boxer, The Technical Trader (www.thetechtrader.com) We had a volatile session ,but the indices managed to end mixed on theday. Most of them, except for the Dow, closed down. But it was aninteresting day with very strong negative futures pre-opening that sentthe markets sharply lower at the opening. However, they bounced back,recovered the majority of their losses, and then weren’t able to extendfurther and rolled over again in the morn[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Commodity Etfs Starting To Correct

NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.The Bear Stearns news over the weekend caused trading to get off to a scary start yesterday morning, but the market quickly stabilized. After opening approximately 2% lower, the major indices valiantly attempted to reverse throughout the morning. The bears arrived at mid-day, sending the broad market back to new intraday lows, but the bulls returned in the afternoon. By the closing bell, the major indices had settled with mixed results. Blue chips showed [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Nice Market To Come Home To

It has already been a wild day, and the market has only been open for an hour!Last night, when I got home from Wyoming, I learned that Bear Stearns (BSC) had been "bought" out by JPMorgan (JPM) for $2. I thought it was a typo. $249 million? Given the hard assets of the firm, this basically placed a negative value on the investment bank.What a stunning turn of events. BSC was the 5th largest brokerage firm in the U.S., and its stock has now lost 95% of its value since Jan. 1. This was a true "run on the bank". As confidence eroded [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Today&#8217;s Open: Up

Stocks End Volatile Session Mixed PICTURED BELOW: The Broker/Dealer ($XBD -10.26%) plunged over -10% on Monday! The major averages ended mixed on Saint Patrick’s Day, after undercutting last week’s lows which effectively ended the current rally attempt. Stocks sold off hard after an action packed weekend that marked the end of Bear Stearns (BSC -83.97%), the fifth largest investment bank, and another rate cut by the Federal Reserve. Volume totals were mixed, higher on the NYSE and lower on the Nasdaq exchange. Decliners trumped advancers by nearly a 5-to-1 ratio o[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Has The Market Discounted The Credit Crisis?

Today was about as good as can be expected. If I had told you that Bear Stearns (BSC) was bailed out for $2, Asian stocks were plunging, and the futures were pointing to an ugly day, you likely would have assumed the Dow was going to be down big.But after falling "only" 200 points early on, the market rallied back late in the day, and it looked like the Dow might close up over 100 points until a last minute selloff took back some of the gains.This was a far better than exepcted outcome, and has to be viewed as a victory for[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

What A Weekend!

It has become clearly evident that the Fed works weekends.Last night the Fed announced an emergency quarter point discount rate cut to 3.25%, and on top of that, offered to lend money to a longer list of firms than ever before.The rare weekend move came as J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM: chart, web, Y!) sealed a deal to buy Bear Stearns (BSC:
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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Burn Baby Burn - Is That Firplace Included?

What I meant to say was "dont get burned!" Today there arenumerous "faux" fireplaces that are very good at deceiving you as to whether theyare attached (see: Read More...

[Source: The Money Blogs]

Marin Market Heat Index Will Now Cost You $799/year

The picture that you see above is the Marin Market Heat Index from January, 2008 (at that time the Index was around 0.41 which was essentially where it was at the end of last week). It is probably the last time you will ever be able to see it for free. You see, over this past weekend or so the Marin [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Rankings Of Finance Doctoral Programs

Because I’m one of the few bloggers who regularly write about the life of a finance professor, I get about a dozen questions a month from people considering a PhD in finance (Note: if you’re interested, you can read about a finance professor’s typical day here and here, and about what’s involved in getting a PhD in finance Read More...

[Source: The Money Blogs]

Sara Lee Off Loads Mexico

Sara Lee (SLE) announced today that it is selling its 49.9% stake in the Qualtia Alimentos business in Mexico to its joint venture partner, Xignux. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The completion of the transaction is subject to customary conditions and is expected to occur within a month.OK so most investors get selling a business that maybe does not fit anymore. But the press release goes on to say that the business being sold is grossing $300 million. Thats approximately 10% of last quarters total gross. So when you sell something like that and do not provide any fina[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Tax Tips For Younger Filers

Having a bit of life experience under my belt, I’m a big believer in the philosophy that age is an artificial construct that shouldn’t define or limit us, that you’re as young as you feel (so I fluctuate between 6 and 86 depending on the day!), and that age is only important if you’re wine or cheese.That said, taxpayers at different stages of their lives do have some differing tax considerations.Younger folks in particular often have some special tax considerations. So I was very pleased to[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Stagflation, Then And Now

There’s been a lot of talk in recent months about how different the current period is from bouts of "stagflation" in the 1970s and early 1980s. According to the BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics), "inflation" peaked in 1980 at around 14 percent or so and many pundits today say that we’ll never see those levels ever again.They’re probably right ... but not for the reasons you might think.To explain why, it is helpful to compare today’s "inflation" to that which was reported three decades ago. An example of this appears below where the [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

News-driven Environments

NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.What a wild end to a volatile week! Last Friday, news of a major liquidity problem at brokerage giant Bear Stearns caused the S&P 500 to reverse from a pre-market gap up of more than 1% to a swift loss of 2% within the first thirty minutes of trading. Stocks chopped around after the opening slide, then built on their losses in the afternoon. By day’s end, the Nasdaq Composite had plunged 2.3%, the S&P 500 2.1%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average 1.6%. The small-cap Russell 200[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

JP Morgan Grabs Bear Stearns For $2; Long Recession Ahead

by H.S. Ayoub, DMDBioHealth InvestorI know this is supposed to be a blog covering the biotechnology and medical industry, but in an unprecedented move for this blog, a major non-health related event will have to be commented on.Bear Steans (BSC) was forced to sell itself to JP Morgan (JPM) for a whopping $2 a share, equal to $236 million in total! The co[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

The Big Picture Weekend Linkfest And More:

Weekend Linkfest for 3/16/07 By Barry RitholtzAll the links that are fit to click. here’s a sample: Recession Fears Power Gold TCA-ETF Update from Jeff Mille[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Pre-market Open News&Links For Friday

U.S. stock futures ease before CPI, sentiment data"S&P 500 futures slipped 9.7 points to 1,305.60 and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 10.25 points to 1,745.50. Dow industrial futures fell 91 points."Early Thursday, gold for April delivery soared to a record high of $1,001.50 an ounce on the New Y[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Retail Sales Disappoint ... Again

A short time ago, the Commerce Department released the retail sales data for the month of February and, to the surprise of many economists, the news wasn’t good. Overall retail sales declined 0.6 percent, the second decline in the last three months and, on a year-over-year basis, sales are up only 2.6 percent.The 2.6 percent annual gain is well below t[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Accumulation Day Finally

Thursday rallied back from the dead, changing the tone on the market. The nice green close was on higher volume than we had yesterday to leave an accumulation day. We started our day hearing that Carlyle Group fund might collapse, then a weak opening came in. It wasnt until we heard Standard & Poor release a statement saying the worst of the bank write downs on bad home loans might be behind us. Now with default rates still climbing and foreclosures still climbing Id have to question how theyve come to that conclusion. So time will tell on that and Id lik[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Performance Anxiety

There is a tendency for traders to feel baldly about under performing the market averages on a daily or weekly basis, but success as a trader does not come from such short term measurements or comparisons. We all have our cycles of under or out performance, but over time, the true measurement of success in trading is being consistently profitable regardless of how the overall market is performing. At the end of each trading day you shouldn’t focus solely on your P/L, instead you should focus on your thought process that day and how well you executed your plan. If you consistently execute yo[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Stock Market Video Technical Analysis 3/13/08

Let’s see if youtube keeps the video available.I did upload to all the other sites today.