US equities had a nice bounce today, especially the SP 500, as compared to the tech heavy NDX. The next two moves will tell us quite a bit more about this. And especially the NDX which had led the way higher in the last rally which recently crested with the IPO of Paypal. You have…
They say that money can’t buy happiness. Well, that may or may not be true, but of one thing I am certain: Money buys you options. When you’re looking for stocks to buy, one thing to examine is the so-called “war chest.” See, a company with a lot of cash on hand can expand its…
According to Bloomberg data, the modest year-to-date increase in the S&P 500 is attributable to health care and retail alone. Worse yet, the two industry segments trade at a 20% premium to the market at large. Paying a premium for growth is one thing. Chasing a handful of momentum stocks is another. Brokerage firm Jones Trading…
No Trend Uniformity As John Hussman points out in his most recent weekly missive, the stock market currently reflects all the characteristics observed near previous major market peaks. Apart from the more obvious ones, such as overvaluation and lopsidedly bullish sentiment which have been with us for some time, the market’s internals continue to deteriorate. This…
Written by Doug Short and Steven Hansen The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index significantly declined nearly nine points from the 99.8 reported last month. The market expected this index to come in at 97.0 to 102.0 (consensus 99.6) versus the 90.9 reported. This index has now improved to a point that its level is now commenserate with periods…
Yesterday the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) broke below its early July low. At the same time the Dow Jones Transportation Average (DJTA) held above its early July low. Since the top in the transports last December they have led the industrials lower. Yesterday broke that trend. It now appears that DJIA is catching down…
BP p.l.c. (BP) is the holding company of one of the world’s largest petroleum and petrochemicals groups. Their main activities are exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas; refining, marketing, supply and transportation; and manufacturing and marketing of petrochemicals. They have a growing activity in gas and power and in solar power generation….
I had imagined a situation in the China 25 (now 50) vs. the S&P 500 that called for China to either rise more than the US or decline less. It was based on this weekly chart and its moving average ‘up’ signal which, while still in effect has turned out to be a load of…
The mainstream media reported the Case Shiller Index for “May.” I put that in quotes because the data does not represent the actual state of the market in May. Case Shiller represents the 3 month average price of repeat sales (not all sales, just houses that had sold previously) which were recorded by county agencies…
The American Chemistry Council’s updated Chemical Activity Barometer continues its uptrend. From the report is and extract below: “The Chemical Activity Barometer is a leading economic indicator derived from a composite index of chemical industry activity. The chemical industry has been found to consistently lead the U.S. economy’s business cycle given its early position in…
