Analysis Topic: Stock & Financial Markets
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Sunday, March 21, 2010
Stock and Gold Market Trading Range Madness / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2010
One of the most salient observations that can be made in the financial market is the tendency of market averages to enter lengthy trading range after a prolonged uptrend or downtrend. This temporarily directionless trend of prices, or consolidation, within a range creates a psychological discomfort among investors that at times is quite palpable. Taken to an extreme, a trading range tends to manifest itself emotionally among market participants and in ways that can be sometimes be observed even in non-participants. The longer the market continues in a lateral or directionless range, the more discomfited the crowd tends to be.
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Sunday, March 21, 2010
Stock Market Bullish Extreme Going Forward / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2010
In hindsight, the best strategy has been to "set it and forget it" - buy at the bottom in March, 2009 and let it ride. I am sure that is what everyone did! Going forward, the best strategy remains as it has been since October. It will be important to exercise patience and buy at the lows and sell at the highs to capture any profits from this market. While buying low and selling high is always a good policy, it is particularly important here.
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Saturday, March 20, 2010
Stock Market Distribution Day Friday? / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2010
Friday had all the makings of a distribution day. It, however, was an OpEx day and we can’t know how much of the activity were market’s way of punishing late buyers and rally hopefuls. Monday, and Tuesday’s action will tell us if this was yet another quick selloff buying opportunity or the beginning of a pullback/correction.
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Saturday, March 20, 2010
Economic Bubbles and Financial Crises, Past and Present / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2010
"It is well enough that people ... do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning." Henry Ford, American industrialist
Read full article... Read full article..."It seems to me that Europe, especially with the addition of more countries, is becoming ever-more susceptible to any asymmetric shock. Sooner or later, when the global economy hits a real bump, Europe's internal contradictions will tear it apart." Milton Friedman, American economist
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Stock Market Investors, Don't Be Fooled Again / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2010
In contrast to our typical lean toward writing about how active traders can better engage the markets, this piece is for everyday people who are exposed to the markets, but too busy to pay any meaningful attention to them.
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Saturday, March 20, 2010
Has the Stock Market Broadening Top Crested? / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2010
The finger-pointing has already begun - Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the central bank and other U.S. regulators “failed” during the financial crisis because they became too complacent about risks.
“Even with the breakdown of private risk-management, the financial system would have held together had the second bulwark against crisis -- our regulatory system -- functioned effectively,” Greenspan said in the text of a speech at a Brookings Institution conference today. “But, under crisis pressure, it too failed.”
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Saturday, March 20, 2010
Stock Market Finally Some Selling..... / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2010
It took its sweet time but the selling has finally arrived. We started the day with a small gap down and never really made an effort to shoot higher. Some small attempts but they were quickly knocked down. It took over a month at being overbought but the market finally caved in. It's important for a market to unwind, of course, and I know it's no fun being in some plays while the market is selling off, but if we had not ignored overbought over the past many weeks we would have missed out on some wonderful plays. We'll just deal with what we have until the market finished off its selling.
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Friday, March 19, 2010
Stock Market Investors Remain Cautious! / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2010
Investor sentiment is a well known indicator of market risk.
For centuries the evidence has been clear that whether it is investing in Barbie Dolls, Beanie Babies, or baseball cards; tulip bulbs, Florida swampland, or oil-drilling rigs; the stock market, art, or houses, investors have no interest in investing when prices are at bargain levels. However, after prices have risen so much that they are creating exciting headlines, investors tend to become frantic buyers at any price to try to catch up and get their share of the gains.
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Friday, March 19, 2010
Watching VIX for Signs of Topping Stock Market / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2010
There are so many crosscurrents today -- options expiration, healthcare reform, S&P rebalancing, among other things. Let's see if the VIX-SPX relationship can shed any light on what the market is "really" doing...
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Friday, March 19, 2010
Take Time from March Madness for 2010's Most Important Investment Report / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2010
You got your brackets filled out before the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament's opening game on Thursday afternoon. Good -- now sit back and enjoy the games. But if you're looking for a good read during the numerous and lengthy time outs, we've got just the thing. It's the most important investment report you will read in 2010. Forget the theoretical and hypothetical sorts of analysis that occupy so much space online. Bob Prechter gives 22 real-life examples of how deflation is beginning to spread in the U.S. economy -- along with 13 charts that make the examples even clearer.
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Friday, March 19, 2010
Dow Theory Major Stock Market Confirmation / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2010
Jobless claims came in a little higher than expected while the change in the CPI was zero. Of course the financial news networks’ immediately went to work telling the world how this is not deflationary. At best it’s a thin argument and the statistics do not back it up. Yesterday the PPI came out at a negative 0.6% adding a little fuel to my deflationary argument. Also, the slowdown is not confined to the United States as the following text from a Bloomberg article points out:
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Friday, March 19, 2010
Yen To Weaken, A Positive For World Stocks / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2010
Benchmark yields climbed to the highest level since the start of February before a government report next week that economists said will show exports surged more than 40 percent last month from a year earlier. Bonds also dropped this week as sentiment among manufacturers climbed and demand for services increased, boosting the appetite for higher-yielding assets.
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Friday, March 19, 2010
S&P Stock Market The Technical Trader’s View / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2010
Some analysts have alarmed bulls by pointing out the relative underperformance of the Nasdaq and the Russell indices, the failure to make new highs in key S&P leadership stocks and, yesterday, the 14day RSI registering its highest overbought level since 1971…
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Friday, March 19, 2010
Stock Market Trends Higher Still..... / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2010
An old story for sure. The market that just doesn't want to fall very much or even think about surrendering S&P 500 1151, the level just captured by the bulls that officially told us we were on breakout. When we were trading below the bears had some hope. The bulls fought time and time again, finally claiming victory a few days back and now they’re throwing everything they can at the bears to keep it over this key number. So far so good, no matter how overbought those daily charts may be. It's forcing everyone to keep some scratch in the game, even though it makes us all feel uneasy due to those levels of overbought. I look around the world of stocks and see so many stocks in great handles, you simply have to keep giving the nod to the bulls in their ability to keep this market moving higher.
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Thursday, March 18, 2010
Why You're Crazy to Buy an Stock Index Fund Right Now / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2010
Dan Ferris writes: I doubt you wake up every morning saying, "Gee, if only someone would pay me 4.37% on my life savings."
Nobody does. Getting paid 4.37% isn't nearly enough. But that's what the stock market is offering you right now. And plenty of people are buying.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Economic and Stock Market Recovery, Maybe The Emperor Has No Clothes / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2010
It seems the general consensus is we are in a full blown recovery. There is little doubt that the worse of this crisis is over. I sure hope that is true, but when I see complacency in the financial markets such as I see today, so soon behind a meltdown, I have concern.
The politicians on the hill and the talking heads on the T.V. can say what they want, but there are few recoveries without the participation of the consumer. Economic stability depends on consumer confidence, which results in consumer spending, not through a barrage of Government spending.
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Thursday, March 18, 2010
The Institutional Stock Market Index is Facing a Major Test Today / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2010
The Primary Support (now Resistance) Test is happening today ...
You all know how important the Institutional Index of "core holdings" is ... it is not really an index so it cannot be hedged, manipulated, or played with in any way. It is a pure representation of what the "core holdings" are doing relative to the market.
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Thursday, March 18, 2010
Impressive Earnings To Push Stock Market Higher Through 1st June / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2010
The first quarter earnings report season is rapidly approaching. Most U.S. company news has entered a quiet period with corporate announcements at a minimum. The exceptions are companies with negative surprises, which will be rare this quarter. Cash flow and earnings have recovered significantly from the first quarter of 2009.
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Thursday, March 18, 2010
The Economy Does Not Always Drive the Stock Market Trend / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2010
In the long run, economic development and — especially — corporate earnings are the main drivers of stock market performance. But this relationship is very loose. It becomes tight only if your time horizon is measured in decades.
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Thursday, March 18, 2010
Stock Market Sentiment Remains Positive / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2010
We have seen some more negative commentary on China over the past 24 hours, including from the likes of the World Bank (which in its latest quarterly report called for a tighter monetary policy stance to combat the risk of large asset prices increases and bad debts from the financing of local government projects). Yet the overall tone of markets has remained distinctly positive, with key European bourses approaching new highs for the year, US markets making new cyclical highs and commodity prices and commodity currencies generally strengthening.
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