Archive - Jan 7, 2010 - Blog entry

Hold on to your hat, the bond vigilantes will be out full force on Friday. And when the bond market goes 'boo', its chill will be felt across all asset classes.

Yup ...

Dangerous to try to handicap this number. I have tried and failed. I'll try again.

The stock market’s performance over the next decade will be very similar to the one since 2000: the WSJ appropriately named it “the lost decade.” Stocks will go up and down (setting all-time highs and multiyear lows), stagnate, and trade in a tight range. At the end of this wild ride, when the excitement subsides and the dust settles, index investors and buy-and-hold stock collectors will find themselves not far from where they started in 2000.

Do SunSPARC workstations colocated at the NSYE have a preference as to what day they gap up the market? We attempt to answer this question, in addition to pointing out a very strong pattern on Employment Situation Fridays.

The price action around these key levels needs to be followed closely as we are in an area where new trends develop.

As investors of all stripes continue to go gaga for the Cult of Cupertino (snap, crackle, AAPL), what can we actually learn from Apple, Inc.?

An Insurrection to dump two thirds majority rule in California. Searching for fiscal restraint in the Land of Fruits and Nuts. Is Washington sucking the lifeblood out of the Golden State? Time to load the boat with the state’s bonds.

It's going to be pretty hard extracting your metatarsus from your anus this time around. I mean, everyone makes mistakes with taxes, but the multi-billion dollar back door bailout that you tried to hide via EMAIL???!!! Come on, guys. If you're not smarter than that then you definitely won't be able to solve this financial situation thingy... Unless he knew absolutely nothing about the biggest bailout in the history of his country - under his watch, that is.

Just the other day I stated "Why does everyone confuse a bubble with economic progress" in a post about a very probable bubble in China (see "It Doesn't Take a Genius to Figure Out How This Will End" then get your chuckles on with "Goldman Seems to Trust the Chinese Economic Reporting a Tad Bit More Than I Do!"). Well, as if on cue, Stocks, Metals Decline Around World After China Curbs Lending; Yen Weakens...

The motto for last year will probably end up being, "You really don't get what you paid for!". In reviewing the banks that were originally included in the Doo Doo 32 (a list of likely doomed banks created in the spring of 2008), I decided to take the devil's advocate perspective (an exercise that we normally pursue) and attempt to build a bullish case for the sectors that I viewed bearishly yet have outperformed the S&P and escaped profitable shorting during the last three quarters. The results are illuminating.