Jeff Sommer and his “Strategies” column in the New York Times has often have been the target of our slings and arrows, and we can’t resist one more shot. This Sunday’s business section in the Times carried an article penned by Mr. Sommer with the uncharacteristically bullish headline–“Forecast For A 20,000 Dow Still Holds.” …
Session 33—“Investors Can’t Beat the Machines—Commentary: Computer-Dominated Trading Takes Over.”
This bleak headline from the weekend edition of MarketWatch.com not only sounds depressing, but also it sounds like something out of “The Terminator.” Just give up ‘flesh and blood’ investors the machines are taking over. I mean why bother? You don’t have a chance. Mark Hulbert of the Hulbert Financial Digest, who is usually a…
Session 32—This Market, I Don’t Get It!
I think this has become a common refrain in the Wall Street community, the financial media and punditry corps. They continue to puzzle about the S&P and Dow breakouts to new all-time highs. How can this be with such high unemployment, weak jobs growth and a generally sluggish economic backdrop? Well, that is the…
Session 31— “Dow 15000, And the Big Disconnect—Wall Street’s Giddiness vs. Main Street’s Pain”
Leave it to the New York Times (which in the article referred to herein sounds more like the Fox News Network) and their reporter, Jeff Sommer, to present a masterpiece of negativity and misinformation. I believe this story is wrong on both counts. Wall Street is by no means giddy and Main Street may be…
Session 30–Why I Write This Blog: A Quintessential Example from CNBC.com!!
“ ‘ Real’ Jobless Rate still above 10 % in most states.” “The Economy may stink, but the market doesn’t care.” “Why Jobs Outlook Just Got A Whole Lot Worse.” This is the headline and subtopic list from today’s edition of CNBC.com. Kudos to the editor, John Carney and senior writer, Jeff Cox for this memorable piece…
Session 29–Central Banks Can Buy Equities!! You learn something new every day.
I have been around this business for a long time. In my entire career I have never heard of any central bank buying stocks. Now, I did hear some wag on one of the political / entertainment shows a month or two ago asserting that the reason our stock market had done so well was…
Session 28–Apple Stinks! They loved it at $700…They Hate it at $400.
When we started this blog, we said we would not be making stock recommendations. This will sound like one and I will admit in the interest of full and complete disclosure, I did buy some Apple today. I did it because I felt that the media/ street rant that followed the release of quarterly earnings…
Session 27—“Dow 16000” or “A Deflation Wave” “The Best of Times” or “The Worst of Times”
My apologies to the late Charles Dickens for ripping off the segments of the opening line of his classic, “A Tale of Two Cities.” Essentially, that is what I got this week on the front page of Barron’s Magazine (a tale of two markets): Jack Willoughby’s “Dow 1600!” and Randall Forsyth “Up and Down Wall…
Session 26—The Trifecta: Global Economic slowdown, E.U. Meltdown, Terror in Boston.
Monday morning, April 15, the market is greeted with the news that the Chinese economy grew at a paltry 7.7% in the first quarter (disappointing, as expectations were for an 8% gain). This humongous miss (3/10ths of one percent) sparked a major sell off in commodities (including gold) and today (4/17) the media has morphed…
Session 25—The Boston Marathon
My heart goes out to the victims of terror at the Boston Marathon, those who lost their lives and those who must bear senseless suffering from their injuries. In a sense all Americans are the victims of this event, as it brings us back to the point that there are people in the world bent…