Global Market Comments April 21, 2009 Featured Trades: (COPPER), (FCX) 1) Those who followed my recommendation to buy copper on January 5 are the happy participants in the first bubble of the year. The red metal has rocketed from $1.28 to $2.26, while producer Freeport McMoran (FCX) soared 88% from $25 to $47. Heavy and [...]

Global Market Comments April 17, 2009 Featured Trades: (PHM), (CTX), (POT), (MOS), (AGU), (WHEAT), (CORN), (SOYBEANS), (RICE) 1) March Housing Starts came in at 510,000, down 10.8% from February, and short of the 540,000 consensus. Permits fell 9% to 513,000. Completions were down 3.5% to 796,000.  The estimated five million houses for sale, in foreclosure, [...]

Global Market Comments April 16, 2009 1) I chatted with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi yesterday as she was passing through the San Francisco Bay Area. I have known Nancy for 15 years, and she was breathing fire and spitting nails as usual. With the public fuming over banksters' bonuses and bail outs, Wall [...]

Global Market Comments April 15, 2009 Featured Trades: (GM), (CHINA), (MSO) 1) Thanks, but no thanks! Goldman Sachs (GS) voted with a big thumbs down on the stock market today yesterday by issuing $5 billion in new equity at $123/share. Perhaps not coincidently, this gives the government a $1 profit on its holding in the [...]

Global Market Comments April 14, 2009 Featured Trades: (WFC), (WB), (JPM, (BAC), (C), (GM) 1) So there is life after near death! Wells Fargo (WFC) stunned the street with a surprise $3 billion profit in Q1, vastly better than expectations. The shocker was that charge offs from loan losses amounted to only $3.3 billion, a [...]

Global Market Comments April 13, 2009 Featured Trades: (VIX), ($BVSP), (RSX), ($BSE), (FXI), ($KOSPI), (SPX), (EEM), (TBT), (PHB), (HYG), (FCX), (CHK), (COPPER), (OIL), (NATGAS), ($XEU), (REIT) First Quarter Report Card Many readers have asked me to review my recommendations of the last three months, so here is The Mad Hedge Fund Trader's Q1 report card. [...]

Global Market Comments April 9, 2009 Featured Trades: (GOLD), (ABX), (GM), (TM) 1) 'There is room for bulls and bears, but pigs get slaughtered,' said Peter Munk, the legendary founder and CEO of Barrick Gold, the world's largest gold producer. This is his admonition to worshipers of the barbaric relic hoping for a quick super [...]

Global Market Comments April 8, 2009 Featured Trades: (PLD), (TBT), (PHM), (CTX) 1) I bumped into Jim Lehrer last night, the legendary anchor of 'The News Hour With Jim Lehrer' on PBS, as he breezed through the San Francisco Bay Area promoting his 22nd novel, 'Oh, Johnny'. The ex-Marine, whose first big story was covering [...]

Global Market Comments April 7, 2009 Featured Trades: (VIX), (SPX) 1) Today I spoke to my old Morgan Stanley boss , Barton Biggs, who is so bullish that he believes we are only one third to one half of the way through the current stock market rally. Barton, voted best international strategist for seven years, [...]

Global Market Comments April 6, 2006 Featured Trades: (CHINA), (CRUDE), ($WTIC) 1) Deutsche Bank's former banking analyst Michael Mayo sucker punched the market today, putting out a report ominously entitled 'The Seven Deadly Sins of Banking' listing all 11 major banks as 'underperforms' or 'sells'.  Talk about closing the gate after the horses have bolted. [...]

Global Market Comments for April 2, 2009 Featured Trades: (LITHIUM), (SQM), (AMTD), (SCHW), (SWIM) 1) See? All it takes was a little accounting rule change, and Great Depression II will go away. At least that's what the stock market thought today, surging 300 points and blasting through 8,000 in the Dow, up 26% from its [...]

Global Market Comments for April 1, 2009 Featured Trades: (COPPER), (GOLD), (TM), (YEN) 1) The March ADP private sector employment report was diabolical once again, showing a loss of 742,000 jobs, the worst monthly showing in history. Boy, am I getting sick of saying 'worse than expected'. To add insult to injury, February was revised [...]

Global Market Comments for March 31, 2009 Featured Trades: (EBAY), (AAPL), (T), (VZ) 1) The migration of American business to online formats is accelerating, with over 1,000 new business being created every day. Internet advertising continues to go from strength to strength, and is one of the few growth sectors of the economy. The Interactive [...]

Global Market Comments for March 30, 2009 Featured Trades: (FCX), (CRUDE), (NG) 1)    Call me an optimist, but I am starting to see crocuses of economic recovery busting out all over. Long side traders now have a spring in their step after a 23% rise in the Dow in three weeks, the best move since [...]

Global Market Comments for March 27, 2009 Featured Trades: (SCHW), (AMTD), (IYR), (BPO) 1) Once thought an extinct species, the retail stock investor is back with a vengeance. It only took a 23% rally, the best since 1938, to do it. Trading volumes are up 15%-20%. It's time to take a look at the online [...]