It was business as usual for the Case-Shiller Index in April, with a fairly steep 2.6% drop in the overall index comprised of progressively worse performance in each lower-price tier. This time, the high tier was down 1.5%, the middle tier 2.7%, and the low tier 3.5%. Here is a look at the three tiers since the peak. Notice how I keep having to change the scale on the Y axis each month to accommodate the continued whackage on the low tier:Read More...
[Source: The Money Blogs]
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Just Curious
Um, where or when is the bottom for financials.I guess they dropped on Monday due to the Goldman downgrade? From the top, around $38, XLF is down 43%. While 30% might be normal for the broad [...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
FOMC Is Lurking This Week
Monday delivered low volume lackluster red day across the broader markets. Our range was narrow and the action was pretty dull digesting last week quadruple expiration and getting ready for the two day FOMC meeting. Gold fell off on the dollars strength down $17.30 to $886.50 an ounce and crude rallied $1.08 to $136.44 a barrel. The lackluster action left me a little dull with the narrow range and closing weak. Leaving all eyes on the opening Tuesday for some movement. Financials continued to sink and leave us wondering if a floor can be found.&n[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Illustrating The Bullish Case For Oil
Those of you who follow the oil markets know that a core bullish argument for rising oil prices over the long term is the growth in demand from overseas, most notably China and India. Those two countries alone represent 36% of the world population, so if their demand rises steadily, the logic goes, lower oil prices are a tough accomplishment.On Monday a very telling statistic mentioned on CNBC caught my eye. I did not catch the source of the data, so we will have to assume it is correct, but take a look at this:Barrels of Oil Consumed Per Person, Per Year:Un[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Solar Sector Heating Up Again
NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.Stocks followed through on recent weakness out of the starting gate yesterday morning, but reversed higher at mid-day. Selling in the final ninety minutes subsequently caused the major indices to give up their gains and close in the red. The Nasdaq Composite, a former leader of the broad market, continued showing relative weakness by falling for a third straight day and losing 0.7%. Both the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.3%. The small-cap Ru[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Vitamin D Is The New Hotness
It seems like I’m seeing a new article on Vitamin D every week."Sunshine may be nature’s disease fighter"."New research shows avoiding rays may lead to a vitamin D deficiency".Glenn Reynolds cites another new study and notes, "Basically, you need to be sitting in the sun, drinking red wine, and eating fish. Which, come [...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Beyond Free Week
EWI’s Free Week will end soon. But in my inbox today I got a message from Elliott Wave International. In it, they deliver an update on FreeWeek theyre running for U.S. Stocks, Bonds, Gold, Silver and more (theres still time to take part: click here). But what really caught my attention was the great [...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Market Wrap: Energy Service Stocks Soar
The market felt pretty sluggish today overall, even as the financials were whacked once again. If that’s where you are invested, you felt pretty bad today. But if you are overweight energy and industrials, it was quite a different story.It is disheartening to see the resilience in oil prices. Each time they look like they are about to break lower, prices miraculously recover. And I worry that the longer prices hang around in this $130-137 trading range, the closer we are to an upside breakout over $140.I still think that the market is sufficiently oversold, and shou[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
The New Much Larger Faster Internet
What could happen if the entire U.S. was on broadband high speed internet? Sergey Brin of Google is pushing for a new initiative that would open up the entire country to what he calls "wifi on steroids". This would no doubt put the U.S. at the top of the Nations with Broadband list. Brin says it is shameful that we currently sit at number 15. onthe list.What this means to you How about your own te[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Fed’s Tough Guy Act&Lending Rates
A: Well, it’s officially summer but there is nothing hot about the markets these days. The second half recovery that economists and analysts have been predicting, certainly seems a distant memory at this point. What I see, is what so many of us have been talking about since this credit crisis began, except now its finally here. I mean, the bond insurers’ saga took weeks of front lines in January, and now its actually here inflicting it’s pain. The credit crunch has way more respect, now that it is causing collateral damage and dragging stocks down with it. Hmmm, to think, who w[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Back In Red
The market gapped down and accellerated to the downside during the session on Friday. Major indices closed deep in red on huge volume. The nasty tape surprised once again for toughness shaking out weak hands from the market. The Nasdaq will face support next week, while the S&p500 broke down off a descending triangle pattern on heavy volume. The weakness could continue this week. Here an interesting chart: Petrohawk Energy Corp.Read More...
[Source: The Money Blogs]
[Source: The Money Blogs]
Dear Twhirl, Won’t You Help Out My Stalker?
Yesterday I managed to pick up a real stalker on Twitter and of course the person was daft enough to perform their stalking using their real name.So, when I was sitting eating Sunday dinner a few minutes ago I was thinking about the tools I use for keeping track of Twitter and how they could be improved to enable my[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Canslim.net Morning Comment And Links (for Traders)
MORNING MARKET COMMENTARYfor Monday, June 23, 2008Major Averages Fall Hard on Higher Volume Institutional Selling Pressure - Kenneth J. Gruneisen, CANSLIM Certified, Registered Principal, Source Capital Group, Inc. (Members NASD, SIPC)The major US averages plunged on heavy volume to fresh multi-month lows as selling intensified. Volume totals on both the Nasdaq exchange and the NYSE were noticeably higher than the prior session’s levels, largely due to quadruple witching which is the simultaneous expiration of op[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Chicago Demanding Amusement Taxes from Online Resellers
Online entities are becoming the preferred avenue for states and localities to collect much-needed tax revenue. As I blogged about here, Amazon is battling it out with various jurisdictions over sales taxes on its Internet transactions. Now, Chicago says eBay and StubHub owe the city amusement taxes on tickets to Chicago-based events that were sold or resold through the popular Web[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Still More On The Famous File-sharing Paper
I’ve posted about the famous Oberholzer-Gee and Strumpf JPE paper on file-sharing--and Stan Liebowitz’s questioning of it--before (here and here). There’s now a third round in the controversy. The German newspaper Handelsblatt has a story today titled "Read More...
[Source: The Money Blogs]
[Source: The Money Blogs]
#1 Reason To Get An Appraisal
I recently had a client referred to me who had put an offer on a million dollar+ property being sold privately. They put their offer on the property with the hope that they would sell their own property and everything would be hunky dory. The only conditions were a standard financing clause and the usual inspection. It turned out that the seller was asking $200,000 more now, than when their listing had expired[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
A New Bearish Energy ETF
NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.What a difference one day can make. The Nasdaq Composite logged a bullish "accumulation day" and showed relative strength by cruising 1.3% higher last Thursday, but swiftly plunged 2.3% on even higher volume the following day. After trending steadily lower throughout last Friday’s session, the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average similarly sustained losses of 1.9% and 1.8% respectively. The small-cap Russell 2000 fell 1.6% and the S&P Midcap 400 decli[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Bearish Fund Managers
The headline of the Merrill Lynch press release reads: "Merrill Lynch Fund Manager Survey Finds Investors Most Underweight Equities in a Decade."Merrill releases these surveys periodically and they’re usually interesting to tune into. Here’s a link to this one: Fund manager survey.You can imagine what the tone of the release is.Now I know that I tend to come in on the bullish side a lot, but I can’t help but see an interesting bullish lining on this. In short, if fund managers are alr[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Pre-market Open News&Links For Friday
U.S. stock futures drop as oil rises, airlines fall"S&P 500 futures dropped 10.3 points to 1,331.30 and Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 13.75 points to 1,976.75. Dow industrial futures fell 75 points as crude-oil prices climbed before a weekend summit in Saudi Arabia and a possible strike in Nigeria, with Washington Mutual[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
There’s A Little Black Spot On The Sun Today.
There’s a little black spot on the sun today.It’s the same old thing as yesterday,That’s my soul up there.I have stood here before in the pouring rainWith the world turning circles running ’round my brain.The Police: King of Pain.Floods in Iowa, a record cold winter in China, global temperatures suddenly dropping in the last year, it’s all quite possibly linked to sunspots.The Market Oracle: Solar [...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
My Deep Respect For A Farmer
Farmers have not received their fair treatment in the last few years. Some have been called rednecks. Sometimes the profession has been relegated to sectors of the population that can’t get a better paying job, like temporary immigrant workers. In general most haven’t received higher education degree. Yet, they are some of the people I most respect. Why?They do and produce something that people really need. People do not need ipods, luxury cars, flat screen tvs, or other luxuries. But they do need food - most people consume it daily.Lately it has been shown that farmer[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
May Employment -- Negative Again
I have just put my writeup on May employment up at voiceofsandiego.org. See that article for the words, and see below for the bonus pigg charts.read more[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Fedex Look Carefully
Fedex (FDX) released numbers and confirmed that the economy is slowing down. The cost of fuel is up and business is tough. To those who are surprised well what can we say? They are struggled with the Kinkos thing and are rebranding it as Fedex Office. Non cash write downs now. Cash costs attributable to rebranding soon to appear. Management rightfully notes that the cost of fuel is up dramatically. Q4 comparable comparisons indicate a 53% increase. Year over year shows 28%. They claim to fuel surcharge customers but appear to be unable to stem the flow of red ink.
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Financials
It is is possible that "is now the time to buy financials" has been asked on TV everyday (literally) for over a year now and for anyone who views themselves as an investor (as opposed to a trader) the right [...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Deja Vu Friday?
This morning seems to be shaping up a lot like last Friday. Did everyone decide to just sell and head out to the beach?Oil is spiking higher today, after really looking like it might start to break down yesterday. Oil has been hovering as high as $136 today, up nearly $4. The energy and ag stocks are mostly higher.Moody’s downgraded MBI and Ambak (ABK) further, and this seems to be weighing on the financial sector as a whole. There has also been some worries about the European banks, following the writedowns we have seen in the U.S.[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Forex: "when U.s. Stocks Decline, The Dollar Rallies?"
Is it worth trying to gauge the long-term trend in the U.S. dollar based on the trend in U.S. stocks?There is a persistent belief among many forex traders that trends in various global markets have a profound influence on the trends in currencies. The faith in inter-market correlations is strong because of the constant rumination of this idea in the financial press. Hardly a day goes by without somebody saying something like: ’Higher oil prices sent the U.S. dollar down today, as rising energy costs are feared to slow down the U.S. economy.’ Or, ’The dollar gained today[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Affordable Housing Opportunity At Wilkes Passage
When a developer in Boston builds a large condo project (over 10 units, I think), it has to agree to set aside a certain percentage of units as "affordable". This is somewhere in the 13% range. Whether or not this is a good thing is open to debate (to me, at least), but it does end up making home ownership possible for people who would otherwise be priced out of the Boston market. The good part is, if you are looking to buy one of these, the income restrictions are not as severe as you might fear - often, you can make $40,000, $50,000 or even up to $70,000 or $80,000 a year and s[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Is America The New Debbie Downer?
Even before the recession hit (darn there I go we are not in a recession by technical standards) we heard that the economy sucked. Never mind that we had the longest growth in U.S. history and unprecedented unemployment.A new article at the
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Friday, June 20, 2008
The Moment Of Truth For The Dow
NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.The major indices followed through on the previous day’s downward momentum yesterday, leading to another round of losses that caused the Dow to close at its lowest level since March 17 of this year. The S&P 500 fell 1.0%, as both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite lost 1.1%. The small-cap Russell 2000 and S&P Midcap 400 registered matching losses of 0.8%. The main stock market indexes finished in the bottom third of their intraday ranges, b[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
What Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Danny Ainge
Tuesday night the Boston Celtics won the NBA WorldChampionship (4-2) by beating the Los Angelels Lakers by 39 points in game sixat Boston Gardens. The Celtics won only 24 games last year, but this yearexperienced the single biggest turnabout in NBA history, after Danny Aingeorchestrated two major trades last summer, bringing Kevin Garnett and Ray Allento Boston. Danny Ainge is my favorite basketball player/coach/generalmanager[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Thoughtleader Thursday: Paul Krutko Implements San Jose’s Anti-bubble Strategy
[Interview with Paul Krutko - San Jose’s Chief Development Officer.)When the dotcom dotbomb burst in 2001, San Jose lost 225,000 jobs over a two year period--it was a disaster, it was a larger loss of jobs than for any other US metropolitan area since the Great Depression.Now as the economy recovers, the city of San Jose is being proactive in helping its businesses succeed in the global economy, and also to create a diversity of economies to balance out boom and bust cycles in different markets.Paul Krutko is the architect of San Jose’s strategy, working with mayor C[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Mls.trulia.com
All hail the new MLS. Trulia......What happens to free?Its worthless, maybe partially valuable, or eventually after hooking users like a drug, it charges a fee.As a for instance, Active Rain is trying several revenue models that include various advertising and paid blogs. Trulia who took a battering last month is opening up its Trulia Pro:
Stocks Shake Off Early Weakness: Turnaround Thursday?
The market opened under further selling pressure this morning, but has since recouped its losses and moved back into positive territory. I would not be surprised to see a ’turnaround Thursday’ today, given how oversold the markets are short-term and how bearish sentiment has become.I thought yesterday might see a rebound for the same reasons, and it was looking like I might have been right, but a midday turnaround in oil prices that drove them from under $133 to back over $136 killed any rally attempt and led to further selling into the close.Today’s action looks more [...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Would Offshore Drilling Bring Down Gas Prices?
With gasoline prices nationally surpassing $4.00 per gallon, politicians are revisiting the idea of allowing oil companies to drill off the coasts of the continental U.S. as well as the National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.Alaska is probably not going to happen for environmental reasons, but what about the idea of allowing the states to decide if they want to allow offshore drilling in their areas or not? I think that plan has some merit, since it takes into consideration the potential negative impact on tourism and other issues in certain areas. States that feel the benefit will be [...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Google Ceo: ?moral Imperative? To Help Newspapers
Google Inc. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said that the Internet search leader hopes its recently acquired advertising service DoubleClick will aid newspapers as they struggle to corral more online revenue."It’s a huge moral imperative to help here," Schmidt said during a question-and-answer session at an event hosted in San Francisco by Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications.Without providing specifics about how it might be accomplished, Schmidt said DoubleClick’s system for se[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Good Investing Fundamentals
[note: I’m going to write as if this blog hasn’t skipped a beat... hopefully those that have been waiting since March for a new post don’t want to tar and feather me...]When it comes to investing, there’s a lot of talk about fundamentals. Usually, though, it’s the fundamentals of the company we’re investing in -- ie margins, sales growth, book value, etc. While finding good fundamentals in the companies that you invest in is definitely important, it’s just as important to practice good fundamentals as an investor.I actually got to thinking about this while watching golf[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Elliott Wave On Crude And The Usd
USD & Crude Short Term Forecast UpdateUSDThe USD has completed a leading diagonal and is currently in a wave (2) correction. The current wave up is close to completion and we should see one more wave down to complete wave (2) down. Once this wave down completes, we should see a strong rally in wave (3) up.CrudeCrude is currently in a wave (2) correction in wave [5] up. We should see minor downside to the 130 area before a strong rally in wave (3) up. Once wave [5] up completes we should see a sharp decline in Crude and a strong rally for the [...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Resumption Of Primary Downtrends
NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.Stocks chopped around throughout the first half of yesterday’s session, but a late-day sell-off caused the major indices to pull back substantially. The S&P 500 gave up an intraday gain of 0.7% to finish lower by the same percentage. The Nasdaq Composite also lost 0.7%, though it only showed a gain of 0.3% at its peak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was lower by 0.9%. The S&P Midcap 400 only slipped 0.1%, but the small-cap Russell 2000 fell 0.6%. All [...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Weak Earnings From Fedex Weighs On Sentiment
The market is under more selling pressure this morning. The broker index is down the most, after Morgan Stanley (MS) reported earnings that beat estimates, but revenues fell short. FedEx (FDX) also reported disappointing results due to sluggish demand and soaring energy prices. The firm gave 2009 guidance that was well below consensus, hurting the stock.Nearly every major sector is lower so far this morning. The Dept. of Energy said that crude inventories fell slightly last week, which would normally push oil prices higher. But oil is trading [...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Economists Mirror Consumer Survey: "housing Prices Apt To Fall Much More"
(Turn off pop-up blocker, and click on table for larger image.)An AP story hidden on page four of the Boston Globe business section, entitled "Read More...
[Source: The Money Blogs]
[Source: The Money Blogs]
Prices Way Down, Sales Way Up
Last week I noted that May had been another good month, as these things go, for home sales. But there is more to the story, as you might expect. Just as there has been a huge disparity in price declines between different areas of San Diego, the recent surge in sales activity has been every bit as uneven.Using the zip code-level sales da[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
California Seen As No. 1 Destination For Movers
A survey of folks who have, or plan to, move by Relocation.com found California and Texas are the two most popular states for people to move in 2007, based on interstate and intrastate moves combined. Surveys over the past decade have shown that California (the largest state by population) has always ranked first in terms of destination state for people changing residences. This trend continues, despite the growing mortgage crisis, which ha[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Threesomes Rarely Work For Long - Google/Yahoo/Microsoft
OK so maybe Microsoft (MSFT) pulled away from Yahoo (YHOO) and Google (GOOG) thinks it may now control the on line ad world. Carl Icahn wants to administer a corporate spanking to Yahoo. Balmer is looking pretty good for not overpaying (a rarity in M&A) Google is probably thinking now what. Because if we control everything there are no more excuses.These three have formed a threesome just through their implied powers, attributes and other fantasies held by the marketplace. The financial press and media are looking at these three as they relate to one another. No one industry i[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Financials Weigh On Market, Energy Stocks Buck Weakness
The market was flat most of the day, but a late day sell program knocked things down pretty hard into the close. The financials were weak all day on rumors that banks were going to have to raise more capital amid the ongoing credit crunch.Energy and materials stocks bucked the weakness today, and soared despite crude oil prices declining on the day. Oil finished below $134, near the same levels it has closed at for the last 3 days. The longer oil hovers up in this area, the more I worry about another spike higher to new highs.Ag stocks were again on fire, after comme[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Precious Metals ETFs Finally Gonna Go?
NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.After beginning the day on a negative note, the major indices recovered and grinded their way higher throughout the session, but a pullback in the final hour of trading caused stocks to finish with mixed results. The Nasdaq Composite scored a respectable 0.8% gain, as relative weakness in the blue chips caused the Dow Jones Industrial Average to lose 0.3%. The benchmark S&P 500 was unchanged. The small-cap Russell 2000 and S&P Midcap 400 indices jumped 1.0% and 0.8[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
The End Of Taxes In 928 Days
We have 928 days until our tax system implodes. OK, that is a bit dramatic. The United States’ overall method of collecting taxes won’t self-destruct, despite the wishes of many. But when 2011 rolls around,the current batch of tax laws that we’ve been living with, most of themenacted shortly after Dubya moved into the White House, will expire.Of course, since this is a presidential election year, we’re hearinga lot about what’s going to happen in 2009 when Barack Obama or JohnMcCain get to rearrange the West Wing’s furniture. But the truth is,both [...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Real Estate Broker Offers Free Wedding Reception Or Honeymoon To Same Sex Couples
With the passing of the same sex marriage law in California, the estimated 100,000 domestic partners in California will have the opportunity to join millions of other Americans in holy matrimony. While California braces for the onslaught of applications for marriage licenses from same sex couples due to the historic California Supreme Court decision to legalize same sex marriage, same sex marriage protesters and gay rights supporters are preparing for rallies across the state. In the midst of the[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Mr. Snowman Tells No Lies
How do you look at me with those lumps of coal for eyes and tell me you’re sitting in front of the hottest most desirable property on the market? Its obviously not hot enough to melt the snow on your front lawn! No, [...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Oil Reverses Lower, Stocks Rebound
The market bounced back from its early lows this morning, after oil peaked early and faded as the day wore on.After briefly touching $139 early this morning, oil reversed all of its gains and closed below $134. That’s pretty bearish action, although follow through is key. We have yet to see anything that can knock oil down for more than a day or two.Tech stocks led the way today, after RIMM rallied big time, GOOG finished positive, and AAPL reversed its early declines to close just shy of $177. The smartphone plays cont[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Should I Add Vanguard Energy Fund To My Portfolio?
I have used your Vanguard 60/40 Portfolio for the last 5+ years. I am considering making one small change. It seems with the growing demand for oil, I should have a portion of my portfolio in the Vanguard Energy Fund. Do you agree? If you do, what percentage of the equity portion do you suggest?I have had this question on a regular basis for the past 25 years. The question is normally focused on a sector that has performed well in the most recent period. Although this question is about the energy sector now, the other three sectors that have most often been suggested are te[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Could we see another 1990s house price crash?
Could we see another 1990s house price crash? Until recently I thought 'no chance.' But with the US slump rivalling the Depression era, why couldn't the 1990s happen again?
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[Source: This is Money | Money blog]
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[Source: This is Money | Money blog]
Late Surge
The stock market rallied in the last two hours of trading last Friday. The late surge came on lower than average volume. The volume remains a concern showing basically no breadth behind the last action. Nevertheless, the bounce could still have legs today, but remain open-minded here and take profits whatever posiible quick off the table.Here an interesting chart: Fuel Systems Solutions, Inc.
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Euro/dollar And Steel ETFs Reversing Momentum
NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.Stocks concluded last week on a positive note, enabling the major indices to recover more than a third of June’s substantial losses. As it did in three of the four preceding days, the broad market rallied in the morning, then began to drop in the early afternoon. But this time, the bulls drove stocks higher in the final ninety minutes, breaking the pattern of late-day sell-offs that has been plaguing the market. The Nasdaq Composite gained 2.1%, the S&P 500 1.5%, and t[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Virgin On The Ridiculous
We used to call it "mattress money". Money not in banks and not accounted for in usual ways, used to fund home purchases, usually by ethnic groups not likely to trust banks or safety deposit boxes. Now Richard Branson of Virgin Air fame has tried to legitimize this practice with his new company Virgin Money. Their website offers "real estate loans" b[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Notes On The Site Upgrade
This weekend I upgraded piggington.com to use the latest version of Drupal, an open source content management system that is very powerful but, unfortunately, not very easy to upgrade. (Which explains why I let myself get two major releases behind).The performance of the site should be improved, but much more for authenticated users than anonymous users, as the prior version had only cached content for anonymous users. Additional performance improvements will be made later this week as a kindly expert pigg has offered to help me optimi[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Sunday Morning Den Of Rattlesnakes
No easy investment theme to tie in (at least I couldn’t think of one) so I’ll just post the picture.I have a few others from this pit to work in for later posts, maybe.Supposedly this was taken by a friend of a friend.Either way the picture was taken near Oracle, AZ.[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Stock Ideas For Trading Week Of June 16
This video is the type of information which will be available only to those who have purchased MY BOOK I will be posting this type of information in the "BONUS" tab starting the week of June 23. If you did not purchase the book, these videos will be unavailable to you in the future.[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
My blog of shame
Its been a while since I last scribed a blog, whereupon I wrote candidly about my addiction to fags and my New Years attempt to quit
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[Source: This is Money | Money blog]
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[Source: This is Money | Money blog]
Abu Dhabi Investment Authority
From BusinessWeek; Apparently the ADIA wants to simplify its portfolio by having less hedge fund exposure and more index fund exposure with the following allocation.These sorts of things[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Recession Repression
The World is truly freaky! Lots of bad news and lots of good news. Foreclosures are crazy, to fill my gas tank I need some of that no down financing from Countrywide. All while retails sales is higher than expected. How can that be? As always I try no to report the bad real estate news, only the good. And good realty news is good for sales! Home prices go up in California so says FNC Inc.Prices appreciated in 15% of ZIP codes in San Diego, 25% in Orange County, and 24% in L.A. County&[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Top stories of the week
This is Money's editor on the top stories of the week: 12% savings, rising interest rates and why nearly everyone has given up on pensions
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[Source: This is Money | Money blog]
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[Source: This is Money | Money blog]
Friday Finally...big Cpi Data Release
Thursday brought in the wicked reversal move. The broader markets started the day very strong and nice and green only to see that evaporate through lunch and continue late day, then a change of tone came in late day. We saw buying (or shorts cover) to bounce us well off the lows, which beats the extreme sell offs weve had late day so far this week. Slightly green close for everyone except the NAs 100 and all on lighter volume than yesterdays, but not a bad pace throughout the day on participation. Futures had rollover and it wasnt as painful as it can be at t[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
********* Scheduling Conflict ***********
I will be out today, at the U.S. Open in La Jolla, CA. I will wrap up the week that was over the weekend. Have a great day--[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
How Do They Determine A Passing Score On The Cfa Exams?
Since the CFA June exams are now done, there’s a lot of concern as to how CFAI determines a passing score. So, here’s a breakdown for Levels 1 and 2:In the past CFAI used a strictly numeric method of calculating the pass rate - they’d take 70% of the 95th percentile score. So, back in the day, the minimum passing score would be no greater than 70%, and would typically be even less.Now, their scoring system has a significant subjective component to it. Here’s how it works: CFA Institute brings a number of charterholders that they call "Standard Setters" to Charlott[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Canaccord Reports But Says Little
Canaccord Capital Inc.’s (TSX & AIM: CCI) reported Q4 results. Poor numbers were expected because of the ABCP debacle that is roiling Canadian Money Markets. Not happy but it was expected under the circumstances. So these guys are responsible for raising money and making it grow. What do they have to say about there own prospects? Precious little. There have been some very major executive appointments.Changeover in the executive suite is always significant. New capital has been raised which is about equal to what they lost on the ABCP crisis. So therefore the firm is whole and[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
A Simple Trailing Stop Technique For Short-term Trades
NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.Stocks got off to an encouraging start yesterday morning, but the bears resumed control in the afternoon, causing the major indices to surrender a majority of their earlier gains. The S&P 500, up 1.3% at its morning peak, finished only 0.3% higher. The Nasdaq Composite and Dow Jones Industrial Average both gave up intraday gains of 1.5% to advance just 0.4% and 0.5% respectively. The S&P Midcap 400 Index, which led the broad market’s recent March through May rally,[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Friday, June 13, 2008
Rollover To September Thursday
Wednesday delivered a blow to the bulls and flushed the broader markets on high volume. Double digit losses for the S&P 500 (SPX) and Nasdaq (NDX and COMPX) leaving the indexes back in Aprils range. The Dow fell 200 points and returned to March levels. Just one nasty sell off in the first hour that accelerated in the last half hour of the day. Crude didnt help matters with a rise of $5.14 closing at $136.45 and gold closed up $12.70 at $883.90 an ounce. Thursday we have early data that is capable of moving the market. Generally a big range [...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Bears Back On The Market
The stock market dropped like a rock after another Oils rally. The barrel prices are now around +40% year-to-date. Also bearish comments from the Fed contributed to the drop. Major indices are showing signs of short-term oversold conditions and the chance for a bounce seems to be good. Nevertheless, the bounce should be short lived, above all if the Oil continues its run. "Take profits off table as quick as you can" continues to be a must right now. Here [...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Stock Market Video Trend Analysis 6/11/08
I’m not sure what happened, but the audio cut out at approx 4:30. Good thing I have a new headset on the way to me.
Direction Doesn’t Matter With Delta Neutral
Anyone, who knows anything about options trading, knows that to make profits on a consistent basis you have to predict something. The days of arbitrage trading for the public customer are long since gone, and in fact, even market makers and other professionals can’t make a business strictly out of finding profitable arbitrage positions. Generally, the predictions fall into one of two categories, making directional predictions or volatility predictions. Either way probably can work, although most of the successful options traders that I know make their trades based on volatility, as do I.[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Two ETFs Ignoring Recent Market Weakness
NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.After two days of deliberation at their recent lows, the major indices followed through with another broad-based wave of selling yesterday. Stocks opened flat, promptly dropped in the morning, traded sideways throughout the afternoon, then moved to new intraday lows in the final thirty minutes of trading. Breaking below pivotal support of its May low and 50-day moving average, the Nasdaq Composite tumbled 2.2%. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average s[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Three Types Of Blogs
There are three types of blogs. But IMHO only one for a Realtor.The Mega Blog like LifeHacker or Dave Taylor. The Conversationalist. This falls in line with what you see mostly by the blog purists on the web. And I believe it is useful but can lead to very non targeted content production. I really do not think it relevant to making sales. The Authoritarian. This is where you draw your line in the sand and say who, what, where,and why you exist. Why you matter. Some call it transparency. [...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Is this the end of food as we know it?
A vast area of Southern Spanish desert has become the giant allotment that satisfies our year-round lust for fresh fruit and veg. But the water is running out and the produce is grounded. Where does that leave us?
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[Source: This is Money | Money blog]
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[Source: This is Money | Money blog]
Tranny Megaphone Intact
Tranny is testing the lower limit of the megaphone top pattern. Bearish divergence argues it will break down. But the uptrend is not lost and this index could certainly sport a hammer that knocks it back[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
These predatory loans bite us all
Predatory loans with over 1,000% interest insidiously affect all of us, rich and poor
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[Source: This is Money | Money blog]
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[Source: This is Money | Money blog]
Oil.com - Americans Still Blaming Oil Companies Over Congress
Below is an article that ran on CNNMoney.com today. It discusses a recent poll that showed that 62% of respondents blamed the oil & gas industry for today’s high prices. Maybe they need to go back and read my piece on ’The Oil Bubble’.Here is the article:NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The question nags at Americans every time they fill up their gas tanks: Why is it costing $4 a gallon?A poll released Wednesday finds that 62% of Americans blame "unethical behavior" by industry players, while 32% attribute the p[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff And Other Gems
Its a market full of hard decisions and sometimes tough love is necessary, especially when examining your home’s value compared to last year. Last weekend when one of our listings sold the seller said to me "thats the most excited I’ve heard you get." The deal was done, so why not share in our client’s excitement? Weve certainly had plenty of reasons not to be excited as we have had to sell and resell a number of properties several times over. Perhaps it’s just that Im not the cheerleader type. Why (you might ask) have we had to sell a number of properties multiple times[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
My Smoking Ban
New Year resolutions are boring - and quitting smoking may be the most hackneyed of them but it is still not quite as bad as the whole giving up drink for the month of January tomfoolery
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[Source: This is Money | Money blog]
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[Source: This is Money | Money blog]
May Resale Housing Data Rodeo
Before I begin, an administrative note: I am going to take the Econo-Almanac offline this weekend to upgrade the site software. This should help site performance and will result in some improved functionality as well. OK, onto the rodeo. May was a bit of a weird month as far as the median price per square foot, known somewhat more briefly as the size-adjusted median, was concerned. In specific, the size-adjusted median for single family homes was completely unchanged from April, whereas it was down a brutal 5.9% for the month for condos.
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
[Source: The Money Blogs]
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Adwords Wins!
I found this somewhat daring. Google is claiming that Obama and McCain won because of their Adword spends. Google’s Greenberger who was in charge of getting the campaigns to buy ads with Google claims that Hillary lost because of her sporadic spending.This fuzzy logic works well in sales, but I am pretty sure that the Google Algo works a little bit more logically than this claim.We think it’s not a coincidence that the two savviest primary campaigns with [...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Buffett’s Big Bet
Will a collection of hedge funds, carefully selected by experts, return more to investors over the next 10 years than the S&P 500?That question is now the subject of a bet between Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, and Protg Partners LLC, a New York City money management firm that runs funds of hedge funds - in other words, a firm whose existence rests on its ability to put its clients’ money into the best hedge funds and keep it out of the underperformers.You can guess which party is taking which side.Protg has placed its bet on five funds [...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Time To Chill; You Probably Won’t Miss Much
NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.Yesterday was a relatively uneventful day, as stocks opened slightly lower, lethargically drifted sideways throughout the session, then finished flat to modestly lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average eked out a 0.1% gain, but the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite lost 0.2% and 0.4% respectively. The small-cap Russell 2000 declined 0.4%, as the S&P Midcap 400 dropped 0.7%. Indicating a lack of commitment among both the bulls and bears, the major indices finished near t[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Anyone Ready To Compete With Trulia Or Redfin?
Mr. Goldberg attempts to throw down the glove at Dream Realty in Florida.[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Bought Rypqx
Last week I started increasing my position in the Reserve Yield Plus Fund (RYPQX: web, prospectus, fact sheet, Y!). Two weeks ago I finally started buying in to the fund, which is a no-load fund and does not impose t[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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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+78.34 Agricultural Chemicals
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Apple Iphone 2 3g - The Rise Or Fallacy Of Apple?
This week the Release of the Apple iPhone 2 3G was announced by Steve Jobs at Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference.The news was both sour and sweet, the sweet being 3G download speeds, GPS Tracking and Third Party applications, the sour however was very sour indeed.Apples iPhone 2 can now only be bought on a 24 month contract, how many people keep one phone for that long? The worst part is may iPhone users will still be locked into an 18 Month contract they signed for a free iPhone.[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Iphone Unlocking To Be Exterminated?
Apple took a different business model for the iPhone 3G. As per the new business model, the cellular carrier will provide the iPhone at a subsidized price, make-up the cost in monthly charges and don’t provide a chunk of their revenues to Apple. Previously, the customer had to pay the full retail price of the iPhone and carriers had to funnel their some their revenues to Apple.What if you buy an iPhone 3G and unlock it? Since cellular carriers have subsidized the phone, every unlocked iPhone is a potential lose in revenue for them. According Read More...
[Source: The Money Blogs]
[Source: The Money Blogs]
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Chart Study - Crdc
While getting pummeled in the gold stocks awaiting resolution to scenarios 1 and 2 in the previous post, I thought I would put up a great chart of this small medical company, Cardica, Inc. It has been spe[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
More Whohas Awards!
The WhoHas Award for Best Consumer ElectronicsThe Panasonic PtAE2000U Projector blasts out 1500 lumens of 1080P magic, with a contrast ratio of 15,000:1. Not only is it 40%+ brighter than any other 1080P projector on the market, but with most new HDMI projectors priced at or above $10,000, the Panasonic’s $2,500 price tag is frankly suspicious. (Did these beauties "fall off a truck" on the way from the SONY [...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
2.0
I have over the years poo pood the hype of social this and social that. 2.0 this and that. User generated content. The so called conversation. Suffice it to say, that in a sentence 2.0 to me is nothing new. It is very good MAC make-up on WEB 1.0 and even WEB 0.5 ;-) I know that’s two sentences.The biggest value of whatever it is, is that it is a marketers dream. See any real people socializing for the pure joy at Facebook? Not much. But boy we are all twittering and poking wondering whe[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Website Upgrades
I am going to be making some changes/upgrades to the site throughout the week as I try to improve site performance. I may also upgrade to the latest version of the Drupal, the content management system I use, so we may end up with some improved features as well. Thanks for your patience as I intermittently take the site offline.[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
It’s Not About The Result But How You Play The Game...
Life is a funny old thing. It really is. Some people blame life for everything. Some just accept it. Its how we take the cards that are dealt to us in life and use them which separates us from each other.For an old cynic like me its easy to sit back and make scathing commentaries on life and people. It just so happens that tonight Im in the mood to.In my experience there are 3 main types of people, or even bloggers if you want to make that comparison (of course there a shades of gray in between[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
The (financial) Gods That Failed
Dan Atkinson on his new book: How the elites of the City and Wall Street, in cahoots with central bankers and policymakers, were given free rein to run the world economy and bring it to the brink of disaster.
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[Source: This is Money | Money blog]
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[Source: This is Money | Money blog]
Large Caps On New Low List
In addition to Verizon (VZ), mentioned in my last post, there continue to be attractively valued large cap stocks hitting new lows in the latest market drop. Both of these names sell for about 13 times this year’s earnings and 12 times next year’s estimates. Pretty cheap valuations for both of them.General Electric (GE) ~$30Fortunately for those who have owned the stock for a while, the days of investors paying 30 or 40 times earnings for this industrial conglomerat[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Microsoft Closes Down ?craigslist Killer?
Two years ago, seeing the success of Craigslist, Microsoft created Windows Live Expo. Hopes were, it was going to be a "Craigslist Killer". It didn’t work out that way, however, and MS announced that the site will be discontinued at the end of July. According to a message on its homepage, users can no longer create a new account, post or extend listings, or upgrade listings to "premium." Al[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Bearish Forces Retake The Market
There have been two consistent themes that John Murphy and Arthur Hill have been stressing in recent Market Messages. One has been that the rally from mid-March is a bear market rally. The other has been that the rally has probably ended. That dual reality was brought into sharper focus on Friday when a combination of intermarket forces sealed the fate of bullish hopes. A huge jump in the unemployment number, a big drop in the U.S. Dollar, and a record surge in oil prices sunk the stock market in a big way. Chart 1 shows the S&P 500 hitting two-month lows on heavy volume. That’s af[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
To Rent, Or Not To Rent
To rent or not to rent? That is the question. I can see the fingers getting ready to type their rapid responses to this article already, but chill for now because the question is actually for home owners. Many of the people who have properties on the market today have to consider all their options in this market. So the topic today is: Rent or Sell?If you are one of the many peopl[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Stock Thoughts: Petrobras Energia (PZE)
MJ over at Dyslexic Research asked me to researchPetrobras Energia Participaciones S.A. (PZE: chart, web, Y!) in return for looking over Ingersoll-Rand.Simply stated, Petrobras Energia focuses on oil [...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
I’ve Pulled My Cash Out Of The Banky
I’ve put a lot of my cash savings & investments into FXA (Australian currency shares ETF), gold and Canadian Income Funds (AAV, HTE, PGH, etc).The financial sector is in meltdown and the market isn’t doing so well these days.The way the dollar’s been crushed, and oil prices have spiked, I thought you could do with some humor."Americans love to live swanky,so we don’t really like Ben Bernanke. He’s tough on the dollar,makes me want to holler,What is up with your rate hanky-panky? When I read about Mr. Bernanke,I tend [...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
What Happens When The Dust Settles?
NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.In last Friday morning’s commentary, we said, "With the S&P 500 in ’no man’s land,’ the Dow still below major resistance levels, and the Nasdaq trying to break out to a new intermediate-term high, the major indices are obviously out of sync with one another. Whenever this occurs, trading typically becomes whippy and indecisive." The subsequent action that followed that day certainly proved our expectation of indecision! Last Thursday, stocks gapped higher on the open,[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Hui/gold Ratio - Favorable
You can look at this chart at least two ways...1) MACD is coiling for a move (one way or the other), ROC has bullish divergence and the thing has the look of a grinding bullish consoli[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Was Friday A Capitulation?
A: In my opinion, no. This is the trader in me talking here. I do keep an active trading account open, and if you want some disclosure, I have been trading the ultra short ETF’s (SKF, SRS, EEV, FXP, SDS, DXD, DUG, etc..) since Sept-Oct (1, 2, 3, 4 discussions on this) [...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Feel The Power!
Albert Einstein believed that God’s greatest invention was compound interest. Nothing beats the simplicity and purity of compound interest, he used to say. Stick $100,000 in a 5.2% bank account for 10 years and you’ll have $166,018.85 at the end of the 10 years. If you added $10,000 a year to the acc[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Monday, June 9, 2008
What About The ’we’re Rich’ Argument?
Rep. Laura Richardson (D-Long Beach) Ed McMahon Evander Holyfield Michael Jackson Letrell Sprewell Aretha Franklin Jose Conseco All are very wealthy individuals, all are living in "special" places, all have multi-million dollar mortgages, and all are foreclosing. There will be more.Wealthy individuals can buy more expensive houses and have more assets to draw from, but they can be just as "stretched" as any [...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Alternative Fees For Home Buyers: Still The "unfinished [r]evolution"?
Four years ago, June 7, 2004, Banker & Tradesman quoted The Real Estate Cafe in a page one story entitled, "MLS Policy Statement Fuels Commission War." The skip page read: Unfinished EvolutionDuring the last decade or so, alternative services -- such as flat-fee, listing-only or fee-for-service models -- have been offered to home sellers, but there haven’t been a tremendous amount of choice for buyers, according to Wendel.&n[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Sunday, June 8, 2008
May Foreclosures
The 1.762 NOTs delivered in San Diego last month was a new record. NODs were down 5% from April, but May was nonetheless the second-highest month on record. read more[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Main Stock Market Indexes Out Of Sync With One Another
NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.Stocks staged a broad-based rally yesterday, enabling several of the major indices to move above key resistance levels. After trending higher throughout the morning, the main stock market indexes initially began to follow their recent trend of selling off in the afternoon, but this time the bulls took control into the close. Stocks moved back to their mid-day highs and continued north in the final ninety minutes of trading. The S&P 500 zoomed 2.0% higher, t[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
How To Use Etfs In Your Portfolio
By Investopedia.comExchange-traded funds (ETFs) are an investing innovation that combines the best features of index mutual funds with the trading flexibility of individual securities. ETFs offer diversification, low expense ratios and tax efficiency in a flexible investment that can be adapted to suit a multitude of objectives. (To learn more about the features and benefits that ETFs offer, see Advantages of Exchange-Traded Funds.) To reap the true benefit of investing in ETFs you need to use them strategically. At the most basic level, ETFs can be used as part of bot[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Focus Media Fast Growth But What About The Cash
Focus Media (FMCN) who brands itself as China’s leading multi-platform digital media company reported Q1 2008 operating cash flow at $7.6 million. Day sales outstanding ("DSO") was 127 days in the first quarter mainly due to the consolidation of $40.7 million accounts receivables from CGEN at the end of Q1 2008 and longer receivable cycles of our Internet advertising business. As of March 31, 2008, the Company had cash and cash equivalents of $283.0 million.The company is clearly growing at exponential rates but an Achilles heel may be developing with the accounts receivable list g[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
The Oil Bubble ? Part 3: Who Is To Blame?
In this last part of my series on the oil bubble, I am going to take a look at the supply side of the equation and touch upon why Congress might be as much to blame, or more so, than the oil companies at which they are currently pointing fingers.(In case you missed parts one and two, here are the links to them: Part 1 and Part 2)For decades, the U.S. has had no real energy policy[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Bank Of America Gets Permission From Fed Reserve To Acquire Countrywide
Bank of America (BAC) has finally received approval from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve to acquire Countrywide (CFC). Investors do not know whether to laugh or cry over that one. As the sub-prime mortgage debacle got worse the initial rationale that Bank of America used began to look weaker. The acquisition still has to be approved by Countrywide shareholders. In a short press release this comment was attributed to the chairman and CEO Kenneth D Lewis ’This transaction represents a rare opportunity for Bank of America to significantly gain market share in the mortgag[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Why I Never Hire Brilliant Men
The article below appeared in the February 1924 issue of The American Magazine. The American Magazine was one of those general-purpose mass-circulation magazines which transmitted the popular culture of the day to the households of America. The magazine boasted on its cover "More than 2,000,000 Circulation," quite impressive in a nation which numbered 106 million as of the 1920 census. Though attributed to an anonymous author, Why I Never Hire Brilliant Men was the cover story of that issue, though the cover illustration was unrelated as was the practice of the day. (The New Yorker, one of the[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Friday, June 6, 2008
Edmonton Property Taxes: A Higher Assessment Does Not Always Mean Higher Taxes
If you own property in Edmonton you should have received your city tax assessment in the mail recently. You probably noticed your tax assessment is much higher this year than last year. There is a BIG misconception out there, that if property values go up by say 50%, then property taxes go up 50%.That is completely false. If it were true, then if property values went down 50% so would tax[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Mixed Session With S&P 500 Trailing The Ndx
Mixed Session with S&P 500 Trailing the NDX By Harry Boxer, The Technical Trader (www.thetechtrader.com)The markets had a roller coaster session on Wednesday and ended mixed on the day. They started out lower, immediately turned around and rallied sharply, particularly on the Nasdaq 100, which took out yesterday’s highs. The S&P 500 fell far short at that point, failed to confirm and they backed off. About 45 minutes later the indices snapped back and made nominal new highs, but the S&P 500 could not break through its declining tops line of the last several days, and th[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Trannies Shouting Through A Megaphone
Those living on the sunny side of the street see the Transports flirting with new highs and crude oil finally breaking down and think happy or at least hopeful thoughts. Pardon me, but with momentum indic[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Solid Retail Sales, Lower Job Losses Boost Market
The market is getting a big boost from the bulls in the early going, after a couple of reports this morning emboldened sentiment.The same-store sales reports that came out had a lot of better-than-expected results, and that is giving a big boost to the retail sector. Wal-Mart (WMT) reported a +3.9% increase, and its stocks shot up to its highest level since April 2004. Costco (COST) also looked strong. I have to go throught the reports more, but it would seem that the discounters are doing better as consumers look to make their dollars go furthe[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Fighting The Financial Sector Funk With A Drink Of Water
During the past two weeks, the major market averages have fallen below their long-term, 200-day moving average (red line). This trend does not portend well for equities, but the good news here is that we still are trading above our short-term, 50-day moving average (blue line). The chart below of the S&P 500 SPDR (SPY) illustrates the purgatory zone equities that we now are bouncing around in. If we are to see a sustained move to the u[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
A Little Dose Of SOX With Your Tea, Sir?
NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.Yesterday was a day of divergence, as strength in tech stocks helped the Nasdaq score a decent gain, but the blue-chip Dow spun its wheels. Similar to the previous day’s action, the main stock market indexes moved higher throughout the first half of the day, then reversed course in the afternoon. The Nasdaq Composite, up 1.4% at its intraday high, finished with a 0.9% gain. On the other end of the spectrum, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.1%. The benchmark S&[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Summer Is The New Spring
I hate that saying. Except for when Jon Stewart said earlier this week that "dying is the new 50&8243;. Ha, ha.Anyway, 25 new listings hit the downtown Boston real estate market, today.Twenty-five! Two weeks after Memorial Day!Could just be a fluke, but otherwise, I don’t understand. Summer is not a prime time to list your property to sell. Too many buyers try to find their new homes prior to the vacation season. Of course, any time is a good time to sell, if you price your home right and you’ve got something people want.Perhaps people are encou[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Hump Day Brings A Split Day
Wednesday brought a split day for the markets. The Nasdaq Composite (COMPX) and the Nasdaq 100 (NDX) closed green on the day taking back yesterdays losses on heavier volume leaving an accumulation day. While the S&P 500 (SPX) and the Dow (INDU) closed slightly red and also on heavier volume leaving a distribution day, due to the weakness in financials. Crude closed down $1.91 at $122.40 and gold closed up 50 cents at $885.00 an ounce. Into Thursday the COMPX is just under the 200dma (2513.78) by 10 points and the May 19th highs are just 48 poi[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Is The Housing Bust Over?
Thats what Dr. Steve Sjuggerud says in his most recent post. Actually he says we are near the bottom. So what does that mean? If your buyers are waiting they will find out they waited too long. And Sjuggerud is pretty good. I read his letter when he was recommending Housing Stocks way before they were sexy, and he dumped them way before we heard the word bubble.I list his analysis over at the Positive Real Estate site. I am not sure if you get what this site can do for you. It lists a libra[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Short-term Top In Oil Further Confirmed
NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.Stocks valiantly attempted to recover the previous day’s losses throughout the morning session, but the bears firmly took control in the afternoon, erasing early gains and sending the major indices to sharply negative territory. After slicing through their prior day’s lows, the main stock market indexes bounced off their lows in the final ninety minutes of trading. The Nasdaq Composite lost 0.4%, the S&P 500 0.6%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average 0.8%. [...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Edmonton Real Estate Complete Monthly Stats For May 2008
Prices are stable, sales are seasonally normal, the market is balanced...it’s barely newsworthy. The only thing to talk about is the high inventory and the craziness we saw in the past two years. So, I’ve done some extra charts this week for some added interest. 
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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ADP Jobs Report Shows Economy Actually Added Jobs Last Month
The market is getting a boost in early trading on some better than expected economic reports. ADP reported that private payrolls rose by 40,000 in May, vs. and expected loss of -30k jobs. Also, the ISM Services Index came in at 51.7, a reading that shows the services sector is expanding and not reflective of an economy in recession.Oil is down again today, despite the DoE report that crude inventories fell again for the week ending May 30th. Normally, this report would send crude prices higher, so the weakness is notable. Oil prices are down ne[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
MCIO Pullback Opportunity And Deal In The Works?
MCIO is seeing a much needed pullback off its peaks. $2 is the daily 200 period moving average support which is attempting to form a hammer on this 8th day under the daily 5 period moving average break, $1.80s is the weekly 15 and monthly 5 period moving averages. Since this is a thin stock with wide spreads the moves can be exaggerated both ways. This factor has to be taken into consideration. If MCIO slips to mid $1s, I will add some more shares to my core position. As I warned before, this is a very thin trading stock and no one should be [...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Gold-oil Intraday Using Gld-uso Proxy
A few days ago I showed a chart and wrote about gold hammering out a bottom vs. oil. Well today, we are getting confirmation. The world is changing and the conventional legions are again lining up [...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Bears Start Our Week
Monday kicked off the week for the bears in a day where no buyers were found until the last 45 minutes of the day. Volume was split on the red day with the NYSE closing with higher volume for a distribution day and the Nasdaq slightly lower volume than we had on Friday. Futures volume was higher than Fridays on all 4 contracts. Gold closed up $6.00 at $897.50 an ounce and crude up 33 cents to $127.68 a barrel. Into Tuesday well kick off the day with Fed Chairman Bernanke speaking at 9am. He can move the markets with just a few words, so well look for[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
All Eyes On The S&P 500
NOTE: Please click on the charts below to enlarge them if they do not appear clearly.As anticipated, the major indices resumed their newly formed intermediate-term downtrends yesterday. This time, even the Nasdaq succumbed to the selling pressure. Both the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.1%, as the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.2%. The small-cap Russell 2000 and S&P Midcap 400 were lower by 1.0% and 0.8% respectively. A bounce in the final forty-five minutes of trading lifted stocks off their worst levels of the day, enabling the[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Don’t Shoot The Messenger
What a crazy week! Start it with surgery (the non urgent kind that keeps getting put off by surgeons until they find the worst spot in your schedule and decide to do it then), add to that your office moving after being located in the same location for the past 10 years, and for fun throw in the current market conditions and you have the recipie for a very fun week indeed.Things went as well as could [...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Stock Thoughts: Ingersoll-rand
Several days ago I asked my buddy MJ over at Dyslexic Research what he thought of Ingersoll-Rand (IR: chart, web, Y!). I’m not really an industrials guy, as my area of knowledge rests mor[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Your Friend, Your Agent?
The Washington Post had a story, Your Friend, Your Agent?, debating the merits of hiring your frends v.s. hiring some stranger to assist one in a home purchase or sale. The article includes several stories of buyers and sellers who chose relatives or friends over someone they didn’t know, and discussed the merits of each choice.One point of advice it gave:Before you choose to work with a friend, ask yourself what type of agent that person is. If you are mov[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Ford Unloads Jaguar And Land Rover
Ford (F) just unloaded jaguar and Land Rover to the Tata Group. Almost everyone expected the deal to close. Ford of course took a big hit and lost billions of dollars. The precious little cash that they sourced was partially earmarked to top up a pension plan that they have been neglecting. But at least they can say that the have partially staunched the flow of financial blood.In the press release there is a line that says ’As part of the overall deal, Ford said it will continue to supply Jaguar and Land Rover with engines, stampings and technology.’ No financial numbers have bee[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Portfolio Performance For May 2008
I’ve been neck deep in one heck of a massive project at work. Today is the first day in months that I’ve got a breath. And with that breath, I figure I’d post the portfolio’s performance from the past few months.As you can see, the past two months have been the best months of the year for the portfolio. Still not great...but much better than before. In fact, in the cha[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Mr. Market Says Hi To Mr. Obama
Now you know why I distrust strong market opens. The market was trading well until about midday, and then the news hit that Obama would get the Democratic nod. Right about then, the market began to selloff, and never regained its footing.If you wonder what investors think about Obama as our next President, today’s action probably sums it up pretty well. They don’t like him.The market made its lows with about 90 minutes left in the session, and then stage a nice bounce, only to give a little of it back again. The SPX fell -0.6% while[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Edmonton Real Estate Market Remains Balanced
The preliminary numbers for May are out and it looks like the real estate market is still statistically balanced in Edmonton. I have to say though, it doesn’t feel all that balanced. The phones aren’t exactly ringing off the hook. That being said there have been 1820 sales reported so far for May (about the same as last month) which is within the seasonal norm for Edmonton. With month end occuring on a weekend, we can expect a boost in that number by the time the official stats come out from the board. The monthly price is up slightly from last month at $340,302, but s[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Canslim.net Morning Comment And Links (for Traders)
MORNING MARKET COMMENTARYfor Monday, June 2, 2008Nasdaq Composite Ends Month Above Its 200-Day Moving Average Line - Kenneth J. Gruneisen, CANSLIM Certified, Registered Principal, Source Capital Group, Inc. (Members NASD, SIPC)The major averages rallied after consumer confidence fell to a 28-year low in May, however the Dow Jones Industrial Average sputtered into the close with a small loss. Friday was Day 4 of the current rally attempt which means that a proper follow through day could occur anytime in near futu[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
Monday Kicks Off June Summer Trading
Friday left the market green (Dow was slightly red) on lighter volume than we had on Thursday and in a narrow range. The weekly ranges stayed exactly where weve spent the prior two weeks. Fridays narrow range light volume day wasnt exactly a normal end of month show, but the market was able to keep from having a late day slide off and giving up the gains it made all week. Gold closed up $9.90 at $885.60 and curse up .76 at $127.38 a barrel. Keeping in range has pulled the upper Bollinger down on top of us on the weekly NDX, COMPX and just over[...]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]
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[Source: The Money Blogs]