Analysis Topic: Stock & Financial Markets

The analysis published under this topic are as follows.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

VIX Low...News Quiet... Stock Market Lateral....Fed Still protecting.... / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2012

By: Jack_Steiman

I have a good time listening to debates. It's always fun to hear the emotion pour out of people as they express their opinions on the stock market. I guess the prevailing view is, it's only a matter of time before this market is doomed to crash out. I wonder about that. Fundamentally I have no argument with that logic. After all, Europe stinks. Our economy is not as bad, but it stinks as well. Debt and foreclosures are everywhere. More and more folks are losing jobs. Our manufacturing sector is in contraction and pointing to recession.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Protecting Democracy And Profits From The Globalist Threat / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2012

By: DeepCaster_LLC

“If governments allow themselves to be entirely bound to the decisions of their parliament, without protecting their own freedom to act, a breakup of Europe would be a more probable outcome than deeper integration.”

Italy’s unelected prime minister Mario Monti, 8/6/2012

Shocking but not surprising, is that attitude of Italy’s unelected Prime Minister Mario Monti that “Governments” should not be bound by the decisions of their democratically elected parliaments and should be free to act without regard to the decisions of their citizens.

Friday, August 10, 2012

European Bankers and Top Politicians Fear Collapse of the Euro / Stock-Markets / Eurozone Debt Crisis

By: DK_Matai

Until recently, it was a sign of political correctness not even to consider the possibility of a euro collapse.  Investment experts at Deutsche Bank -- Germany's largest bank -- now feel that a collapse of the common currency is "a very likely scenario." Germany's second-largest bank -- Commerzbank -- has also flagged fears of a Eurozone collapse whilst bracing for a worsening of the euro-crisis.  "The greatest downside risk remains an uncertainty shock from an escalation of the sovereign debt crisis, ie, the collapse of the monetary union," Commerzbank states in its latest quarterly report released this week, adding that it thought the risk was higher now than in autumn last year. 

Friday, August 10, 2012

Stocks Bear Market Looming? / Stock-Markets / Stocks Bear Market

By: Zeal_LLC

With the US stock markets challenging a major multi-year high, investors are feeling pretty complacent these days.  But unseen below the placid surface, a serious risk is arising from the depths.  With each passing day, the odds grow that a new stock bear is imminent.  As these merciless beasts typically maul the markets until stock prices are cut in half, they are dangerous threats that cannot be taken lightly.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Stock Market 3-Year Rally Doesn't Have to End This Way - Or Does It? / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2012

By: EWI

Is it wise to forecast financial markets based on what central bankers say?

Look no further than a chart of long-term stock market prices for the answer: No major trend change ever followed any of those announcements.

Thursday, August 09, 2012

Stock Market Quiet Day... / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2012

By: Jack_Steiman

That's not bad when you look back on it as those 60-minute short-term charts are unwinding nicely for the bulls without any real move down in price. Normally, that's a good thing as price is not being confirmed by declining oscillators. If the oscillators get back to neutral, or oversold, and there wasn't much erosion in price, another move higher is likely to ensue. So far so good, but there's still a chance for lower prices, and if that occurs, we will get near ,or at oversold, on those 60-minute charts, which would offer up more buying opportunities. There hasn't been much news globally of any significance the past few days, and it seems the quieter it is the more the market likes things these days.

Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Financial Algorithmic Trading and Knight Capital Calamity / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2012

By: BATR

Once all the rage was arbitrage trading. High frequency trading then became the catchphrase. Now the latest scheme to insert financial nanotech - rage against the machine – practices called algorithmic trading created an automated loss of historic proportions. The Knight Capital calamity gave rise to rogue mathematics gone amuck. What a surprise! Removing buy or sell decisions from human hands is the quickest way to destroy a company that took years to build. How the euphemism "TRADING" applies to the upheaval of computerized speculation, could only make sense in the weird world of Wall Street accounting.

Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Are High Frequency Traders Rigging the Stock Market? / Stock-Markets / Market Manipulation

By: Doug_Horning

Doug Hornig, Casey Research writes: High-frequency traders (HFT) have no interest in any company whose stock they're trading.

They don't care about its earnings, what sector it's in, nor who's on the board of directors.

They neither know nor care how it fares in technical analysis, and they don't give a damn about its long-term prospects.

Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Stock Market Sorry Folks, Still Nothing from Nothing...... / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2012

By: Jack_Steiman

And who knows how long it'll keep on keeping on. Day after day, week after week, and month after month, now in month number eight, the market plays see-saw and whipsaw with our emotions. So many times you'd bet hard that we're about to break down, only to see those 200-day exponential moving averages catch us, when it looks like they can't. Other times, like the past few days, breakout seems inevitable. Inevitably it doesn't. We hit Nasdaq 100 3000, the bottom of the massive gap down with the top at 3025, only to see the bulls fail as we pulled back late in the day. No energy available for the bulls to make the breakout which mirrored the bears at those 200's. Simply no energy, and thus, failure.

Monday, August 06, 2012

Why Europe Matters… And How Spain Could Wipe Out Your 401(k) / Stock-Markets / Eurozone Debt Crisis

By: Graham_Summers

Many people have been writing in to ask me, “why are you focusing on Europe so much? Who cares about Spain?”

The short answer is that everyone should care about Spain. Spain could potentially take down the banking system in Europe, which would mean the US facing a Financial Crisis at least on par with 2008.

Monday, August 06, 2012

Many Signs of Stock Market Intermediate Top Forming / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2012

By: Andre_Gratian

Current position of the market

SPX: Very Long-term trend – The very-long-term cycles are down and, if they make their lows when expected (after this bull market is over) there will be another steep and prolonged decline into late 2014.  It is probable, however, that the steep correction of 2007-2009 will have curtailed the full downward pressure potential of the 120-yr cycle.

SPX: Intermediate trend –  SPX is in a limited intermediate uptrend which is estimated to end in the first week of August.

Monday, August 06, 2012

Stock Market Bulls Have Three Weeks Left! / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2012

By: Toby_Connor

3 weeks, that's how long the bulls have left before stocks roll over and begin the next intermediate degree decline. That being said, the next 2-3 weeks should yield some very healthy gains in virtually all asset classes. Why is that you wonder? Well, it's because the dollar has begun moving down into an intermediate degree correction which will, in the next few weeks, fuel the 'risk-on' trade.

Monday, August 06, 2012

Could Speed-of-Light Market Trading Trigger The Next Systemic Crisis? / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2012

By: DK_Matai

Computers don't sleep, don't get tired, don't care about politics and don't go on holiday in August -- but they can wreak havoc in the global financial marketplace by amplifying moves on the up- and down-sides as we recently saw with the "Dark" Knight fiasco involving 140 stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange of which nearly 40 moved more than 10% in less than an hour.  The "Knightmare on Wall Street" has cast new doubts on the automated High-Frequency Trading (HFT) systems that now totally dominate global exchange trading, despite multi-million-dollar lobby groups proclaiming from rooftops that HFT is not only safe and stabilising but beneficial to humankind.  Powerful algorithms -- “algos” in industry parlance -- execute millions of orders per second and can scan dozens of public and private marketplaces simultaneously. They can not only spot trends before other investors can blink, changing orders and strategies automatically within milliseconds, they can also choreograph and co-ordinate strategies across geographies and asset classes. 

Sunday, August 05, 2012

Market Outlook for Metals, Stocks and U.S. Dollar / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2012

By: Chad_Bennis

This past week saw a number of headline driven news as central banks attempt to intervene in the global economic fiasco. They have pledged to goose the monetary supply by instituting bond purchasing programs in their respective nations, but all we have is talk and the action is yet to come. So, let’s take a step back and examine the technical picture outside of any promises to act.

Saturday, August 04, 2012

Keynesian Investors Being Ground into Euro Dust / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2012

By: Gary_North

Occasionally, I read something in the mainstream financial media whose degree of delusion takes my breath away. This is such a sentence (August 2, 2012).

U.S stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Thursday, with investors hoping the European Central Bank will signal further measures to aid growth and prevent the euro zone collapsing.

Saturday, August 04, 2012

Jobs Offset The ECB... Market Flat For The Week...... / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2012

By: Jack_Steiman

It was a very interesting week in many respects. There were at least three different times when it felt like a bear market and a bull market. The whipsaw continued with many of the usual head fakes for both the bulls and the bears. The action early on in the week was nasty with a strong down side bias. After getting through many huge economic reports and events that shot the market all over the place, the market finished strong, allowing for a flat week of overall action. We had the ISM Manufacturing Rport come on Wednesday, the same day we heard from Mr. Bernanke. The ISM Report disappointed as it showed our country to be slightly in the red regarding recession. The 49.8 reading showed continued economic contraction. The number was supposed to show slight growth. A bad start.

Saturday, August 04, 2012

Stock Market Corporate Earnings Cycle Analysis / Stock-Markets / Corporate Earnings

By: John_Mauldin

A few weeks ago, Ed Easterling and I updated the work we published almost ten years ago about secular bear and bull markets. This week I am in Maine at the annual Shadow Fed fishing trip (for those of us whose invitation to Jackson Hole keeps getting lost in the mail). Ed has graciously agreed to do another piece with me on the earnings, or business, cycle, which is different in timing than the secular stock market cycle but is part of the total warp and woof of the markets. When you combine them, you get a much clearer picture of the markets.

Saturday, August 04, 2012

Fed Hits Kill Switch On Market Liquidity / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2012

By: Clif_Droke

Lately investors have been worried about liquidity, specifically the central bank's willingness (or unwillingness) to continue providing it, and with good reason. Without periodic injections of liquidity, investors eventually lose interest as financial markets begin to languish. And in a financial economy like the U.S., the death of a bull market means the death of the economic recovery.

Bull markets are to a large extent liquidity driven affairs. Without an abundance of excess monetary liquidity sloshing through the financial market, stocks and commodities have little hope of developing the necessary ingredient of forward momentum. Momentum is what attracts an ever-growing number of investors to participate in a bull market, which in turn is what keeps the bull market going. When liquidity dries up, momentum perishes and investors quickly lose interest. This, in a nutshell, is how bull markets turn into bear markets, viz. the absence of liquidity.

Saturday, August 04, 2012

Stock Market Surge Higher - "The Stage is Being Set / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2012

By: EWI

Elliott Wave International has long observed that external events do not alter the dominant trend of financial markets -- not even major events like wars, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, political assassinations or any other news that makes headlines.

Now, it is true that news can sometimes have a near-term effect on market prices.

Friday, August 03, 2012

Knight Capital and High Frequency Trading Making Markets Skittish / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2012

By: Bloomberg

Dinakar Singh, founder of $4 billion hedge fund TPG-Axon Capital, spoke with Bloomberg TV’s Erik Schatzker and Stephanie Ruhle on “Market Makers” today, saying that investors are scared and are paying a lot for safety.  Singh said that the commodities “super cycle” is over because of falling Chinese productivity and profits—and that profits are improving the most in Japan.

Singh went on to say that he sees growth in the chemical, health-care and aerospace industries and likes Sirius XM and W.R. Grace.  He also said “we are bearish on some financials, U.S. regional banks especially” and that he is betting against telecom stocks.