Global Market Comments for March 16, 2009 Featured Trades: (CHINA), (BAC), (C) 1) Fed chairman Ben Bernanke did a great interview with CBS 60 Minutes last night. It's nice to know that the recession 'might' end this year. He ruled out the big banks going to zero, which is great news for Bank of America [...]

Global Market Comments for March 13, 2009 Featured Trades: ($USD), (DOLLAR) 1) I ran into governor Arnold Schwarzenegger at the men's bathroom at San Francisco's Mark Hopkins yesterday, much to the distress of his posse of ex Marine bodyguards. He was there to take credit for hammering together a compromise solution to his state's $42 [...]

Global Market Comments for March 12, 2009 Featured Trades: (TBT) 1) Forbes Magazine has published its annual list of the 400 wealthiest, and the carnage has been awesome. The net worth of the elite club has shrunk from $4.4 trillion to $2.4 trillion, with the average dropping from $3.9 billion to $3 billion. Bill Gates, [...]

Global Market Comments for March 11, 2009 Featured Trades: (GOLD) 1) Noted international monetary economist Judy Shelton believes the US should return to at least a partial gold standard to help damp volatility in the $4.4 trillion a day foreign exchange market to hasten an economic recovery. The current 'dirty float' system, where a free [...]

Global Market Comments for March 10, 2009 Featured Trades: (GE), (ABX), (SPX), (WTIC), (OIL) 1) It only took a few dew drops of good news for the Dow to recover from its near death experience and rocket 350 points. The 'I love America trades' of long bonds and Treasuries came back with a vengeance. The [...]

Global Market Comments for March 9, 2009 Featured Trades: (COPPER), (XLF), (FCX), (WTIC), (JPM), (WFC), (GS), (BAC), (C) 1) Traders looking for the Next Big Play are keeping a laser like focus on two key commodities. Chinese stockpiling prompted copper to break out of its recent trading range to the upside to $1.70, taking lead [...]

Global Market Comments for March 6, 2009 Featured Trades: (GE), (C), (FXI),(BIDU), (SOHU), (NTES) 1) February nonfarm payroll came in at -651,000, taking the unemployment rate up to 8.1%, a 25 year high. The unemployment rate in California is now well over 10%. There were huge revisions up in the December and January figures. Remember [...]

Global Market Comments for March 5, 2009 Featured Trades: (GE), ($XEU), (GOOG) 1) Q4 European GDP came in at -1.5%. Consumer spending registered the sharpest fall on record, while exports fell off a cliff, the victim of a relentless shrinking of globalization. The euro ($XEU), down to $1.2450, is flirting with a new four year [...]

Global Market Comments for March 4, 2009 Featured Trades: (SILVER), (GOLD) 1) The February ADP employment report showed a loss of 697,000 jobs. Since we are probably in a minus 6% GDP quarter, expect these numbers to remain grisly for months to come. Watch for the Labor Department's nonfarm payroll on Friday, which will be [...]

Global Market Comments for March 3, 2009 Featured Trades: (WFC), (JPM), (C), (BAC), (GOLD) 1) We're going to 6,000 in the Dow, then maybe 4,000. So argues Louise Yamada, one of the most respected long term technical analysts on Wall Street. The targets for the S&P 500 are 600 and 400. Let me reprint a [...]

Global Market Comments March 2, 2009 Featured Trades: (BAC), (GOLD), (POLAND), (CEE), (MSFT), (INTC), (ORCL), (CSCO), (BRK/A), (COP), (JNJ), (GS), (GE) 1) The US is turning into Europe. Think high taxes, high unemployment, more government involvement in everything, and much lower growth. That is the message the markets are telling us by retreating to the [...]

Global Market Comments for February 27, 2009 Featured Trades: (SILVER), 1) Welcome to the worst case scenario, with Q4 GDP revised down from -3.8% to -6.2%. Q4 will be just as bad, if not worse, then we will find a bottom. Technical analysts were ringing their hands as the Dow hit a new 12 year [...]

Global Market Comments for February 26, 2009 Featured Trades: (GM), (YEN),(YCS) 1) Weekly first time jobless claims soared from 631,000 to 677,000, taking total claims to 5.1 million, a new all time high. General Motors (GM) announced a Q4 loss, and a 6.2 billion cash burn, leaving them with a scant $14 billion left. The [...]

Global Market Comments for February 25, 2009 Featured Trades: (C), (BAC) 1) So nationalize the banks already! Get it over with! Call it whatever you want: partial nationalization, temporary nationalization, socialization, liverwurst, or rutabaga. Just get it over with! This tortuous slow drip of on again, off again, stop gap measures is going to cost [...]

Global Market Comments for February 24, 2009 Featured Trades: (GOLD), (GLD), (SPG) 1) The Senate Banking Committee holds hearings while Rome burns. The S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index showed a Q4 fall of -18.2%, the sharpest decline in its 21 year history. Prices in San Francisco fell by 31.2%. We got within 100 points of [...]