Burkhardt's blog

The technology sector has been one of the hottest plays for investors in 2013, and right now there is one tech firm that has the market’s full attention.

Like an infectious disease without a cure, the contagion within Europe widens its grasp…

What once was a distant noise is now ringing loudly through the streets of Europe. The pain of Cyprus is being felt throughout the Euro-Zone as their inability to curb the current crises is wreaking havoc on the value of the Euro.

The United Stated economy is hanging on tight in preparation for the looming apocalypse that is the fiscal cliff. Just feet from the edge and a decision was made to… You guessed it, push back the deadlines. You know that progress is weak when the U.S. Government keeps coming to the conclusion that the best decision is to remain in a state of indecision.
 

How do you hedge when shots are pips? The next world war will be computerized. The global economy is on the brink and battle lines are forming with one objective, restoring economic balance. Properly engineered devaluation measures would accomplish precisely that. This is a new age of currency wars. In the past countries would directly manipulate the value of their currency with trade wars and the like. But today’s currency war is a result of unconventional monetary policy by central banks, which indirectly impacts the value of a countries currency.

Back to square one. Spain is in the spotlight once again with data unsettling enough to shatter the Euro’s 4 month rally against the dollar. Record unemployment coupled with depressing growth data and political woes paint Spain to look like a sinking ship.

Is Britain “drifting toward the exit”? 

A zero sum game. That's where the central planning has taken us. Rate decisions tomorrow at the BOE and ECB could rattle the markets as traders look for direction in a directionless world.

EU confidence sparks a Euro bull run. Both the EU’s strongest and weakest economies are positively shifting. The S&P has lifted Greece’s credit rating by 5 notches to a “B minus”, and Germany’s IFO survey came in strong for the second month running indicating that business sentiment is on the rise.

Today the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) cut the its rates by a quarter of a percentage point to 3.0 percent, as panic set in that the resources boom is fading quicker than anticipated. Note that rates have not been this low since the aftermath of the global financial crisis.  This strategic move was done in effort to rekindle the demand in some of the country’s weaker sectors in hopes that they would offset the rapid decline in the mining sector.

Just maybe the Greek bailout saga is drawing to a close. While markets set expectations, we now move towards the true impact of what this final deal will do for both Greece and the EU as a whole. Moral hazard is set to be released again, and we get a chance to glimpse the true impact…

With the EU searching for any foothold, the U.S. looks poised to follow the Europeans into the fiscal abyss. The U.S. election season is over and the markets have refocused their attention to the looming “fiscal cliff”.

The Bear. Or the Bull. That is the question. With polls tightening, traders around the world are looking for that perfect hedge to be in the green regardless of who takes office in the coming presidential election in November.

All this market optimism is due to the backdrop of rumors of a bailout being asked for. Or maybe the bailout was being forced onto Spain. Maybe it’s both.

Much of Southern Europe is in a deep recession, and Greece is an unnecessary distraction.