Halfords customer services

The last time I criticised Halfords and its delinquent customer services, I attracted support and criticism in equal measure. So here we go again...

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[Source: This is Money | Money blog]

Depressing News ? Part 3

The news about Countrywide is getting even worse with CEO Angelo Mozilo making front page news with his inadvertent e-mail slip up. A borrower had written to him requesting help. What he got was an e-mail in response that said:"This is unbelievable. Most of these letters now have the same wording. Obviously they are being counseled by some other person or by the internet. Disgusting."He wanted to send this to some other executive by hitting FORWARD but what had happened was that he had accidentally hit REPLY. For those who would like to read the whole sto[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Bear Flaggin’ It Ahead Of The Holiday Weekend

NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.After opening near unchanged levels, the major indices chopped around in a relatively tight, sideways range throughout the entire day. Stocks finished marginally higher, but still near their previous day’s lows. The Dow Jones Industrial Average bounced 0.2%, S&P 500 0.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite 0.7%. Although the small-cap Russell 2000 advanced 0.8%, the S&P Midcap 400 showed relative weakness for a change, gaining just 0.3%. All the main stock market indexes closed near the mi[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Oil Rally

Picking tops is a fools game. Short sellers have been crushed during this oil rally and the trend remains higher. The chart below suggests a POTENTIAL level where this market may find some selling, just below 135. Longs should have tight stops.Read More...

[Source: The Money Blogs]

Indices End Positively, Though Bear-flag Formations Portend More Downside

Indices End Positively, Though Bear-Flag Formations Portend More DownsideBy Harry Boxer, The Technical Trader (www.thetechtrader.com) The markets had a very unusual day today. With most of the momentumstock groups getting hammered, the indices still managed to close up onthe day, but it was basically back and forth action for most of thesession, as they started out with a pop to the upside, got a quickpullback, and then had a strong rally that took them to the sessionhighs early in the morning. They backed o[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Snails Race

Thursday we watched the snails race around the track. The markets closed slightly green on very light volume in the narrowest range weve seen on the Nas Composite in about 9 days and 7 for the S&P 500. Very quiet choppy pre holiday kind of action. Left us very bored and lackluster action full of chop did nothing to the market other than hold yesterdays lows. Gold closed down $9.10 at $919.50 and oil closed down $2.43 at $130.74 a barrel. Into Friday we could see more of the same for range and volume. Pre holiday Fridays are not known [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Midday Update: No Buyers Ahead Of Holiday Weekend

The market opened on a weak note and has stayed that way all morning. Down volume is running about 84% of total volume on the NYSE so far. So there does not seem to be many buyes around ahead of the long weekend.I was saying all last week that I wanted to sit on the cash I had recently raised until we got a pullback, which I felt was overdue. That pullback showed up big-time this week. The S&P 500 is currently off -4.5% from its Monday highs. That’s about as much of a pullback as I was looking for. At the time, I thought something in [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Does That Come With Landscaping?

When you buy a home in the dead of winter, you never really know what’s under the snow, but come spring and summer beautiful landscaping can be a real selling feature. So what happens when you purchase a home that had a perfect green lawn, and gorgeous perrenials and trees when you viewed it[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Metals Are Fairly Difficult To Print

Two weeks ago marked the 60th anniversary of a prescient essay (pdf) promoting gold as redeemable money. It was written by Howard Buffet, father of the famed investor, Warren.Several years ago Joseph Stromberg wrote an interesting biography about Howard, a four-term congressman of the Old Right. While many libertarians laud him for his defense of[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Best Of Jackie Chan Fight Scenes

I’m a big fan of martial arts films. And in that genre, no one does it better than Jackie Chan. Here’s a compilation someone put together of what they rate as the top ten fight scenes from his movies.HT: Read More...

[Source: The Money Blogs]

Unmasking Tyranny Again

One would not think someone legal historian M.J.C. Vile called "in some ways the most impressive political theorist that America has produced" would remain virtually unknown here. But that is true of John Taylor of Caroline.John Taylor served in the Continental Army, the Virginia Legislature and the U.S. Senate. But he is best characterized for causes that, from today’s perspective, he was on the losing side of.He was an Anti[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Foreclosures Climbing The Economic Ladder

I recently wrote that San Diego&039;s more upscale housing sub-markets aren&039;t out of the woods just yet. One of my arguments concerned the behavior of the region&039;s more creditworthy borrowers: it&039;s not that they stayed away from risky loans during the boom, just that the types of loans they tended to get took longer to reset than the subprime loans that are currently blowing up all over the county&039;s less expensive neighborhoods.For a visual I point you [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Crooked Mortgage Broker Fined $29k For Potty Mouth

By all appearances, Aaron Wider is the chief executive of a flourishing mortgage bank in Garden City, issuing more than $33 million in home loans to buyers across Nassau and Suffolk counties over the past four years.A closer look at his lending practices, however, reveals that many of these loans relied on faulty appraisals and exaggerated loan applications, leaving behind angry homeowners who are strugglin[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Change Of Bias In The Dow

NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.Stocks built on the previous day’s losses yesterday, as several key breaks of price support in the major indices served to intensify the selling. After opening higher, most of the broad-based indexes held above their prior day’s lows throughout the first half of the day, but stocks tumbled after the 2:00 pm ET release of the minutes from last month’s meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee. As it had already indicated, the Fed confirmed they’re done lowering interest rates for a whil[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Late Day Market Selloff Accelerates After Fomc Minutes Released

Every headline in the media will likely say that the cause of today’s selloff was the release of the FOMC minutes, where the Fed basically said that they see no more rate cuts in the cards, inflation is creeping higher, and GDP growth will likely be slower.But these aren’t really new revelations. We already knew this. There is a saying in the market that the ’news breaks with the cycle’. I have been saying for over a week that the market was due for a correction, and that I was waiting before putting any cash to work.So today, the market was already [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Foreclosure Vs. Home Sales: Foreclosures Are Winning

Following up on April&039;s record-breaking foreclosure numbers, here is a look at how sales are stacking up against default notices: The idea behind this chart is that NODs serve as a proxy for future must-sell inventory (or "phantom inventory," as ocrenter puts it). Comparing sa[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Is Oil A Bubble? (part One)

Oil is now front and center on everyone’s radar. CNBC is running a special tonight about oil, and has a banner running across their ticker titled "America’s Oil Crisis". Congress is looking for scapegoats to blame for high oil prices, and is hauling in oil executives to testify, and propsing stupid ideas like a windfall profits tax.Funny, look at the first chart below of wheat (and the chart for corn looks identical). Looks like wheat and corn have had parabolic moves higher, but I haven’t heard any talk of windfall profit taxes on the farmers. Rather, Con[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Zillow: Maybe It Is Rocket Science

I was able to attend a presentation yesterday by Dr. Stan Humphries, VP of data & Analytics at Zillow, and the man behind their housing data. He gave a speech to the Real Estate Roundtable at the Rainier Club where he discussed US housing data in freakish detail.Though this kind of information is not known to be rocket scien[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Fomc Minutes Show Continued Concern On The Part Of The Fed

Here are the highlights from the just released minutes of the most recent FOMC meeting:Fed says cuts ’08 GDP forecast to +0.3-1.2% from +1.3-2% Fed says they expect U.S. GDP to contract slightly in 1st half 2008, recover in 2nd half Fed says food, energy prices to keep boosting overall inflation Fed says core inflation improvement probably temporaryFed says that most members viewed growth risk still to ’downside’ Fed says unemployment to rise i[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Refer A Client, Drive A Ferrari

Here’s a way to get lawyers and accountants to send you a client who want to sell a business. Offer these professionals the use of your $200,000 sports car! California business brokers may want to take the lead from this Boston area business broker.That’s the strategy devised by David Humphrey, a Boston area business broker who wanted a way to reward those who refer business to him. He knows he can’t reciprocate, because his clients--once they’ve sold their[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

It?s The Dollar, Stupid!

The government response to high gas prices is turning humorous.Last week President Bush traveled to the Middle East to try and convince the Saudi’s, among others, to start producing more oil to help fend off even higher-yet oil prices.Their answer: No dice.Good for them.President Bush knew the outcome of this little field trip to play the "whoa is we" card before he even boarded Air Force One. After all, Bush is an oil man at heart, and a business man by trade. Not only that, he has some very astute financial and economic gurus that know ex[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Lowes Skips The Explanation

Lowes (LOW) announced poor results early Monday morning. At this stage of the recession no one is surprised that a building supplies company that is dependent on the state of the housing market did not make a lot of money.Robert A. Niblock, Lowe’s chairman and CEO. Did say "The generally poor economic outlook, including well-known housing pressures, rising food and fuel prices and a more negative employment picture eroded consumer confidence and impacted discretionary purchases for the home.’Niblock then continued. "Fiscal 2008 will be a challenging year on many fronts,[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

S&P 500 Stuck Between A Rock And A Hard Place!

NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.The broad market followed through on the previous afternoon’s bearish reversal, causing the major indices to close substantially lower. Stocks gapped lower out of the starting gate, then drifted lower throughout the entire day. The S&P 500 shed 0.9%, the Nasdaq Composite 1.0%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average 1.5%. As it has done for at least the past month, the S&P Midcap 400 Index continued to show impressive relative strength by slipping just 0.2[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Headlines: Real Estate Boom Is Over, No Bubble Coming

For the past couple of weeks I think every major newspaper in Canada has published an article with something similar to the above headline. And almost every article has mentioned the fact that the slumping national sales are mostly due to the slow down in Edmonton and Calgary. It seems all this information comes from a report by the Bank of Nova Scotia."Home resales have fallen fo[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Think of a number... add it to Post Office closures

Save our post offices:Think of a number... any number. Double it, add a few hundred and multiply some more. No need for subtraction or division - the amount only ever goes up. This is the crude maths formula used by the Government for closing post offices

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[Source: This is Money | Money blog]

Marketing For Real Estate Business

In a normal market, there is only two choices for a Realtor to do: Wait for business Market for businessI will pick door number two Drew.Part of marketing is selling value. When all you are used to selling is price then that really isn’t selling. Value is the inherent benefits of homeownership. Make a list. Blogs are perfect for selling your local [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Are We Back To End Of Day Sell Offs?

Monday brought a split market on slightly off volume. Friday outpaced today by a hair on equities and futures actually outpaced Friday. It was very close on both and shows we started really slow but then picked up steam later in the day. The S&P 500 closed green and the Nas along with the Dow both slightly red. Overall not much changed today other than we saw nice early strength diminish as the day drug on. Gold closed up $5.70 at $905.60 and oil also closed up 77 cents to $127.06 a barrel. Into Tuesday we have PPI data early to start the day [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Great Technology Can Fail, Greatly

MLSPIN, through its H3MLS system, is the listing service used by most Boston agents. To us, it’s as important as a pen and paper and the telephone.Emergency NoticeThe H3MLS service has been continually attacked this weekend and, in the interest of preserving the safety of our customers’ data, has been taken offline to prevent further assault.The system will be restored once the attacking sources have been isolated and there is no further threat to the system.Thank you for your continued patience and we apologize for the interruption.Wi[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

The Energizer Oil Bunny

I can’t remember the last time oil was down. Well, that’s an exaggeration, but the relentless ascent that has taken oil to $129 this morning has been astounding. You can see why no one wants to short oil.The energy stocks are again higher, while the rest of the market is sharply lower. Financials are weak after AIG said it plans to raise a total of $20 billion, and the brokers saw more earnings estimates cuts this morning.The semis are also weak, following the cautious comments yesterday from SNDK’s management. Retailers are also lo[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

We've made some changes to This is Money

You may have noticed the new navigation - there's also been some improvements to our data and tools. Tell us what you think

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[Source: This is Money | Money blog]

Web Is Not Important For Purchase

A new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project tracks the decision-making processes for buying music, purchasing a cell phone, and buying or renting a home.Even though many buyers use the internet research products, surprisingly few say online information had a major impact on their behavior. Only 7% of music buyers, 10% of cell phone buyers, and only 11% of those who bought or rented a home in the prior year say that online information had[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Leadership And Trading

I was participating in a meeting the other day and the speaker was talking about leadership. When I was thinking of leadership, it occurred to me that as traders, we own our business and we set its direction. We are leaders and how we run our business is very essential to our success. As you might know, 90% of traders lose money. The challenge is how can we lead and run our business so we do not become part of these statistics? One way is to understand the leadership principles and see how you are applying them to your ow[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Don't hold your breath for the buy-to-let sell-off

Buy-to-let is a bubble about to burst and the great sell-off is about to begin, goes the widely held view. But landlords may be more resilient than many people think

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[Source: This is Money | Money blog]

Dataquick Results For April, 2008

Here are the April, 2008 results from DataQuick:The median price in Marin is down -13.5% year-over-year. Last month it was -4.5%, before that about -6.5%, and before that -5.5%. Marin is currently down about -29% from the peak.I don’t know about[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Should My Portfolio Have More In International Stocks?

I have followed your asset allocation recommendations for almost ten years. Since I started following your advice you have recommended 50% of the equity allocation be held in international stocks. I recently read that international stocks now represent more than half of the global markets. Are you considering adding more international stocks to your portfolio?At the end of the last decade the U.S. stock market represented 48% of the global market capitalization. By the end of 2007 the percentage fell to 31%.We do not intend to change our balance of U.S[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

A Bearish Setup In The Financial Sector

NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.Stocks trended steadily higher throughout the first half of yesterday’s session, but the broad market swiftly turned tail in the afternoon. The Nasdaq Composite, up 0.9% at its mid-day high, finished 0.5% lower. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average surrendered matching intraday gains of 1.1% to finish higher by just 0.1% and 0.3% respectively. Both the small-cap Russell 2000 and S&P Midcap 400 fell 0.3%. All the major indices settled in the bottom third of their intraday [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

ICICI's bully-boy tactics fail to impress

How do we feel about supporting an institution that may see itself as beyond the law?

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[Source: This is Money | Money blog]

Today’s Open: Down

Major Averages End Session With Mixed ResultsPICTURED BELOW: The S&P 500 Index closed one point below its 200 DMA line on Monday. The major averages opened stronger but ended mixed after the initial bullish enthusiasm waned in afternoon trade. The weak close added concerns, but the action dd not suggest that institutional investors were aggressively dumping stocks. Volume was reported slightly lower and below average on the NYSE while slightly lower and above average on the Nasdaq exchange. Decliners led advancers by a 17-to-15 ratio on the NYSE and by an 17-t[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Stocks For Next Week

Last Saturday I posted some stocks I would be watching for Potential trend trades those stocks are in the table below. As much as I liked some of the setups, I did not expect the group to do as well as they did. The average stock on the list gained over 8% on the week. Seventeen of the stocks were up more than 10%! The best performing stocks were related to solar, shipping and Chinese companies. Of course there were losers too. Only one of the six short sale cand[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Can Amazon Change The Publishing Business?

Michael Parekh points to the Forbes article about how Amazon could change the Publishing business by vertically integrating and striking direct deals with authors bypassing publishers. The article notes that retailers take almost 50% of the price of a book with the remainder split between the agent, the publisher and the author, and that the author may only see $1 - $1.50 on a book that retails for $24.95. The hypoth[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1 Now Available

On Friday, Mozilla released Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1, which means exactly as the tag says: unless any major bugs are reported, Firefox 3 RC1 is going to be the final version of Firefox 3, which is planned for June.Windows Vista users will notice a slight visual refresh. The Bookmark Organizer or "Library" now has a black glossy interface, which resemble with Vista’s looks and feel. The line which separates toolbars from the address bar has now been removed. "Clear" button has been put back into Firefox 3’s download manager.
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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Gold Ready To Shine Again

NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.After opening higher last Friday morning, stocks sold off throughout the morning, but an afternoon recovery enabled the major indices to finish with mixed results. The S&P 500 gained 0.1%, the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.2%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was flat. The small-cap Russell 2000 fell 0.3%, as the S&P Midcap 400 advanced the same percentage. Impressively, it was the seventh straight day of gains for the mid-cap index. Most of the mai[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Mcio Update: Breakout Triggered, Next Target $4.50 X 5 Levels

MCIO formed a beautiful weekly pup breakout as pointed outlast week on the $2 trigger breakout to peak at $3. MCIO pulled back to test 2.15 and closed out the week at 2.70with a TIGHT .05 spread 2.65 x 2.70. Tightening spreads is always a good sign that buyers are gettingrestless. The daily stochastics on MCIO peaked at 100 band andretraced as MCIO also peaked and coiled back above the daily 5 period ma. This sets up for a basing period before thedaily stochastics winds back up off [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Semiconductor Index Pulls The Nasdaq Right Back Up

NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.The tug-of-war between the bulls and bears continued yesterday, as the main stock market indexes recovered Wednesday afternoon’s intraday losses and then some. After opening flat, stocks trended higher throughout the session. Opposite of the previous session’s late-day sell-off, the broad market surged higher in the final ninety minutes. The Nasdaq Composite gained 1.5%, the S&P 500 1.1%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average 0.7%. The small-cap Russell 2000 and S&P Midcap 400 in[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Trading Lessons From Nicolas Darvas

Nicolas Darvas, who studied to be an economist, was an infamous stock trader during the fifties and sixties. He wrote a book called How I Made $2 Million in the Stock MarketRead More...

[Source: The Money Blogs]

Do I Need To Fill Premium Gas In My Car?

Last year, I got a 2005 model Acura TSX. The owners manual recommend filling it with premium 91 octane gasoline. But with premium gas selling for nearly $4.50/gallon, I was starting to wonder whether it was really worth it.I tried filling the ca[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

April Employment

Assuming the EDD didn&039;t go too nuts with the birth-death model last month, San Diego&039;s non-housing economy was strong enough to resist the pull of the housing boom beneficiary sectors.There&039;s a more detailed discussion of the above graph over at voiceofsandiego.org. Below are a couple of pigg-only bonus graphs. re[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

The Giant Pool Of Money, Explained

By far the best explanation I’ve heard of the Housing Mortage/Credit Crisis is &8212; improbably &8212; a podcast from the motherlode of story-telling on NPR, This American Life. This podcast is a bit different from their usual slice-o-life stories in that they try to explain something extremely complex and abstract &8212; but in personal stories. The episode is called The Giant Pool of Money and it’s worth at least an hour of your time on your next commute. Hearing the agents all along the "chain" of events descr[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Trulia: No Pesky Real Estate Agents Required

It’s freeno personal info or agent requiredIt’s comprehensivelistings, comps, stats, trends & adviceIt’s easyso you can make sense of it allWhy was it necessary to put "no....agent required"?[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Into The Stretch: Stocks Resilient Again Despite Record Oil Prices

This market has shown amazing resilience in its ability to shake off declines this week, and continue to rise despite oil making record highs.The S&P has made up all of its earlier losses, and the Nazz is trying to make it 5 straight up days in a row. Oil and gold are still up, while the dollar is down. The 10-year yield has bounced some, and is currently 3.85%. The put/call ratio is around average at 0.91, and has been slightly low all week. This is one the the concerns I sighted [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Consumer Sentiment Still Depressed

The Univ of Michigan consumer sentiment survey came in below expectations this morning, and at 59.5 it was the lowest reading since 1980. Are things really that bad? Or are consumers taking their cue from the doom and gloom media who love to prop up the negativity bubble?The market is trading lower, but a pullback is well overdue given the relentless advance stocks have enjoyed lately.Oil is the big mover this morning, topping $127 for the first time. This has all the energy stocks trading higher, while the financials and retailers are lower. Tech i[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Mint: Good Idea But Not Very Useful Right Now

Mint, along with Wesabe, is a new breed of site that tries to attack personal finance via ’Web 2.0’ technologies. Mint’s concept is that you can have the activities of your various bank and credit card accounts aggregated in one place to make it easier to track your cash flow, purchasing, etc. They will also alert you to unusual spending in certain categories based on your history and suggest deals or discounts where they think you could save money. They don’t store your credentials on their serve[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Economic Data Comes In Fairly Sluggish; Oil Up Again

There were several economic reports that came in this morning, but nothing really stood out. They were all fairly sluggish, and didn’t seem to have much impact on the market.GE announced that they are putting their appliance business up for sale. I think this is a good move, although in this environment there are probably not that many buyers. It would probably be a good fit for a foreign company, who would get a good buy in terms of the weakness of the dollar making the purchase price cheaper.Asian markets were mostly higher overnight; the dollar is[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Icahn Is Said To Weigh A Proxy Fight At Yahoo - New York Times

Maybe it is not over? Icahn is reported to own 50 million shares (over $1 Billion worth).Icahn Is Said to Weigh a Proxy Fight at Yahoo - New York Times: "Carl C. Icahn, the billionaire investor and activist shareholder, is considering a proxy fight for seats on the Yahoo board in hopes of pushing the company to restart talks to sell itself to Microsoft, people who have held discussions with [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

The Trend In Crude Oil

continues to be higher. Click the chart below.[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Market Wrap: Nazz Breaks Above 200-day Average

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Can The Nasdaq 100 Avoid This Bearish Pattern?

The Nasdaq 100 (NDX) has rallied up to its 61.8% Retracement Level at 2020 calculated from the late October high to the mid March low and reversed off of this level on Wedensday. A longer term chart shows the NDX may be developing a potentially bearish looking Head and Shoulders Top pattern if the NDX stalls out below the 2050 level. In order for the NDX to avoid this bearish pattern it would have to rise above the 2050 level in the coming weeks. Read More...

[Source: The Money Blogs]

Canslim.net Morning Comment And Links (for Traders)

MORNING MARKET COMMENTARY- Thursday, May 15, 2008Major Indices Are Challenging Important Long-Term Averages - Kenneth J. Gruneisen, CANSLIM Certified, Registered Principal, Source Capital Group, Inc. (Members NASD, SIPC)The Nasdaq Composite Index stalled after trading above its 200-day moving average (DMA) line intra-day, ultimately ending the session below that important long-term average with a small gain. Volume, a critical indicator of institutional demand, was reported mixed, lighter on the NYSE and higher o[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

V Day

Wednesday started strong and faded off late day, but still closed slightly green. Volume increased today leaving option expiration week with the normal tone of increasing daily into Friday. Gold closed down $3.50 to $866.10 and oil down $1.56 to $124.24 a barrel. CPIdata gave the market a shot in the arm early morning, but not everyoneis agreeing that the data is legit and leaving the door open for anadjustment later to be made. Into Thursday we have 8:30 data and then Bernanke speaks at 9:30. Which shou[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

What The Millennials Are Thinking May Soon Change America

A majority of Millennials,people who are between the ages of 18 and 29, ’believe that the government can be a force for good in the economy, andthat increased investments in healthcare, education, and other areas arenecessary to ensure strong and sustainable economic growth.’ Thats a keyfinding from a just-published study by the Center for American Progresson the economic attitudes of this age group: ’The Progressive Generation:How[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Churning At The Highs

NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.Stocks got off to a positive start yesterday morning, moved higher throughout most of the day, then fell victim to a bearish reversal in the final ninety minutes of trading. Resistance of the Nasdaq Composite’s 200-day moving average was a major culprit of the broad market’s late-day weakness. Up 1.3% at its intraday high, the Nasdaq Composite finished just 0.1% higher. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average, both of which experienced similar selling into the close, still retain[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Broad Partecipation

A better than expected CPI offering some relief on the inflation front. The market reacted with a volatile session that ended in favor of the bulls in spite of stronger selling pressure compared the last few sessions. Volume was decent this time showing the first signs of a broad partecipation. This is another positive news for the bulls.Here an interesting chart: Encore Acquisition Co.(EAC)
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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Guaranteed Sales

Recently I had a call from a blog reader who thinks a family member has a gauranteed sale agreement with their REALTOR. Of this there should be no confusion. You either have a Guaranteed Sale agreement or you dont.Below are the rules directly out of the Real Estate Act of Alberta as it pertains to all licensed industry members who may provide a Guaranteed Sale agreement. If [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

A Confession

Links forgive the sins of your website. Time to go to confession?[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Doug Kass And The Negativity Bubble

Today on RealMoney.com, Doug Kass posted that the negativity bubble has burst, and thus a correction is at hand. He cited the Investor’s Intelligence numbers as one aspect.Here was my response:As a resident proponent of the ’negativity bubble’, I feel compelled to respond to Doug’s earlier post. I would expect Doug to say it has burst at the first signs of bearishness lifting, but he is looking at a very short time frame.The bull/bear spread in the II survey is up to +16, which may be the highest level since January, but i[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Family History Library Catalog 2.0

This morning at a very small press conference in Kansas City at the National Genealogical Society annual conference we made a very large announcement. In fact, we announced something that I have personally hoped for and dreamed of for more than a decade. Today we announced a partnership between FamilySearch and FamilyLink.com to publish the Family History Library Catalog -- the largest single database of genealogy sources in the world -- in Web 2.0 fashion.This means that individual genealogists, librarians, archivists, and[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Metro Home Sales Report Shows Big Drops In California Real Estate

The NAR metropolitan home sales report for Q1 came out this morning, and showed some nasty declines. For the most part, falling home prices accelerated sharply in the first quarter, with California getting hit particularly hard.Overall, for the U.S. as a whole, Q1 home prices fell -7.7% from year ago levels. But as California had held up better than most markets for a while, those cities now look like they are playing catch-up on the downside.Here are some of the cities showing the largest declines:-29.2%: Sacramento, CA<[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

TODAY&#8217;S OPEN: UP

Retailers’ Encouraging Sales Data Helps Major Averages Rally FurtherPICTURED BELOW: The Retail Index ($RLX +2.74%) bounced after a pullback to its 50-day moving average line. It was helped by encouraging sales reports from a number of high-profile retailers. The major averages bounced nicely on Monday after finding support near their prior chart highs. Advancers led decliners by greater than a 2-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and Nasdaq exchanges while volume, an important indicator of institutional activity, was reported lighter on the NYSE and very near[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Market Commentary For 05/13/2008

Market commentary for 05/13/2008 Good day! Monday opened a little higher and didnt bring much weakness, especially after the 10:00 am reversal period. Obviously the 60 min continuation consolidations didnt work. In spite of that we saw a strong intraday reversal on light volume. The QQQQ was the strongest again and traded back to its’ daily highs, while the DIA and the SPY’s previous 60 min h[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Fannie To Aid Underwater Loans

Home resales rise in W. Valley as prices are slashedfrom The Arizona Republic, reports that according to a report from Arizona State University, home sellers in the West Valley have slashed their asking prices up to 30 percent since February, and the price cuts are spurring sales in Surprise, El Mirage and Goodyear. Jay Butler, director of realty studies at ASU’s Morrison School of Management and Agribusiness, said although home resale activit[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Engines And Websites

I was just reminded of an SEO rule today that I am not sure if most people understand. That is that search engines rank pages not websites.Each page that you own is an opportunity at traffic. That is one reason a blog does well if it is updated. The main page changes and you are creating new pages with each new post. [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Public Speaking A Competitive Marketing Skill

Every small business owner can benefit from becoming a better speaker. It doesn’t really matter if your ambitions are to sell across the desk or present across the globe, getting your message heard and acted upon is essential small business stuff.In fact, I think that forcing yourself to get in front of an audience and deliver a talk of some sort is one of the best ways to develop competitive marketing skills. When you have to get your thoughts down into a concise 30 minute talk and then go out and get instance, sometimes too truthful, feedback it develops character and poise along [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Taking Some Profits In Apple

Shares of Apple (AAPL) rose nearly $5 today to close at more than $188 per share. The company is faring very well during an overall weak time for consumer spending, thanks to a strong product lineup, and Wall Street is excited over the prospects for the company’s forthcoming next generation iPhone.This overall bullishness is the polar opposite scenario we saw back in February when I wrote that Apple’s Valuation Looks Attractive Again amidst worries over a consumer-led recession and a[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

April Foreclosure Data

April was another record-setting month for both NODs and NOTs:read more[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

What To Expect When Listing Your Home For Sale

Frequently I get comments from people trying to sell their homes who are frustrated about the marketing of their property. Many of these are sellers who are trying to sell on their own, others have hired a REALTOR and are unsatisfied with what they are or arent doing. I often wonder why these discussions dont occur beforehand? He are 4 things you should expect when discussing the marketing of your p[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Prices Are Going Up?

I guess it is all in whose stats you read.This from Coaching Clues Newsletter: The Sky Is Not Falling! They point out that despite the media darling Case-Shiller index, the better indicator of the indices is provided by OFHEO (the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight), Realogy and NAR. These three organizations seem to validate one another’s results.They all have come to the same conclusion: "Overall U.S. prices were UP 0.6 perce[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Colossal Castle Or Humble Home?

I had written before about the Home Price Comparison Index compiled by Coldwell Banker Real Estate that allows one to approximate how much your home might cost in different areas around the U.S. For instance, here in Seattle, $800K-900K might buy you a 100-year old house in a nice in-city neighborhood with 1800 sqft and 3-4 bedrooms and 2-3 baths and a 1-car garage on a 3000 sqft lot.Just 50 miles South in Tacoma, with t[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Sentiment Check: More Signs Of Bullishness

You never really want to argue with the price action of the market, and today looks like a strong day on the surface. But the volume behind the move is really low, which makes me more cautious in that there seems to be little conviction behind today’s rally.As for the sentiment indicators, they are flashing more signs of slight complacency lately, or at least a lessening of bearishness. The ARMS Index is below average today at 0.79;The CBOE put/call is slightly low at 0.83The ISEE is about average a[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Fixed-income Etfs Ready To Resume

NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.Stocks capped the week on a negative note, as the major indices opened lower, then traded in a tight, sideways range throughout all of last Friday’s session. The Nasdaq Composite lost 0.2%, the S&P 500 0.7%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average 0.9%. Relative weakness in the Dow helped our position in the UltraShort Dow 30 ProShares (DXD) move further into the money. Outperforming were the small-cap Russell 2000 and S&P Midcap 400 indices, both of which[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Pre-market Open News&Links For Friday

U.S. stock futures drop after AIG’s $7.8 billion loss"S&P 500 futures fell 7 points to 1,385.00 and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 9.25 points to 1,955.75. Dow industrial futures dropped 81 points." PRE-MARKET - Gapping up: PCLN +14.3%, GSIT +12.5%, RNWK +1[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Stealth Breakout In Market Vectors Russia (rsx)

NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.After two days of high volatility, stocks chopped around in a sideways range yesterday before finishing modestly higher. The Nasdaq Composite bounced 0.5%, as both the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.4%. The small-cap Russell 2000 advanced 0.5% and the S&P Midcap 400 rose 0.8%. The major indices closed just above the middle of the day’s directionless trading ranges.Lower volume gains followed Wednesday’s session of higher [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Choppy Environment

The market posted modest gaind in the yesterdays session, after positive same-store sales reports. The retail sector sold off on the news and hit a fresh 2-week low, showing a surprising strong selling pressure. The price action was choppy on light volume and offered very few good opportunities. Play light is one option in this environment, the other is stay aside. There are no reasons to fight the tape here. Berry Petroleum Co.Read More...

[Source: The Money Blogs]

How Can We Improve Our Money-saving Menu Of Fees & Rebates?

It’s been more than a year since we updated our Menu of Fees & Rebates, so we’d like to invite home buyers to meet in person to discuss possible improvements. Our current options are shown above (Read More...

[Source: The Money Blogs]

Bizarro Headline Of The Day.

Amidst all of the noise, it’s easy to forget that the US continues to be one of the world’s largest exporters. The strong dollar policy is paying off, and this may be the reason we’re not in a full blown recession.The Wall Street Journal: Container Shortage Frustrates U.S. Exporters.Quotes:Surging U.S. exports on a range of goods including corn, soybeans and frozen pork are hitting a bottleneck in the nation’s overloaded ports, threatening to crimp profits for U.S. f[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Another Reason

I recently wrote on the housing crisis. But what I failed to mention was the Realtor Bubble. Like in the State of California where I can literally walk to two blocks and chances are that one of those homes I pass will house a licensee.The current stats in California is 1 in 53 adults in California has a real estate license. Mike Ferry used to joke they hand ’em out at the DMV with your drivers license.The stats are only a bit better across the country. When there is les[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Virus Found Inside A Firefox Language Pack

Usually, when we download software from a trusted developer like Mozilla, we are convinced that it contains no viruses or trojans to harm our computers. Surprisingly, that’s not true for Vietnamese language pack for Firefox downloaded after February 18, 2008.The language pack itself does not carry the virus; instead it has been modified by a virus to remotely load malicious scripts. It’s primarily meant to display advertising, but it could be used for other malicious attacks as well. The virus is a script, so it can potentially harm all operating system. Most antivirus applications [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

How Not To Get Email Subscribers!

Do you want to know the number one way to make me not want to subscribe to your blog.. EVER??Simple when I go to leave a comment require me to sign up for an email subscription in order to be able to comment.I just visited LiveCrunch.com and read through a post that was of interest to me, decided to comment and took the time and effort to write a nice few words, input my user details and hit submit.Guess what happens next? Up pops the "Feedburner email subscription" pop-up requiring me to enter my email address and a CA[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Notes On The High End

Note 1: My pal Ramsey has developed what he calls a "Contagion Indicator" wherein he tracks the percentage of San Diego NOD, NOT, and REO homes with original loan amounts over $500,000. Here are the April numbers.Ramsey&039;s Contagion Indicator(% of homes with loans over $500k) NOD: 21.3%NOT: 21.9%REO: 20.4%These numbers are a little higher than I would have expected given all the chatter about foreclosures being a low-tier-only phenomenon. It will be interesting to see how much this indicator [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Are You Just Uncomfortable Enough

I know that marketing doesn’t come naturally to most business owners. Not many people say to themselves - "I am such a good marketer I think I’ll start a business selling something." No, unfortunately the conversation probably goes like this - "I sure love to work with spreadsheets and do people’s taxes, holy crap, I’ve got to learn how to market."When the realization that you are in the marketing business hits, too many people want to grab onto the latest and greatest marketing idea and ramp up the selling machine overnight.Read More...

[Source: The Money Blogs]

Trade Deficit Comes In Below Expectations

The market is lower this morning, after a big loss by AIG and more highs in oil seem to be weighing on sentiment. The weird thing is that many of the financials are higher, despite the debacle that is AIG. And most of the energy stocks are lower, even as oil makes new highs. Go figure.AIG posted an $8 billion loss, much larger than expected. The stock has fallen -10% in the last 2 days. And Fannie Mae (FNM) priced a stock offering below yesterday’s closing price, a sign of slight weakness. I though this news would have dragged the financial s[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Building Value Is Better Than Making Money

At the start of a new site, it’s often times better to build value to the new site instead of trying to monetize from it immediately. A good example is YouTube. They’ve built quite the following and I’m sure at some point Google will start making big money off the site.Here’s another example: As a programmer, it’s usually better to write your own scripts and sell them over and over again - instead of just doing custom script jobs for others.A writer is better off writin[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Trader Vic?s Home For Sale

Being a Tiki fan, Aloha-aficionado and keeper of the flame at Seattle Tiki, I was excited to see Trader Vic Bergeron’s first home on the market. The listing notes that 965 Mendocino Avenue has been a landmark and focal point of North Berkeley since it was built in 1925. Trader Vic Bergeron and his wife Esther were the first owners, and the authentic Chinese roasting brick oven still stands in the backyard. Nothing else Tiki is left, however [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Marin March Prices Off -23.33% From Peak

While poking around the SFGate.com database, I ran across this: Read More...

[Source: The Money Blogs]

Crude And Natural Gas Look Overbought

According to John Murphy, when only one commodity group is hitting new highs, that’s usually a sign that it’s out of step with the others. That seems to be the case with energy. He still believes that the energy complex is due for some profit-taking. Chart below shows the United States Oil Fund still in an uptrend. The 14-day RSI line, however, (top of chart) is backing off from overbought territory over 70. The daily MACD lines (bottom of chart) may be stalling at their March high. That’s not a lot to go on. Add in the fact that energy shares are among the day’s biggest losers,[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

The House That Got Away?.

I think all of us have a story like this.The House That Got Away by Sarah Jio and Gabi Campanario[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Morning Look: Financials Trade Heavy

The market is a touch lower in early trading. The dollar is weak today vs. the Yen and Euro, and financials are weak again for a second day. The brokers are the weakest group so far this morning, and it might be hard for the overall market to rally today without the financials.Energy stocks are up again, with oil hovering near $123 and natural gas higher also. Many industrials are higher as well, while tech is a mixed bag.Retail sales reports came out this morning, and it was pretty mixed as well. I will have a roundup later, but for every strong report, there seeme[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Yahoo Warns Users From Dangerous Search Results

Yahoo! and McAfee have teamed up together to make search results safer. Named as SearchScan (beta), it uses McAfee’s SiteAdvisor database to filter or flag potentially dangerous search results. McAfee SiteAdvisor is actually a free browser add-on to protect users from malicious sites which contains spywares, virus and sell your email addresses. Yahoo has implemented the same SiteAd[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

A Shift In The Balance Of Power

NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.One day after closing at new multi-month highs, the major indices sold off sharply, closing below their previous day’s lows. After trending steadily south throughout the session, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite both finished 1.8% lower. Aided by resistance of its 200-day moving average that we pointed out yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.6%. The small-cap Russell 2000 and S&P Midcap 400 lost 1.9% and 1.2% respectively. Opposite of the previous day, all the majo[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Canslim.net Morning Comment And Links (for Traders)

MORNING MARKET COMMENTARY- Thursday, May 8, 2008Stocks Fall On Tighter Regulations, Weak Housing Data & Higher Oil Prices - Kenneth J. Gruneisen, CANSLIM Certified, Registered Principal, Source Capital Group, Inc. (Members NASD, SIPC)The major averages fell on new regulations from the SEC, tepid data from the housing market and record high oil prices. Volume, an important indicator of institutional activity, was higher than the prior session on both major exchanges, causing another distribution day for the ma[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Housing Starts Continue Downward Trend In April

CMCH released their monthly report today, showing that housing starts were down again in April. For the year so far, starts are down 41% from ’07 in the greater Edmonton area. If you compare April ’08 to April ’07 starts fell 60% in the greater Edmonton area, and 44% across Alberta (the only major city that saw an increase was Let[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Chart Of The Week

Date: 05/25/2008 Symbol: MDC Sector: Industrial Goods Industry: Residential Construction [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

200-day Moving Average Is A Brick Wall

NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.Stocks got off to a rough start yesterday morning, but recovered to finish the day solidly higher. Although the major indices opened significantly lower and dropped a bit more in the first thirty minutes, the bulls subsequently stepped up to the plate and triggered a steady intraday uptrend in the broad market. The S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite, small-cap Russell 2000, and S&P Midcap 400 each scored an identical gain of 0.8%. The black sheep was the Dow Jones Industrial Average, whic[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

April Resale Data Rodeo

There was actually a glimmer of good, or at least not-bad, news in the resale data last month.But first, prices. As measured by the size-adjusted median price, they continue to drop: down 3.3% for single family homes, .3% for condos, and 2.3% in volume-weighted aggregate:read more[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Jeffrey Sachs On The Credit Crisis, Climate Change And Overpopulation - Telegraph

Jeffrey Sachs on the credit crisis, climate change and overpopulation - Telegraph: "Poverty and a billion starving people in Africa? Whisked away like dust. Overpopulation and water shortages? Waft, waft. Global warming and climate change? A little brush and they’re gone.It would all seem rather utopian did Sachs not share that Clinton/Blair-style knack of making almost anything seem completely do-able. Unlike so many economists, who[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Two Ways To Teach The Principles Course

David Friedman:One view of economics is that it is the study of the economy. That suggests that if you are going to take one basic course, it should tell you things about the economy--how big it is, how it is measured, what "inflation rate" and "unemployment rate" and GNP and NNP and such mean. My impression is that most principles texts and courses are designed to do that.The other viewthe one I favoris that economics is an[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Buffett Goes To Wharton

In a presentation he made to students at the Wharton School earlier this month and a subsequent interview with Fortune, Warren Buffett shared his thoughts on everything from the economy to the credit crisis and the Bear Stearns bailout. In this Web exclusive, we present further excerpts from his talk with the students, in which the megabillionaire offers his insights on judging managers, buying businesses, what metrics - if any - he relies upon, and why he views his job as similar to painting the Sistine Chapel.Q: You said before that one of the things you look for in [...]

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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+86.26 Agricultural Chemicals
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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Midday Update: Market Pulls Back As Oil Back At Highs

Earnings season is a busy time for portfolio managers, and I have been inundated with conference calls lately. That is why I haven’t been making as many posts to this blog as usual. But as earnings season is winding down, I plan to step it back up soon.The market was up early this morning, but quickly faded. There were more solid earnings reports last night, and some good economic data this morning to boot.Cisco (CSCO) reported better than expected earnings last night, but gave kind of muddled guidance. So the stock is flat today. Disney ([...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Live Blog Archive: Warren Buffett&#8217;s Q&a With Shareholders (afternoon Session)

This is the afternoon session of the Warren Buffett/Charlie Munger question-and-answer session with shareholders at the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting at the Qwest Arena in Omaha, Nebraska on Saturday, May 3, 2008 as live-blogged on CNBC.com’s Warren Buffett Watch. All times are Central.1:12 pm: Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger are back on stage taking more questions from shareholders. There are a few more empty seats than in the morning session, but the arena is still mostly full.[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Edmonton Monthly Real Estate Stats Update

So as I mentioned last week when I published the monthly stats, a number of sales would not yet have been reported and the final numbers would look a little different. So, inventory didn’t end up over 11,000 but I’m certain it will this month (final number 10,606) and there were actually 1823 sales. As far as the charts are concerned they look pretty much the same so I’m not going to put them up again. There was an interesting article in the Journal today, they inte[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

When You&#8217;re Hot, You&#8217;re Hot...

And when you’re not, you’re... 0.42 it seems:Read More...

[Source: The Money Blogs]

Redfin?s ?distressed Property? Strategy

Since Redfin has announced that they were including unlisted bank-owned property on their website, it’s raised a lot of questions about foreclosures, short sales and distressed property in Washington State. The Distressed Property Law was passed during the 2008 Legislative session and signed into law by the Governor on March 30 for the purpose of protecting vulnerable property owners from scam artists who seek to steal the property owner[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Morning Update: Financials Lead Market Higher

The market was under pretty heavy selling pressure in early trading, but it has since bottomed and moved back into positive territory.The news before the bell was all bad: UBS was cutting 5500 jobs and Merck (MRK) was cutting 1200 jobs; oil is hitting new highs above $122; and Fannie Mae (FNM) reported a bigger than expected loss, cutting its dividend -30%, and raising $6 billion in capital.But as FNM’s conf call wore on, the stock began to turn higher and erase all of its losses. That helped the financial sector botto[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Ishares Nasdaq Biotech (IBB) Poised For Breakout

NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.Stocks gapped higher on last Friday morning’s open, but subsequently drifted lower throughout most of the day. A bounce in the final hour of trading lifted several of the indices back into positive territory, causing the market to finish with mixed results. The S&P 500 gained 0.3% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 0.4%, but the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.2%. The small-cap Russell 2000 lost 0.6%, as the S&P Midcap 400 eked out a 0.1% gain.&nb[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Canslim.net Morning Comment And Links (for Traders)

MORNING MARKET COMMENTARYfor Monday, May 5, 2008Major Averages End A Positive Week Mixed - Kenneth J. Gruneisen, CANSLIM Certified, Registered Principal, Source Capital Group, Inc. (Members NASD, SIPC)The major averages ended a strong week mixed as investors’ enthusiasm was curbed after a stronger-than-expected jobs report and the Fed increased liquidity measures by +50%. Volume, an important indicator of institutional demand, was lower than the prior session on the both major exchanges, which was an encouraging [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

How Different Investments Did Last Week And The Trend Trader For Monday

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Where Commodity Futures Prices Open Sunday Night

Use this tool to follow the futures markets during the bull market in commodities that, according to historical cycles, will run 9 years (every 30 years for the past 200 years) and end around 2010. (prior starts - 1911, 1941, 1971, 2001). Why isn’t gold at $2000 when it should be? I don’t know, but the big moves don’t happen overnight. Expect 80% of the move to happen in the last 20% (2 years) of the cycle. Also, wi[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Digsby Supports Facebook Chat

Facebook recently added a chat feature to their social networking site, which enables you to see online friends and talk to them through Facebook’s web interface. Our favorite chat client, Digsby, pushed out an update late last week which adds support for Facebook chat. Digsby is one of the first 3rd party applications to bring Facebook chat to your desktop.It features popup notifications, status messages, as well as buddy icons. Facebook chat is quite different from Facebook social network support in Digs[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Non-disclosure, Misrepresentation And Other Real Estate Misadventures

Our local news/entertainment magazine had a heartwarming story about Zillow and their "Make Me Move" feature. Some guy was able to sell his house for significantly more than it was worth. Capitol Hill Triangle seems to think it was poor form not to disclose that the seller was an ex-Zillow employee. And the new owner may be having buyers remorse, as it’s now on the market for $15K more than they paid for it. $[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Will The Candlesticks Confirm On Monday?

Friday left the market on a mixed note and a digestive day across the broader markets. The Nasdaq composite closed slightly red and the S&P 500, Dow along with the Nas 100 closed slightly green. Our day was on nice volume, but slightly lighter than Thursdays across the market. After Wednesdays drop and Thursdays recovery, Friday had little chance of showing us a huge move. We gapped up on economic data and faded off all day. However the sell off did not get out of control and was on lighter volume. Which is what wed like to see for any pullback from [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Pre-market Open News&Links For Friday

U.S. stock futures steady ahead of payrolls data"S&P 500 futures rose 1.9 points to 1,413.60 and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 2.5 points to 1,985.75. Dow industrial futures rose 15 points." PRE-MARKET - Gapping up: FRPT +16.7%, NTCT +15.2%, SCOR +14.4%,[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Why The Dollar Is Strengthening

Yes, the dollar is rallying. It’s been on a tear the past week.It must be because the U.S. economy has turned around. The deficit no longer needs to be financed with over $2 Billion a day in foreign investment.Interest rates are appropriately high to be able to fight this soaring inflation.The US government has stopped spending wildly, and the Budget is balanced.The mortgage lenders have recovered all of their losses.There is no longer a credit crunch.And the war is the Middle East is finally over - the US is d[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Which Is Better: Fidelity Or Vanguard?

I have been investing my IRA at Fidelity for almost 20 years. I have been happy with the results but I wonder if I could have done better. I am adopting your approach to spreading my portfolio among the asset classes you recommend. The final question I face is whether to leave the money at Fidelity or move to Vanguard. How much more money do you think I will make if I transfer my IRA to Vanguard?Of course I can’t know for sure what the future will bring. One huge advantage Vanguard has over Fidelity is lower expenses and that appears to be the main reason for the [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Unusual Homes On Evening Magazine

Evening Magazine videoBecause of UnusualLife.com, I get frequent inquiries from television producers and magazine editors about unusual homes, and 3 of the houses I’ve written about were featured this week on Evening Magazi[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

The Recession That Wasn&#8217;t

The market got a big boost this morning from a better than expected jobs report. Nonfarm payrolls declined by -20,000, which was far less than the -75,000 forecast. Also, the unemployment rate ticked down to 5.0%, while economists predicted it would move higher to 5.2%.Moreover, most of the job losses came in the manufacturing and construction sector, while the much larger services sector actually added 90k jobs. And the private household employment component of the report soared, after two months of losses. Hardly the stuff of recession.Yesterday I men[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Burger King Shrinking Margins

Burger King (BKC) reported strong Q3 results led by global business momentum and raised fiscal year guidance. Then as you read the press release and I mean read, for nine full paragraphs, until you realize that the margins are starting to shrink dramatically. Overall sales growth has been strong enough to overcome the problem and create a bottom line. But the problem persists. Management points to two major factors. The rather large spend on rebranding stores which temporarily takes a large bite out of margins. As well the cost of food and paper has gone up. The rebranding can be u[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

It&#8217;s A Rally And It Feels So Good

From the bottom to the top the chart shows a rally of 9.3% in about a month. That is an old chart with the date removed.The current rally is a little over 10% from the low in mid-March.

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Weekly Downtrend Lines In Play

NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.Aided by continued strength in the U.S. dollar and another pullback in the price of crude oil, stocks raced higher yesterday, ignoring the prior afternoon’s weakness. Fueled by an impressive 3.9% gain in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index ($SOX), the Nasdaq Composite rallied 2.8%. The S&P 500 gained 1.7% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 1.5%. The small-cap Russell 2000 climbed 1.9%, as the S&P Midcap 400 finished 1.3% higher. All the major indices closed at their int[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Sick Humor

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Employment Sector Winners And Losers

Earlier this month, we saw that San Diego employment declined on a year-over-year basis in March -- something that hadn&039;t happened during the last recession (nor for 15 years, according to the U-T). The accompanying graph shows how many jobs were added year-over-year by the top four sectors for employment growth how many were lost by the bottom four sectors. Ov[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Tag This Post

In the spirit of the congratulatory postings proliferating of late, I figured that at least one more was in order for David Veksler, the webmaster who has played a major role behind the recent changes to the Ludwig von Mises Institutes website.One of his latest additions to the main website is a sidebar widg[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Edmonton Real Estate Market Balanced

After three consecutive months of a buyer’s market in Edmonton, April saw some balance (barely). The new listings to sale ratio hit 42%, even with almost 4,500 new listings and inventory creeping over 11,000 homes.Read More...

[Source: The Money Blogs]

Congratulations To Tom Dilorenzo

1. He has been awarded the Loyola College Department Chair’s Award for Excellence in Teaching Economics; 2. The Franz Cuhel Memorial Prize for Excellence in Economic Education from thePrague University of Economics, presented to to him at the Prague Conference on PoliticalEconomy, April 18. [...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Book Review - The Little Book That Builds Wealth

The Little Book That Builds Wealth: The Knockout Formula for Finding Great Investments. I generally love short investment books. Too often, it seems to me, an author takes a couple of basic ideas - and rather than give concise, germane, explanations and examples - instead stretches the book out to be one or two hundred pages longer than necessary. Thankfully, that isn’t the case here with this great little book. T[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Rethinking Schering

I started reading over the Schering-Plough (SGP: chart, web, Y!) 2007 financial report in an effort to do some more research.Interestingly enough, I’m starting to rethink my position on Schering. SGP had really fallen out of favor with me since the whole Vytorin mess really blew up, and the stock price sunk to $13.8[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

The Biggest Dollar Demographic In Your Future

This in from the Wall Street Journal:Hispanics now account for more than 15% of the U.S. populationHispanics control more disposable income than any other minority group. The figure stands at $860 billion a year and is expected to hit $1.3 trillion by 2012.Between 2000 and 2007, 16 states -- among them West Virginia, Illinois and New Jersey -- saw their white population decline, according to the new Census data. Over the same period, whites accounted for a majority of population growth in only 11 states.According to the Pew Research Cen[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Why Do Billionaires Still Go To Work?

Here are some words of wisdom from a very wise friend of mine: "People who seem to succeed in business have a common trait, regardless of their industry sector. They don’t do what they do for the money, or better yet they aren’t desperate for the money. The money is the bonus - they do it because it is what they want to do and would do it anyway regardless of monetary reward. The reason they will succeed is because they aren’t in a rush, they want to do it right, they spend the time figuring out the right way to do it and they never give up. They don’t need to give up b[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Canslim.net Morning Comment And Links (for Traders)

MORNING MARKET COMMENTARY- Thursday, May 1, 2008Major Averages Erase Earlier Gains After Fed Cuts Rates - Kenneth J. Gruneisen, CANSLIM Certified, Registered Principal, Source Capital Group, Inc. (Members NASD, SIPC)The major averages closed lower, erasing earlier gains, after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by the expected quarter point to +2%. However, they did not give any signals on future moves. Volume, an important indicator of institutional demand, was higher than the prior session which marked anot[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

One Way To Podcast

A reader and subscriber to the Duct Tape Marketing podcast asked me recently to reveal the tools, techniques and software I use to create, edit and publish my podcast. My system is hacked together through a couple of years of trial and error and is by no means the textbook way to podcast, but like most of what I do it’s simple and practical. So here’s an under the hood look at the Duct Tape Marketing podcast.RecordingAll of my epi[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Dow-gold Ratio... Come To Papa

It is getting there. Emotions are being reset and expectations are being re-calibrated all around. It’s over gold bugs... market says so! Bottoming pattern says 172 for the Dow-GLD ratio shown h[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Worst Ever? Really?

By now you know that a chap named Vincent Reinhart has dubbed the Fed’s bailout of Bear Stearn[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]

35 Words About The Heart Of The Problem Of American K-12 Education

A New York Times article describes the "radical" experiment in progress in the post-Katrina New Orleans public schools. It includes one teacher’s concise summary of the difficulty the schools face:’Most of the kids come from broken homes,’ he said. ’Their parents are dead, in jail or on drugs. You can tell the kids from two-parent homes. Theyre getting straight As, and they are respectful.’
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[Source: The Money Blogs]

Indices Reach New Four Month Highs!

Indices Reach New Four Month Highs! By Harry Boxer, The Technical Trader (www.thetechtrader.com)The markets had a very strong session and a resilient one for the bulls, as the indices opened strong and went up all morning and sharply so, consolidated mid-day and then came on again at the end of the day and popped to new session and multi-month highs on both the Nasdaq 100 and the S&P 500, which finally broke out as well to confirm.Net on the day the Dow was up over 13,000 to 13,010, up 190. The S&P 500 was up 23 3/4, and the Nasdaq 100 up 52 3/4, closing over 19[...]

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[Source: The Money Blogs]