Global Market Comments for January 9, 2009 Featured Trades: (NUE), (WMT), (AMTD), (SWIM), (SCHW) 1) The December nonfarm payroll came in at 524,000, taking the unemployment rate up to a 26 year high of 7.2%. At least the Labor Dept. didn't post a job loss of a million, as the Cassandras had predicted. More than [...]

Global Market Comments for January 8, 2009 Featured Trades: (TRN), (JEC), (WTIC) 1) It is still possible to buy stocks on the cheap that will benefit greatly from the massive public works projects Obama is about to unleash. Trinity Industries (TRN), a major provider of concrete and aggregates with a presence in construction and rail [...]

Global Market Comments for January 7, 2009 Featured Trades: (AA), (FSLR) 1) The market came back to Earth today, the Dow suffering the first down day of 2009. The guilty characters could populate one of those Agatha Christie mysteries where everyone did it except the butler. Take your pick: an ADP report showing 693,000 job [...]

Global Market Comments for January 6, 2009 Featured Trades: ($TYX), (X), (NUE), (WMT), (MCD) 1) The markets are signaling that the credit crisis is over, and that it is now safe to come out of your bunker. The 30 year Treasury has collapsed ten points in the last week, taking yields from 2.60% back over [...]

Annual Asset Class Review January 5, 2009 Featured Trades: (VIX), ($BVSP), (RSX), ($BSE), (FXI), ($KOSPI), (TBT), (JNK), (PHB), (HYG), (COPPER),(FCX), (CHK), ($XEU) After the annus horriblus of 2008, I thought it would be a good time to review the major asset classes and suggest reallocations. Equities: UP The collapse of the volatility index (VIX) is [...]

Global Market Comments for December 30, 2008 Featured trades: (MS), (GS), (WM), (BS), (FNM), (FRE), (AIG), ($GOLD), (WTIC) I thought I would resend you the market forecasts I sent a year ago, in case you missed them. 1) A young black guy you never hear of, whose middle name is Hussein, will be elected President [...]

Global Market Comments for December 29, 2008 Featured trades: (TM), (GM) 1) Employment consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas see the worst jobs market since the Great Depression in 2009. We have lost 732,000 jobs since November, and another one million are to go during the first half of next year. There are now 2.2 million [...]

Global Market Comments for December 24, 2008 Featured trades: (PLD), (WTIC) 1) Consumers slashed spending 0.6% in November, despite rapidly falling prices. Unemployment claims jumped 30,000 to 586,000, a 14 year high. National savings rates are soaring from zero to 5%, as baby boomers rush to rebuild seriously depleted nest eggs going into a feared [...]

Global Market Comments for December 23, 2008 Featured trades: (FXI), (BA), (CAT), (MSFT), (BIDU), (GM), (PLD), (BAC), (WFC) 1) Existing home sales plunged 8.6% in November to 4.49 million, according to the National Association of Realtors. The median sales price fell by the largest amount on record, plunging 13.2% in November to $181,300, from $208,000 [...]

Global Market Comments for December 22, 2008 Featured trades: (SKS), (WMT), (TGT), (JWN) 1) Traders were expecting a Santa Rally today and got a Grinch instead, with a three digit decline in the Dow. Markets were buzzing about a piece on the front page of the Wall Street Journal today announcing the impending demise of [...]

Global Market Comments for December 19, 2008 Featured trades: (UAUA), (LUV), ($XJY) 1) Detroit gets $17.4 billion in life support, and the markets go to sleep. It's a Band-Aid over a stab wound through the heart. Industry analysts figure the real cost of a desperately needed ground up remake of Detroit is closer to $125 [...]

Global Market Comments for December 18, 2008 Featured trades: (VIX) 1) Weekly jobless claims fell slightly to 554,000, while continuing claims stayed at a very high 4.38 million. While the 'official' unemployment rate is only 6.8%, the real rate is almost certainly into double digits now because these figures don't include people who have run [...]

Global Market Comments for December 17, 2008 Featured trades: ($BSE), (TBT), (BAC), WFC), (AMGN), (XOM), (MS), (COF), (VLO), (DRYS) 1) The big trade to make in 2009 will be to dump your safe assets, and pour into risky ones. That is what zero interest rates are telling you to do. Throw in the fact that [...]

Global Market Comments for December 16, 2008 Featured trades: (GM), (GS) 1) The Consumer Price Index fell by 1.7% in November, the biggest drop since records began in 1947. New housing starts plunged to an annual rate of only 625,000, an all time low. The replacement rate is 1.2 million units. This helped force the [...]

Global Market Comments for December 15, 2008 Featured trades: (GM), (BAC), (WFC) 1) Yet another weekend of investors furiously paging through IRA's, 401k's, and brokerage statements, struggling to learn if they have been wiped out. The stunning revelations about Bernard L. Madhoff Security Investments, LLC's $50 billion Ponzi scheme, which decimated a good portion of [...]