December 2, 2011 - Quote of the Day
?Don?t get greedy. Don?t expect much. This is a single and double type of market. You?ve got to play it this way,? said Jeffrey Kleintop, a market strategist at LPL Financial.
Entries by DougD
Central Bank Bazooka Sends Markets Flying
The world?s major central banks launched a coordinated attempt to restore liquidity to the financial markets today, sending risk assets everywhere flying. The group moved to substantially lower interbank dollar swap rates, from 100 to 50 basis points. These swaps involve Federal Reserve dollar deposits with the European Central Bank and offsetting ECB Euro deposits
China?s Rate Cut is a Game Changer
For the first time in three years, China (FXI) has cut its prime lending rate by 50 basis points. The timing caught many analysts by surprise, as such move was not expected until the lunar new year in early February. Perhaps recent data showing collapsing exports prompted the Mandarins in Beijing to hurriedly move up
Watch out for the New ?RISK ON? ETN (ONN)
Mark Fisher of MBF Asset Management and Dennis Gartman of the eponymous Gartman Letter joined forces today to launch a new exchange traded note, or ETN, that promises to capture the ?RISK ON? trade. The instrument is designed as an improvement over the old Volatility Index ETF where traders attempted to capture short term market
September Case- Shiller Delivers Housing Blow
My worst fears about the deteriorating state of the US residential housing market were confirmed today with the release of the closely watched Case-Shiller Home Price Index. Nationwide, Q3 delivered a 3.9% decline in home prices, hot on the heels of a whopping 5.8% plunge in Q2. Most markets are at 8-10 year lows with
Austerity Hits Wall Street
This year, your bonus is that you get to keep your job. That is the bad news that will be dished out to many disappointed staff during annual reviews at the major Wall Street firms this year. We all know that volumes have been trading at subterranean levels which have created a real drought of
November 30, 2011 - Quote of the Day
?We?re spending billions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Let?s rebuild America first. If you build us a bridge or a school in West Virginia we won?t blow it up and we won?t burn it down,? said Senator Joe Manchin.
Bear Trap Sprung
The coming bear trap that I warned about last week sprung this morning on the non-subscribing unwary, triggering panic buying by short sellers in all ?RISK ON? assets. Oil (USO), gold (GLD), silver (SLV), copper (CU), and foreign currencies all moved in lockstep to the upside. The trigger was news that leaked out over the
The Case Against Treasury Bonds
If you want to delve into the case against the long term future of US Treasury bonds in all their darkness, take a look at Foreign Affairs, the establishment bimonthly journal read by academics, intelligence agencies, and politicians alike, which I am sure you all have sitting on your nightstands. In a well-researched and thought
November 28, 2011 - Quote of the Day
?Better to have stop and go, than no go at all,? said hedge fund legend, George Soros, about the choppy prospects for the US economy.