“Is $130 oil a bubble?”, CNN, Friday May 23 “The Short View: Commodity Speculation”, John Authers, Financial Times, Tuesday May 20 “Whither The Price of Oil?”, John Mauldin, Frontline Thoughts, Friday May 23 “High Oil Prices Spur Thoughts About Bubbles,…
In the past (Iran) would have put a little bullish impetus in these markets, but it isn’t today. Perhaps it’s telling. – Addison Armstrong (subscription required), Analyst, Tradition Energy The story in financial markets for the last bunch of days has…
The combination of record high fuel prices and continuing difficulties in the housing sector has further accelerated the shift away from large pickups and SUVs to small and medium-sized cars and crossovers. We saw a real change in the industry…
The trading in the stock market the last few days has been all about oil. And the trading in oil has been all about speculative psychology. Yesterday, spurred by a surprise drawdown in oil inventories reported by the Energy Information…
Troubling all around, lower confidence and ongoing inflation worries. – Ian Lyngen, Interest Rate Strategist, RBS Greenwich Capital This morning the Reuters/University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey fell to 59.5 – down from 62.6 in April and its lowest level…
Using an overly aggressive seasonal adjustment factor, the statistical magicians turned an actual 6.5% surge in gasoline prices into a small decline. I wonder if they can read the minds of very skeptical American motorists who are not fooled by…
Our business is even more relevant to our customers today, given the current economic pressures. – Lee Scott, CEO Walmart This is the Walmart Economy! I’ve been talking about this for a bit now (see, for example, “Dan Gross: Tough…
Why is the stock market up so much today? News doesn’t really seem to be driving it. Volume is especially weak with only about 710,000 shares trading on the NYSE leading into the final hour. A small amount of buying…
History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme. – Mark Twain Tim Knight of The Slope of Hope put up an excellent post yesterday covering the bear market rallies of the 2000-2002 bear market. Again and again, powerful rallies were…
Whenever the Fed says or does something that is subsequently misinterpreted, they have a few back door methods to correct the error. Two in particular were used fairly regularly. Call it the Fed edit/correction methodology. When John Berry was at…