Newsweek’s cover story this week is titled “Road To Recession” and the picture is of a desert road. I think this is significant. It tells us that many people are now of the opinion or at least contemplating a recession. …
“Expectations of further Fed cuts continue to support the precious metal, and traders feel bullion can break the $950 mark in coming weeks. Some even suggest that gold may jump as high as $1000 an ounce in a couple of…
It’s been another volatile day so far. Markets opened sharply lower, due to selling overseas and weak same store sales numbers from McDonald’s (MCD). US same store sales were up only 3.3% in the 4th quarter and flat in December (MCD…
“…. the basic forces that propel markets your editor believes to be momentum and value…..” – James Picerno, “A Short Treatise For A Two-Factor World”, May 14, 2007, The Capital Spectator “In 2007, by far the biggest driver of US…
As I’ve written about before, I like to follow sales of Harley’s and RVs because I think they give insight into discretionary consumer spending (see the wonderful NY Times article “The Muted Roars of Hogs and R.V.s”, Sept 30, 2007)….
Institutional money market funds increased their balances by $52 billion in the week ended Wednesday to $2.055 trillion (Investment Company Institute Press Release). That’s like a 2.6% increase in cash balances which is one of the largest I’ve seen.
Today’s trading is interesting. The news is generally good. Microsoft (MSFT) reported a really good quarter after the close yesterday. Dow components Honeywell (HON) and Caterpillar (CAT) also appear to have reported good quarters before the open this morning. But…
“And I hope when I get old I don’t sit around thinking about it but I probably will. Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture a little of the glory of, well time slips away and leaves you with nothing…
With so much going on in in the here and now, I think it’s important to go beyond all the volatility in stock markets to understand the bigger picture implications of the week’s action. We shouldn’t forget that the big…
“The big picture overall trend is still down and the market is still broken. Until that is repaired, rallies (even like the one we saw yesterday) are not to be entirely trusted.” – Charles Kirk, “Calling A Bottom”, Thursday January…