Gold

Government Shut Down

The absolute hight of stupidity.

• Issue #1 is jobs, job, jobs. Without jobs there is no one to pay taxes. Those that have no jobs drain the system by needing more welfare or becoming thieves to survive. Stupid
• They are arguing over $30 billion when the debt is $13 trillion. This is like arguing over a crum that fell on the floor instead of the huge loaf of bread that is our debt. Stupid

One Solution – “We have a one-time, 100 percent tax on all wealth (net worth) of all United States residents, with a $10 million per-person exemption. With household wealth at around $60 trillion, that should be plenty to pay off the accumulated debt and shore up Social Security and Medicare for the next century.” and it would fund all those wars that the military industrial complex needs to grow.

Don’t like that idea- another “The Federal Reserve creates $20 trillion in money but, instead of crediting it to large banks’ accounts at the Fed, it credits it to Treasury’s account. Again, no more debt “

Promise that either one would be a one time fix and debt crisis solved. These “convenient concepts” come from the brain of James Kwak at the Baseline Senerio.  For more and is he serious? - here’s the link

Gold and Silver

For the last five years I’ve been the treasurer of a senior center and gold has been our top returning investment.

If you’ve never seen these two bears make a case for something you’re missing a funny and sometimes enlightening video. You may not agree with the doomsday people. I think their case is over the top. But, they do have some valid concepts or flows (moving in that direction)

This is #5 in the series of why by silver. Did you know there are 15 kilograms of silver in each tomahawk missile?

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KISS & Stocks

(Keep It Simple Stupid)

If you don’t understand a term look in up at Investopedia.com dictionary

AS ALWAYS, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING!

DOUBLE CHECK ALL DATA, I MAKE MORE THAN GRAMMAR MISTAKES

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Index	Percentage	Volume
Dow	+0.58%	up
NASDQ	+0.72%	up
S&P 500	+0.67%	up
Russell 2000	+1.31%	-

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Technicals, Fundamentals & Analysis

Investors411 record - 6 years of beating benchmark S&P 500

BUBBLE-ICIOUS - Investors411 term for the stock market – We are all riding on the outside of an ever expanding &  Central Bank manipulated liquidity stock bubble. See Investors411 STRATEGY section for more

• Yawn – Another low volume rally. Fed liquidity has a muzzle muzzle on the mouths of bears.
• Any bears or black swans who have fought this trend or spoken out against it have been slaughtered by Uncle Ben and the Fed.
• Another $5 billion pumped into economy – Oh and by the way the Fed is now , by far, the biggest holder of US debt
• Fed POMO all comes to an end on June 30th. – Whose going to buy our bonds/debt then? Of course after July 1 happens, the Fed could say OMG lets do QE #3.
• Enjoy the rally while it lasts.
• Big Jobs number on Friday. Means much more for the economy than it does for stocks, Every day foreign consumers are gaining wealth and globalized US companies don’t really care who buys.

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Shorter Term Forecasting Indexes

• The Dollar (USD) [Any daily price move over +/- 0.50 is significant. Dollar usually moves inversely to stocks]   The dollar fell a wee bit -0.17. Bearish longer term pattern still in place, but it started  a four day bull run that’s stalled out over the last three days and could be turning.  For stocks = Bullish/Neutral
• McClellan Index - (MO) [The very rough guideline is over +60 = overbought market = sell positions or short stocks, & -60 = oversold market = buy stocks .] MO rose to +42.25. Over past three months The MO has had problems getting over +30. Any significant rally would put the MO over +60 = Neutral/Bearish

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Reading The Tea Leaves

MO broke its +30 resistance barrier and usually +60  has historically been the level of change – stocks get too overbought. Now is clearly not the time to buy stocks. But to hold or sell.

However the dollar has become the key metric to watch. The dollar is the trump card. It’s bolded below. There’s a good chance the dollar may have hit a short term top and is ready to fall. This would be bullish especially for gold and silver.

What to watch today - Market movers

• USO - ETF for oil - Oil up = stocks down - Now back above $100. - Headlines from Libya not good.
• UUP - (Tracking ETF for dollar) Remember - The dollar is a contrarian indicator. Bad dollar = good stocks
• AAPL – Trading just above its 50 DMA. Very Interesting that this latest rally happened without AAPL’s/technologies leadership. Leading sectors rotated to energy & industrials.
• Japan Rector Developments

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Positions

ETF’s currently Under Consideration.

UCO -(2x oil prices) Why not, its also a hedge against higher gas prices. -

REMX (Rare Earth ETF) - Really believe this a good long term holding.  A risk, but, this area because of limited supply and big demand is going to outperform almost all other sectors. A buy.

DGP – (ETF is 2X gold) also SLV (silver). Breakout on worries of future inflation – Gold is moving inversely to the dollar - I’ve jaw boned this for way too long and waited for the right dip, but missed it.  This is a credible long term asset to have. I’d buy any dip. I do own both in other accounts.

DBC - (Commodities ETF) For a more complete list of commodity ETF’s see POSITIONS listed at top of blog  DBC is tilted to energy.  A good alternative would be DJP that is more agriculture and metals -

RJA (Agriculture commodities Index)An ETN, not an ETF.

UWM (2x small cap stocks) TNA (3X small cap stocks)

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Look for Paul R’s always enlightening remarks on stocks and sectors in the comments section of the blog. See “POSITION“ section of blog (at top of page) for lists of potential stocks & ETF’s including ”YOUR Stock List.”

The Problem is Suburbia

Geography 101

Throughout the last 100 years geography has worked for and against the USA. Today mega trends dominate the flow of what happens. Investors411 has focused on 3 megatrends for years. There are, of course more. Lets look at an overly simplistic view of US history as a geography lesson to understand the pickle where in today.

• We ended the Great Depression with the massive spending of FDR’s New Deal and World War 2
• The end result was a debt that was 30% of GDP (relativity — today its @10%)

How did we fix this huge debt problem? We relocated people into suburbia  - built massive highways, factories, shopping malls and developed greater tolerance. Yes, we had much higher taxes then. The middle class and suburbia flourished and perhaps reached its zenith in the late 70′s (see comments section of blog for amount of wealth in top 1%) The Geography here is we sprspeadead out in & built a vast suburban sprawl , worked hard, eliminated a massive deficit. This achieved a lot for many Americans.

Along comes mega trends of  globalization (jobs move abroad) and peak oil (end of cheap energy sources). Geographically, the suburban sprawl depended on cheap energy and the building of more suburbia to thrive. We did hold ourselves together for a while with innovation (computers/internet) but soon because of “scaling” these too are being developed faster and cheaper overseas.

Now. Unlike almost every other country we’re stuck in a geographical nightmare that is dependent on cheap energy and its own further suburban growth to survive.

If you’d like to see a more radical apocalyptic presentation of this kind of scenario read Minnesota economist Jim Kunstler for a while. (Thanks to AG who first showed me this site)

KISS & Stocks (Keep It Simple Stupid)

If you don’t understand a term look in up at Investopedia.com dictionary

AS ALWAYS, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING!

Index	Percentage	Volume
Dow	-0.01%	down
NASDQ	+0.13%	down
S&P 500	+0.01%	down
Russell 2000	+0.07%	-

Technicals, Fundamentals & Analysis

Investors411 record – 5 years of beating benchmark S&P 500

Same Mantra for this week -The Black Box/High Frequency Traders BB/HFT control the vast majority of trades.

Many thanks to Paul R for providing stock information in the comments section over the last 5 days. We are both working together on YOUR on a stock list. Many of you have sent in stocks to be considered and a few more will be added. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get this together by mid week before we both leave.

Significant Indexes-

• McClellan Oscillator (MO) fell  to +40.41 over the last few days [+60 or above = Overbought = sell. -60 or below = Oversold = buy]. StockCharts has a better version of the McClellan chart ($NYMO) LINK. –  & Investopedia on –  How the MO works. MO is back from overbought to = Neutral
• US Dollar –  The dollar  rose slightly  +0.12% yesterday [Anything over +/- @0.50 is significant.] The dollar/stocks relationship is strong – Dollar up = stocks down and visa versa. Dollar  is in a two month long fall and is approaching a major support level. The fall = Bullish
• BDI - The  Baltic Dry Index (Measures cost of shipping – Higher costs good = more being shipped = Bullish. Also, good proxy of China.) BDI was in free fall from a high of @4200 to 1700 . This was a huge -60% drop in 8 weeks is very bearish Often a leading indicator for stocks. Here’s a 3 year chart of BDI for context. The BDI has staged a two week rally and is up +16% rally and is at 1942 = Bullish

Reading Tea Leaves-

We’ve had what looks like a four day breather in a month long rally. The MO is back in the upper end of neutral territory. It did establish a higher high above 90 (see chart) This gives the bulls over 50 points (90-40=50) of wiggle  room to move higher. The benchmark S&P is at 1101 and major resistance is at 1131 (see chart) The dollar and the BDI have turned bullish for stocks. So another charge higher is likely.

While the possibility of a good week for stocks exists, not only will we impact resistance levels on the S&P 500, but we will also confront support levels for the dollar. The BB/HFT traders that dominate stocks pay very close attention to the larger currency markets.

Simply put and longer term - GLOBALIZATION is a reality. Jobs and GDP growth are in emerging markets. The US can remain stagnant economically and US stocks can/will move higher along with China, India, Indonesia, Viet Nam etc. There is long term danger here, but for now globalization, peak oil mega trends are back dominating and the financial meltdown (the problem has NOT been fixed)  is not taking its toll on these markets.

Positions

The  Positions Section link to latest & former buys and sells  - These are positions I actually own

The remaining 1/2 of SDS (ETF that double shorts the S&P 500) was sold at 33.17 on Friday for a +2% gain. Total gain a measly +1% on this position. Again will enter buy short ETF’s when MO gets overbought. This week will wait till/if we reach at least +80.

EWZ (Brazil ETF) - Bought 10% of portfolio position at 69.80 on Friday.

FXI – Under consideration if market does not make huge move higher today.

Any US or foreign stocks that benefits from emerging markets is back on the table.

Long Term Outlook - NEUTRAL

AS ALWAYS, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING!

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Global Economic Monsters

• Over Leveraged Shadow Banks – Financial reform has fizzled in congress. (see a zillion past Investors411 for more) Short term – a shot in the arm for shadow institutions and their stocks. Long term - FDIC guarantees deposits of YOUR $ and they can still take any risk they want.  Bubble building casino capitalism, where gains are privatized and YOU socialize the risk.
• Debt Crisis – Europe Debt on the hot seat right now. Aussie’s Clarke and Dawe do a great job explaining this and their drop dead funny. Now add to this all the derivatives (over leveraging) placed on debt. First a bailout. Now central banks around the world are pouring $ into the Euro to stabilize it and keep dollar low.
• China Slowing Growth – A country can’t keep its GDP growing at 10% forever. Google [China, Slowing, Growth] and you’ll find story after story worried about a Chinese housing bubble or manufacturing decline. China’s #1 ETF – FXI This ETF used to outperform the S&P 500 by a wide margin. Now it underperforms. Investors $ are speaking and there is some cause for concern.
• BP/RIG/HAL Oil Spill – Major damage to these stocks and more importantly the environment. We all know its only just begun and yesterday was the start of hurricane season. 27% of America’s oil & 15% of our natural gas comes from the Gulf.
• “Supreme Leader,” “Great Leader,” ” Dear Leader” AKA Kim Jong-il –  You’ll never see a flotilla of Palestinian or any other peace activist off the shore of North Korea. (A double standard) Most repressive country on the planet, always confrontational and has nukes. Just committed an act of war by sinking South Korean naval ship.
• Mid East - Where to start? Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq etc. Current Crisis between Israel/Turkey does far more than put the $3 billion in “free” trade between these two democracies at risk. Terrorist through out the region are now in a stronger position and embolden because of this confrontation. Everything in the MidEast is oil/energy related.

KISS & Stocks (Keep It Simple Stupid)

If you don’t understand a term look in up at Investopedia.com dictionary

AS ALWAYS, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING!

Index	Percentage	Volume
Dow	+2.25%	down
NASDQ	-2.64%	flat
S&P 500	+2.58%	down
Russell 2000	+3.05%	-

Investors411 record – 5 years of beating benchmark S&P 500 and almost all major US indexes

Technicals, Fundamentals & Analysis

Significant Melt UP in light volume = Moderately Bullish

Obama and his administration seem to be dropping hints that Friday’s job numbers are going to be good. This was fundamental behind melt up. Buy the rumor & sell the news.

Volume did NOT confirm the price move. So what else is new. Volume, which is historically the #1 confirmation factor of a price move has NOT worked for many many moons. = Neutral

Massive amount of bad news – N. Korea, BP failed to plug oil, Israel/Turkey/Gaza, Euro debt crisis – yet we have a melt up. How markets react to news is our #2 (now #1) confirmation factor. Yesterday was a good price reaction despite bad news. The potential bad news is built into price right now = Bullish

MO has some positive momentum but in Neutral territory = NEUTRAL (NEUTRAL is all in CAPS because this right now is most important indicator.)

AAPL is the unofficial leader in this rally and the chart formed a T (see chart) yesterday in weak volume. Could be a top. Moderately Bearish

Expect Fed and other central banks to keep  propping up Euro.European markets at 6 week high.  = Bullish

Reading the tea Leaves – Historically, it difficult to see a follow through day after yesterday’s melt up in light volume. Baring an unforeseen incident – like Israeli’s killing more peace activists on ship heading to same area – it wouldn’t be a surprise to see a rally into the jobs number.

Significant Indexes

• McClellan Oscillator took a huge jump higher to -5.78 [+60 or above = Overbought = sell. -60 or below = Oversold = buy]. StockCharts has a better version of the McClellan chart ($NYMO)LINK. - This is NEUTRAL territory.  How the MO works.
• US Dollar –  The dollar fell -0.02% [Anything over +/- @0.50 is significant.] Mantra - right now The Dollar Rules is very important. Currency markets are now being directly manipulated by out Fed and other central banks. This manipulation to keep the Euro from falling. Chart shows at least 6 attempted breakouts above @87.5 have failed in last 2  1/2 weeks. = Bullish.

Positions

The  Positions Section = latest buys and sells  - These are positions I actually own

Have NOT had a chance to update this/last weeks trade.

EVVV was eliminated from YOUR stock list because company was bought – (Thanks to Paul R for info)

IMAX remaining shares sold near open at 17.02

Windows of opportunity to BUY and Sell -

The McClellen Oscillator (MO) is working well right now and +60 or above = Overbought = sell. -60 or below = Oversold = buy

This works best with the broad based ETF’s that mirror the major indexes or for those who can handle more risk ETF’s that do 2x or 3x what major indexes do like TYH that does 3X major tech stocks. Approaching or below -60 buy. The further the better.

Above +60 sell or go short with ETF’s that short major US indexes. Example SDS (2X short S&P 500)

One major reason I stated that there was a “decent trading” opportunity yesterday was the MO was at -50 or almost oversold. We had a low volume melt up.  One major reason the MO was not an investing opportunity was we were not below -60.

Mea Culpa = Hindsight is great = should have invested MORE when MO was between -60 & -130. If I had, I’d start to take a little profit right now

(Will continue analysis of MO later)

Long Term Outlook = CAUTIOUSLY BEARISH

AS ALWAYS DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING

The Bad News

Obama to give major Jobs speech today.

Continuing from yesterday – So there is a lot of good economic news out there . We moved back from a financial meltdown cliff and and the improvement in the last jobs report is sunshine breaking through the clouds.  Obama does deserve some credit, but so do other factors like globalization – The emerging markets, like China are leading this recovery and pulling us along.

There are four major factors that are holding us back .

The HUGE hole – As stated many times since the fall of 2008 – this" financial crisis is far far far bigger" than most people though. We had both a housing & financial bubble’s burst. Many, but not all foreign countries bought into the American concept of "unregulated free markets." The phrase sound good, but countries from the Ukraine to Iceland have been crushed by adopting the American view of unregulated capitalism. This is a deep global hole.

The Consumer – Common sense has made the American consumer save more. This is justifiable. However the American consumer makes up over 70% of GDP growth. If she/he is saving they are not spending & money is not flowing.

Hoarding Banks – To paraphrase a nursery rhyme "All the president’s horses and all the president’s men can’t get banks to start loaning again." Shadow banks are hoarding money, because their balance sheets are so bad – they were caught holding on to too many unsecured assets (credit default swaps) Like consumers, a little hoarding is relatively good when compared too cascading debt.

There are, in partial defense of banks, a lot of potentially unworthy people to loan to. But, unless banks make the loans – money does not flow and the economy does not grow.

Debt – The USA entered this crisis already with a HUGE federal and trade deficit. Wars and nation building (Afghanistan) abroad significantly add to this deficit. We, like all other G20 countries, have used some form of government stimulation to help the economy recover. Our problem is the big debt hole we were already in .

Another big debt, not often mentioned is the debt each state has. As jobs and foreclosures grew & people save more  state revenue consequently fell. What’s happened in CA, MI & some other states will spread. Obama’s stimulus is back end loaded. Only @ 30% has been spent – so some of the remaining 70% will help will help troubled states. The question is – is the remainder of the stimulus and any new jobs program enough to tide us over until the jobs/financial and picture brightens?

The one argument that is impossible to stomach is the right wing mantra that big government can’t solve problems and/or is bad. Obama was handed an economic world that was on fire and he’s created some fire engines and used water (money) to put out the fire  You can disagree with with the methods, but a world left up unregulated capitalist greed is doomed. Without government/Fed intervention (the fire engines and water) we simply would NOT have put out the fire.

Tomorrow – the Ugly.

KISS & STOCKS

Keep It Simple Stupid

AS ALWAYS, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING!

Index	Percentage percentage	Volume
Dow	+0.01%	down
NASDQ	-0.22%	down
S&P500	-0.46%	down
Russell2000-	+0.13%	-

Investors411 record – 5 years of beating benchmark S&P 500

• Brown = repeat statements
• Green = usually bullish statements
• Red = Usually bearish statements

Technicals, Fundamentals & Analysis

The dollar held onto its enormous Friday gains. It looks like it is at an inflection point.  The fact that the dollar went no where and stocks went nowhere means the dollar’s inverse relationship to US stocks is back on.  The dollar is still the #1 forecasting tool.

Fearless Forecast-. From Monday – This week we should be all over the place, but some solid economic fundamentals are coming into the light. This should help stocks in the long run. Once the dollar calms down (expect it to rise and gold to fall) we should improve. Flat to up week .

Now going to get a bit more technical

If you don’t understand a term look in up at Investopedia.com dictionary LINK

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Significant forecasting tools/Indexes for stock markets

(Besides #1 Volume & #2 Reaction to News)

BDI - The Baltic Dry Index measures the flow of goods by price (world trade) .

The BDI a fell -71 points yesterday and closed at 4036. Technically  the BDI broke out through its major resistance level 4291 (this year’s high) over a week ago.  The BDI has rallied about 1800 points since late September. After 16 up days in a row, 9 down days in a row & now up 3 days in a row. Multi day moves in one direction are common and the decline in rate of change usually signals a reversal.

What it means – Long term we created a higher high on the chart = Bullish. The BDI is far more useful as a long term indicator of not only world trade, but specifically China and growing emerging markets. After, what looks like a technical correction we are agin moving higher.

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The Dollar is currently the #1 forecasting tool .

$USD - Check out the 6 month chart (to the left) or a multi year chart of the US dollar of the US dollar. Mantra – Dollar up = US stocks down & Dollar down = US stocks up US dollar was flat -0 Friday . Anything close to or over +/- 0.50 is significant  The dollar closed at $75.77 .

The dollar’s rise did temper the rally, but the whole dynamic or fundamentals have changed. See Positions below.

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$NYMO The NY Stock Exchange McClellan (EOD) Index measures how much the NYSE is oversold or overbought .

The index closed at +22.38 This is a Slightly Overbought Position . This chart is showing we seemed to have reached a plateau. It’s spilled over a little bit, but the McClellan index has moved between +25 & -25 .  There has been no clear buy or sell signal for over a month.  Oversold conditions (@ -60) = buy, Overbought positions (@+60) = sell

The closer we get to +/- 60 the better our chances of making money with a shorter term buy/sell signal

Positions

The  Positions Section (top of blog) to see all the latest buys and sells

(again a little behind on latest moves)

We’ve had, and volume has confirmed, a quantum shift in markets. This may be temporary and it may be long term, but it necessitates major changes in positions.

Today is a confirmation day for Friday’s move.  More than anything else – looking for dollar to hold or add to gains .  Will buy some ETF’s and stocks until McClellan says we are overbought (@+60)

Recommended ETF’s and Trades

SELLING

GLD – Sold all GLD for major profit.  (will compute this later)  Gold is still something to hold for the long term and its fundamentals are still credible. Will buy back in on dips.

Gold will rise again, but for now there is just too much downside momentum. Will be back with larger position in GLD & GDP on a dip

NVS -Sold for 21+%

AMZN – Sold for 16+ % profit. This looks like a mistake. Fed Ex had a surprise upgrade in earning. Most of their good news was from abroad, but they ship and AMZN products are shipped.

BUYING

FXI – Adding more to this positions. If Main Street is recovering faster than expected, so will China. Their currency & exports is tied to the dollar. So in one major sense, their recovery is tied, in part, to the USA. They have under performed major USA indexes recently.

IWM or UWM (an ultra fund that does basically 2x IWM) These ETF’s both track small cap stocks (Russell 2000) IF , Main Street is recovering faster than expected they should outperform the other indexes. They have under performed so far and should, like China, make up some lost ground relative to other major US indexes. Waiting for more of  a dip.

BAC - Bank of America. They’re paying back TARP shows solid fundamental strength. (I know they are a shadow bank bad guys) Bought  a small amount of BAC Friday.

Start small & Build your position – Buy the dip.

Again any stock investment or ETF that doubles or triples what a normal ETF does is a short term play for traders and short term investors – NOT long term Investors .

Long Term Outlook = CAUTIOUSLY BULLISH

The End of Democracy?

E.J. Dionne who writes primarily for the Washington Post had an editorial entitled It Could Be the End of Democracy as We Know It . LINK

What Dionne is referring to is an upcoming Supreme court decision that threatens to overrule a 1990 decision that upheld the long-standing ban on corporate money in campaigns.

Yes, McCain/Feingold legislation made it much harder for corporate giving and it still got through. However this legislation would open the floodgates.

HAVE WE so quickly forgotten the #1 lesson of the 2008 economic meltdown-that Greenspan as he admitted was wrong and “free markets” could not regulate themselves ? This week US corporations may be given unfettered access to buy politicians. Indeed as Dionne explains “President Barack Obama’s health care speech on Wednesday will be only the second most consequential political moment of the week.”

Quantum Shift in Savings

Another unheralded event is not making headlines. That the quantum shift of Americans from net borrowers to savers . Since Reagan took office and reversed the trend of diminishing national deficits (see last Thursday’s blog for data on deficits as part of GDP) The shop till you drop,go into debt up to your eyeballs era is coming to a close for the American consumer.  MSNBC reports that in July “Americans cut debt by $21.6 billion in July; $4 billion was expected” LINK

Some conclusions from this data:

• How is there a quick economic recovery if American’s save more?
• Saving more is obviously a good thing and increasing debt bad.
• Real Organic growth is going to come from outside the USA (countries like China who were huge net savers and are saving a little less now)

Financial flows like this reinforce the concept that in the USA any recovery in GDP is going to be slow to materialize and real organic growth is going to be led by emerging markets whose middle classes are growing and don’t have huge deficits.  Even countries like Germany who have been net savers and whose businesses do not worry about paying health care costs are at a distinct advantage over the USA.

This is why Investors411 focuses on foreign ETFs that have organic growth and growing economies/middle classes – Invest in where the money is and will be flowing

STOCKS

AS ALWAYS, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING!

Index	Percentage %	Volume
Dow	+0.59%	up
NASDQ	+0.94%	up
S&P500	+0.88%	up
Russell2000	+1.03%	-

Investors411 record – 4 1/2 years of beating benchmark S&P 500

(see results for last 1/2 year – click  6/25 & scroll down)

• Brown = repeat statements
• Green = usually bullish statements
• Red = Usually bearish statements

Technicals and Fundamentals

Major US indexes rose again.  This time volume rose,but was still below average.  Stocks are rising because the dollar is falling. It took a massive hit yesterday.

This week , FEARLESS FORECAST - is for an up week .

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Significant forecasting tools/Indexes for stock markets

(Besides #1 Volume & #2 Reaction to News)

BDI - The Baltic Dry Index measures the flow of goods by price (world trade) It looks like we could be forming another lower high and that would reinforce the mid term bearish pattern . The BDI has leveled off and started to rise over the last two weeks, +33 yesterday.

Each day this looks more like a base has been formed above a key support level – Bullish short term outlook for BDI and we have certainly recovered from the devastating lows of Dec./Jan.

The BDI is 41% off its high (early June) Before that it gained almost +170% from early April to Jun e

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$USD - Check out the 6 month chart (to the left) or a multi year chart of the US dollar of the US dollar.

The dollar dropped of the table and through its major support level. It fell a whopping-1.16% % yesterday. Dollar closed at $77.26. Its  major support level is @$77.5 . Short term Bullish for stocks

Mantra – Dollar up = US stocks down & Dollar down = US stocks up

Bottom Line – Both the BDI & the Dollar are forecasting at least a short term rally. Key to look for is can the dollar get back over its $77.5 support level.

Positions

The whole Positions Section has been revised (Click on “Positions” at top of blog). Check it out

Sold 1/3 (or 6% total stock) position in FXI (China) last week A Mistake . With both the dollar falling and the BDI finding technical support and rising China again looks like the place to be invested in. Investors411 has only 12% of its portfolio invested in China. Looking to now add to this position.

Individual stocks-Another reason I hate individual stocks is because an event like a big conference can impact the stock. Apple has one of those today.  Will Steve Jobs show up? How will he look, what new product will they feature? – I have no idea on how to answer these questions that will move the stock. All I know is technically it outperformed the major US markets and like NVS is at a new high.

Taking advantage of falling dollar. There is a downside to a falling dollar, especially a currency that falls like a stone. However for most American companies that rely on exports for real organic (not cost cutting) growth benefit from this.  It also inflates the prices of commodities. Its no accident that as the dollar reaches a yearly low commodities like gold, oil, and copper reach highs. So any country or commodity play looks good right now.

Right now Investors411 is caught with its pants down because we are not more fully invested in countries & sectors where the money is flowwing.

Have to update positions section (away all weekend) Investors411 problem is that we are under invested in equities. The predicted 5 to 10% correction this month almost happened last week (-4+%), but close doesn’t count.

AS ALWAYS DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING!

Investors411 record – 4 1/2 years of beating benchmark S&P 500

Debt/Globalization

Debt is  bad. Globalization, and economic planing has led some countries to grow and others to suffer. Take a look at China and South Korea . Their managed economies (as opposed to our free market economy) have prospered over the last decade and continue to have stock markets that that are outperforming ours again this year.  In both these countries you see 10′s of millions of people who tended rice paddies a generation ago becoming the computer programmers and manufacturers of today.

These economies severely restricted their imports and benefited from other countries going into debt buying their exports. – part of globalization and managed capitalism. The USA went trillions of dollars into debt buying their products ( add some other countries especially those that sold oil) over the 8 year Bush administration.

Some companies and wealthy individuals grew rich in the USA as we personally and as a government fell further into debt running our unregulated free market system. This all collapsed when adding to this debt we discovered that shadow financial institutions were running a giant ponzi scheme of fake profits called credit default swaps on home mortgages, and other forms of credit.

Baddaboom, we almost had a world wide economic meltdown when just one shadow bank, Lehman Brothers,  collapsed. The cumulative debt hole is enormous.

Historically, in good times and wars (Iraq) you are supposed to pay down debt. We didn’t.

Historically in bad times you stimulate the economy and this does add to debt. We are.  The problem is that we re already up to our necks in debt. This debt was is not as bad as the debt that flatlined the world’s #2 economy for over a decade, but its very bad. To this you add a shrinking work base caused by globalization.

The real problem is we are sending more of our citizens to the rice paddies (unemployment) and our companies to maximize their profits send jobs overseas. This is one major part of the globalization mega trend.

We have fortunately seen a decrease in job loss since January from about 700,000+ in January to 500,000+ now. A good trend, but still a big loss. When many small companies reaches a certain size, (let’s guess 50 people)  they realize that everything from bookkeeping to information technology can be done for a cheaper price abroad. Where are the new jobs going to come from?

So simply as an Investment adviser – You’re far better off with economically growing managed capitalism rather than debt ridden free market of the USA – This is why Investors411 has a record of beating the S&P 500 . Why FXI, EWZ, EWS , and other managed economies are better investment choices.

The catch 22 – Of course, the more a US company outsources the better it will do (cheaper labor cuts cost), but the greater unemployment here will grow here

STOCKS

AS ALWAYS, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING!

Index	Percentage %	Volume
Dow	+1.19%	down
NASDQ	+1.20 %	up
S&P500	+1.14%	down
Russell2000	+1.49%	-

Investors411 record – 4 1/2 years of beating benchmark S&P 500

(see results for last 1/2 year – click  6/25 & scroll down)

• Brown = repeat statements
• Green = usually bullish statements
• Red = Usually bearish statements

Technicals and Fundamentals

The leading NASDQ again moved higher in increased volume. Even though it was not above average volume, the increase coupled with the break down of the dollar (-o.84% )(see below) is bullish for stocks.

Other major indexes have reached new closing highs, but have NOT had as much volume behind their moves higher.

Obviously US markets are now overbought and need a breather

Bernanke reports to the House today and the Senate tomorrow.

Whole bunch of companies reporting this AM. These fundamentals will drive stocks. Merck , DuPont, Coke , UTX. & Caterpillar all seem to have better than expected earnings. So many major S&P companies are hitting doubles triples and home runs. Rally is on again

Significant forecasting tools/Indexes for stock markets

BDI - The Baltic Dry Index measures the flow of goods (world trade) It looks like we could be forming another lower high and that would reinforce the mid term bearish pattern. The BDI turned lower yesterday and the short term bullish pattern is getting wiped out. Longer term this is not good for the global recession recovery. BDI at 3511 and 2975 is the line in the sand support level that must hold . So no reason to throw in the towel yet but Bears are gaining momentum

In a nut shell the BDI is

• short term - Bullish
  
• mid term -  Bearish pattern
• long term - Bullish pattern
  

$USD - The Dollar broke down through support levels yesterday . Down a significant-0.84% . The last remaining support level is the June lows at @78.4. The dollar index closed at 78.87 . The dollar goes down usually = stocks gold and oil prices rise. This contributed to yesterday’s rally. Obviously this is bearish for the dollar, but Bullish for US stocks. (not small but important one word change – this is bullish for US stocks in the short/mid term)

That 78.4 support level is very important.  A weak dollar does have its downside, but it certainly fueled the last rally stocks had this spring.

Positions

The whole Positions Section has been revised (Click on "Positions" at top of blog). Check it out

QLD – (2X what the NASDQ 100 does) which was bought at 38.2 was sold at 41.1 for a 7+% gain yesterday.  Why be greedy? We added a lot of positions last week. (QLD, IFN, EWZ, EWS ) Time to take profits on one.  Will buy back in on another dip. Taking profits now looks like a mistake . If the dollar keeps breaking down OLD will keep going up.

IFN - (India) The technicals behind this trade are just not as good at all the other trades. India has not broken out to a higher high and developed a series of lower highs and lower lows. Going to take profits. – Will put in what’s called a stop sell order (send me an email if you do not understand this)  Looking at S Korea (EWY ) as a better foreign investment.

Another reason to sell India is the BDI seems to be establishing a bearish pattern. (see above)

AS ALWAYS DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING!