Archive for August, 2009

(Lee Siler) - Last week the major averages treaded water, but the sentiment was changing. Despite a plethora of good economic data, the stock market was unable to gain any ground. In fact, there were several sessions where the market rallied right out of the gate, but by the end of the day was barely above the Mendoza line. In my opinion, this is a sign that the market is getting tired and the buyers are fading. What's more, the overseas markets have been correcting for weeks. China took a 20% hit a few weeks ago before rebounding slightly. However, overnight the Shanghai Index tanked almost 7%.

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(Mark Rogers) - On August 21, 2009 Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke declared that the U.S. economy is on the verge of recovery following the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

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(Lee Siler) - On the surface, this morning's durable goods number looked pretty strong. The Commerce department reported that durable goods jumped 4.9% in July. That was the biggest increase since 2007. However, if you strip out transportation goods the index only rose 0.8% which was below analysts' expectations. The Commerce Department will also be releasing data on July new home sales later today.

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(Lee Siler) - Stock futures jump pre-market as President Obama re-nominates Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke to a second four-year term. Of course, Bernanke's appointment will have to be confirmed by congress, which is a likely scenario. I think it would be disastrous to change the head of the Federal Reserve in the midst of and economic recovery as complicated as this one.

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(Lee Siler) - Stocks look to build on last week's gains, on comments from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. Bernanke said on Friday that the economy is on the verge of recovery. Obviously, this has been a long painful process that started with the decline in housing. The good news is that also on Friday, a report showed that existing home sales came in better than expected. According to some economists, this is an element necessary to make a full rebound.

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(Sidney Blum) - Investing in broad based indexes such as the S & P 500 is generally less expensive than most index mutual funds.

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(Lee Siler) - The market is poised to open significantly lower on a plunge in the Chinese markets. Overnight the Shanghai stock market dropped almost 6% and the major indexes in Europe were all down roughly 1.5%. Today's move is a follow from Friday's negative consumer sentiment numbers.

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(Lee Siler) - Positive earnings news out of Wal-Mart is being over shadowed by surprisingly negative news in the over-all retail sector. The world's largest retailer reported flat earnings from the previous year, but beat analysts' expectations. Wal-Mart's quarterly profit came in at 88 cents a share versus the 85 cents Wall Street was expecting. Cost cutting measures helped the retail giant achieve higher profit margins as well. What's more, the company raised the lower end of their profit guidance. On the news, Wal-Mart is trading higher in the pre-market.

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(Lee Siler) - Stocks dropped for the second consecutive day on heavier trading. After four straight weeks of gains, the market is at risk of ending the week with losses, as the Fed concludes its two-day meeting this afternoon. This Fed is expected to leave interest rates alone, but it's the language the Fed uses that will be scrutinized. It's likely Ben Bernanke and Company will say that the economy is on more secure ground and the worst is probably behind us.

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(Lee Siler) - A surprisingly strong jobs report helped stocks jump more than 1% on Friday and more than 2% on the week. The unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped from 9.5% to 9.4% for the month of July. This news was clearly welcomed by investors, as well as President Obama, who said, "The worst may be behind us." Jobs were the one element in this bottoming process we hadn't seen until now.

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