Investors 411 Blog

How we got into such a huge financial mess.

Nobel Prize winner Joe Stiglitz has a comprehensive piece on just how this economic meltdown began. He traces its roots all the way back to Alan Greenspan becoming Fed Chair. Some of the incidents he mentions have already been covered in Updates. History can repeat itself unless we do something to change it. His basic premise is what Alan Greenspan already admitted to – that free markets are not self regulating entities.

You can read about the 5 major causes that made us "Capitalist Fools ."  More on this later.

Flying Shoes

Thanks to one of you who sent in the following video. Got to admit Bush is fast and for the first time he moved to the left.

Green – An Electric Car Bailout?

We all know Detroit is in trouble, but the falling oil prices and world wide recession has meant major set backs for emerging electric car companies . Even Prius is cutting back. LINK

Peak oil is a reality. Our dependence on foreign sources for oil is another reality. So is global warming and the pollution that burning fossil fuels create. Now that prices drop in a worldwide recession so does the desire for green energy.

Stocks.

AS ALWAYS DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING

Headline – Fed Cuts = Big Rally

Index % Change Volume

Dow +4.20% up
NASDQ +5.41% up
S&P500 +5.14% up
Russell2000 +6.69% –

italics = same comments as yesterday.

US Market & Foreign Markets

Technicals-

Therefore, both the primary (volume) and #2 factor (how markets react to news) seem to be bullish right now.

As predicted we had a rally yesterday. It was one of those big time bear market rallies (were still not out of the woods) in increased average volume. Volume up is a good sign and there was a significant increase in volume, but in total the volume for the major indexes was average. All in all a very good day , but, it sure looks like there are a whole class of investors unwilling or unable (not enough $) to invest large amounts of capital in stocks.

Dow now at 8924 with the first resistance level at 9026 and major resistance at 9654 . The Technical aspect of US equities has been very solid since the late November lows. Short term the momentum is clearly with the bulls.

Chart of the benchmark S&P 50

Chart of the Russell 2000

Chart of the NASDQ

Chart of the Dow

Fundamentals-

Obama Rally = HOPE A whole bunch of stimulus that has already been thrown at stocks, plus the composition of Obama’ economic team & his proposed stimulus package.

The auto bailout/loan is in limbo. Will Paulson and Treasury act?

Major action taken by US Fed lowering interest rates more than expected. They lowered rates 0.75% to 0.25%. That’s the lowest they’ve ever been. Great one day news for the markets, but there is little the Fed can do to lower rates any further.

Some credit cards and mortgages are tied to US Fed interest rates.

Three Month Treasury Bill & LIBOR

Credit markets are the dog and the Stock Markets are the tail. Without credit the tail won’t wag.

Real progress WAS being made. LIBOR has fallen from 4.8% two months ago to about 1.8% LIBOR rates are on their second leg down started to fall . LIBOR is the rate banks charge each other, not businesses. Some credit cards, loans and mortgages are tied to LIBOR so this is good news.

LIBOR chart (3 month)

Treasury Bonds

All the yields kept falling – relative to last year. month, week and day. The 3 month has basically flatlined at 0.01%
Fearful investors are putting their money in Treasury bonds for 3 months to 30 years, they are NOT investing in stocks.

Yields keep falling = Continued deterioration of credit market. There is simply NO confidence in the credit markets PANIC RULES

Baltic Dry Index

The Baltic Dry Index is a forward looking indicator that measures pre production materials that are shipped around the world.

Bloomberg data and chart (If the link does not work Google – bloomberg baltic dry index) Set range indicator to one month and you will see this chart.

BDI rose over +3% yesterday to 823. We have had a significant rally off the lows of @660 in the last week. The BDI had seen an over 90% loss since June. It seems, a least for a week international trade has picked up. This is very good news for bulls.

Dollar Falling and Therefore Oil Prices Rising (more later)

Short Term Outlook

Reading the Tea Leaves-

PANIC RULES the credit markets and its hard to see money flowing into stocks while so many potential investors are putting $ in treasuries at ridiculously low rates.

A Santa Clause/Obama rally seems in the works. However, announcement of an auto bankruptcy would have an immediate negative impact.

Same outlook holds Santa Clause /Obama rally is chugging along. Shorter term traders should buy the dips. Rally looks like it has enough technical juice to make it close to 9654.

All the recommended sectors are doing quite well.

FXI (China) is clearly out preforming the USA. Chart of FXI .

EWZ (Brazil) chart is not as good as China, but again outperforming USA. Chart of EWZ . Caution – Brazil s tied to rising oil prices and will under perform on the way down.

GEX (Alternative energy) chart is basically forming a base. Chart of GEX. Will rally with US equities. Broke out to new short term high yesterday This is a play that the Obama stimulus package contains a lot of green energy proposals.

GLD (Gold) weekly chart is not quite as good as major US indexes – then again gold did not fall as much as the US indexes. Gold is a play that inflation emerges at the other end of the recession. Chart of GLD .

AS ALWAYS DO YOUR RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING

Long Term Outlook – BEARS RULE

Changes to Bottom Line Section Bolded .

Technicals – Series of Lower Lows and Lower Highs = Bears Rule. Obama/stimulus rally part 2 seems to be taking hold.
Look for range between 7449 and 9654 for rest of year.

Fundamentals – Financial transparency problem is far far far far far far far far far bigger than anyone thought.
It’s looks like the recession will last through 2009 – perhaps longer Hopes of a more competent Obama administration have rallied stocks.

Asset Allocation/Recommended Sectors (long term)

50% to 90% Cash – Long Term Investors (up to 20 to 25+% stocks – only buy big dips) Wait for the next big dip to add 5 to 10%
Be Cautious and PROTECT YOUR MONEY (use ETF’s that short major indexes) when stocks have a big rally

*5%+% US Index Funds
UWM (ETF that does 2x what Russell 2000 does) & QLD (ETF that does 2X the NASDQ ) DDM (ETF that does 2X the Dow ) SSO (ETF does 2X the S&P 500)

*5%+ Emerging Markets
EWZ (Brazil) should out perform other emerging markets in a rally and under perform in a fall – highest risk and dependent on oil prices
FXI (China ETF) should outperform USA

*5%+ Alternative Energy
GEX(Alternative energy ETF) Obama administration will focus on this area

*5+% Gold
GLD is the ETF for gold-

Chief Strategy – Buy the DIPS of trending sector – This is not your fathers market – over the 8 Bush years the Dow has gone from 11,000 to 8,500 and uncertainty clouds the future.

The major trend now is volatility.

Traders who have a strong tolerance for risk jump in on dips and invest more. Sell and/or go short into major rallies. Long term Investors who can tolerate risk and are 100% in cash nibble just a little on big dips. (5% on each big dip) Do not buy into rallies.

Shorting – Three ETF that short 2x what the major indexes do.

TWM – ultra short Russell 2000
QID – ultra short NASDQ
SDS – ultra short S&P 500

As Always Do Your Own Research Before Investing

Turkey’s of the Year (Decade?)

This elicited a whole bunch of email responses from you – Thanks for the email. More economic TURKEY’S OF THE DECADE – from you

1. Most mentioned – 911 "Bush was caught with his pants down and stocks went up in flames."
2. The housing bubble
3. The internet bubble
4. The growing gap between rich and poor
5. Katrina’s "economic and human devastation"
6. Bailouts – "The $6 trillion amounts to $24,000 for every citizen" (bailouts = tax dollars, sovereign wealth funds, takeovers, mergers, & biggest – Fed printing $)
7. Trying to privatize Social Security and not fixing other future unfunded mandates.
8. Alan Greenspan and the Fed

Bailouts and Stimulus

Many of you are extremely frustrated at the way government and the Fed is dishing out the dough. – You should be – We failed to properly regulate the credit system and now we and our children will be paying for it.

First it is important to remember that the Fed is NOT a government agency, but a group of banks that work with the government .

The main rational behind these bailouts and stimulus packages is at the start of the Great Depression President Herbert Hoover did nothing and banks collapsed left and right. This and the lack of stimulus caused/intensified the Great Depression. Roosevelt took many actions that diminished the Great Depression and the ultimate public works/jobs program – WW 2 ended the Great Depression. The Bush and Obama administration are trying to prevent another Great Depression.

Not All Stimulus Packages Have the Same Impact.

1. Tax Cuts – Across the board tax cuts obviously benefit the wealthy more than everyone else (see countless past Updates). They do have a positive impact – the middle class goes out and spends the tax cut money and that stimulates the economy. During war you are supposed to increase taxes. During good economic times you are supposed to decrease deficits.
2. Rebate Checks – This is a one time tax cut and has the same stimulative impact. Great positive impact for politician who voted to give you money.
3. A Jobs Based Stimulus Program – Hopefully, Obama Stimulus Package – This is as close as you get to consensus among Economists.

According to a Univ.of MD. prof on ABC when you give a taxpayer cash he/she goes out and spends it and stimulates the economy. Not always the case with wealth individuals, but this economist put the true value of money given by the government at $125 for every $100 given. However, if you create a job, the true value of the same $100 dollars given becomes $325. – The worker builds a bridge and it has a much larger ripple effect from subcontractors getting payed, commodities being used to the fact that transportation flows better over the new bridge.

Economists might differ on the figure, but JOB creation is far more important economically than giving you your tax dollars. A second factor in this – unemployment compensation and lack of tax revenue from a jobless person. This increases the burden on those who hold jobs/pay taxes. Example auto makers and related industries loose their jobs it ends up costing you $200 billion in unemployment compensation, aid to the states involved & lost tax revenue. (see past Updates.)

(More to come on this)

Note #1 – The big downside of all stimulus and bailout plans is it adds to the deficit and/or long term inflation.

Note #2 – The only entity betting on America is YOU (the government/taxpayer) – If this all works we actually make money on all these loans. We need luck, new paradigms, new regulations, and enough people to believe Obama can walk on water to pull it off.

Stocks

AS ALWAYS DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING

Headline – Happy Thanksgiving!

Index % Change Volume

Dow +0.43% down
NASDQ -0.50% down
S&P500 +0.66% down
Russell2000 +1.46% –

US Market & Foreign Markets

Technicals

US markets held onto their huge gains of the previous days yesterday and the benchmark Dow inched forward. Holding onto gains is a technical bullish sign.

Technically the volume behind the rally is encouraging. Dow at 8,443. Dow 8923 is the first minor resistance level and the falling 50 day moving average at 9337 is the next. 9654 is the major resistance level (see chart of Dow below) There is also a technical resistance level at around 8550 to 8600. This is the midpoint between the last high and low of the Dow. If you want to learn more about this 50% technical retracement theory (Fibonacci retracement ) being a resistance level.

What resistance levels are barriers that hinder the movement of prices going higher. They are called support levels as prices move down.

What needs to happen is for us to break the series of lower highs and lower lows that began over a year ago. Dow 9654 is that line in the sand.

Chart of the benchmark S&P 500

Chart of the Russell 2000

Chart of the NASDQ

Chart of the Dow

Fundamentals

- Jobs data is going to get worse and this in the short and long term will drag markets down. This economic downturn is going to get worse before it gets better.

Three Month Treasury Bill & LIBOR

Credit markets are the dog and the Stock Markets are the tail. Without credit the tail won’t wag.

Real progress WAS being made. The credit spreads are tightening and LIBOR has fallen from 4.8% a four weeks+ ago to @2 .20. LIBOR inched higher yesterday. LIBOR rates have flattened over the last two weeks. LIBOR is the rate banks charge each other, not businesses.

The 3MTB fell from 0.13% yesterday and closed at a rate of 0.10% The Fed rate is 1.00% . A normal 3MTB would be just under the Fed rate. – The situation is still dismal.

Sure looks like PANIC has returned to the credit markets again (check out chart) It eased a bit last two days

3 MTB chart

LIBOR chart (3 month)

New added spread sheet listing all the Treasury bonds traders of last 15 days. This gives a broader picture of the panic or lack of panic over US financial systems. This We will use the 3 MTB as a benchmark, but notice the 1 month MTB is down to 0.04% Not good.

Daily Treasury Yield Curve

Bottom Line – LIBOR (Interbank lending rate) falling helps Main Street’s a bit – Credit cards to adjustable mortgage rates are often tied to LIBOR. But by no means is credit back to normal.

OIL

Chart of oil (WTIC)

The Dollar

Chart of Dollar

The VIX

The VIX (measures amount of fear/volatility in S&P) .

Chart of VIX

Short Term Outlook

Reading the Tea Leaves – italics = same comments as yesterday

Overall strategy remains in place – buy big dips, sell of short into major rallies. The current two day rally, while impressive has a ways to go before reaching a major resistance level (see above) The rally has a strong base (big volume) to build on.

Remember, more often than not new lows are tested

Short term – We are nearing the midway point of the technical trading range and this is often a resistance area. We do have at least a bear market rally that seems to be based on a more competent administration solving the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Best guess – Rally looks to have legs to take out some minor resistance levels.

Long term – Bears Rule Trend is still firmly in place. When it looks like the sky is falling nibble a little. Even if you think Obama can walk on water this is one hell of a mess and there is NO quick fix.

The established technical trend is Bears Rule – A long term series of lower lows (in price) and lower highs. Until this pattern is broken, Shorting (See ETF’s suggested below) as markets get closer to old highs is recommended.

NB – Will be adding GLD (gold) on dips to recommended sector. (More Later) Technically its chart has broken out of a trading pattern and fundamentally investors are thinking of it as a hedge against inflation. Market Updates held GLD for years and its time to bring it back.

AS ALWAYS DO YOUR RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING

Long Term Outlook – BEARS RULE

Changes to Bottom Line section bolded

Technicals – Series of Lower Lows and Lower Highs = Bears Rule

Reading tea leaves – Look for range between 7449 and 9654 for rest of year.

Fundamentals – Financial mortgage transparency problem (credit default swaps $50 to $70 trillion) is far far far far far far far far far bigger than anyone thought.

We are in a recession. How bad/long the worldwide recession will be is be is the major question. It’s beginning to looks like the recession might will last through 2009 – perhaps longer Hopes of a more competent Obama administration have rallied stocks.

Asset Allocation/Recommended Sectors (long term)

50% to 90% Cash – This depends on your risk tolerance – Long Term Investors (up to 15+% stocks – only buy big dips) Wait for the next big dip to add 5 to 10%
Be Cautious and PROTECT YOUR MONEY.

*5%+% US Index Funds
UWM (ETF that does 2x what Russell 2000 does) & QLD (ETF that does 2X the NASDQ ) DDM (ETF that does 2X the Dow ) SSO (ETF does 2X the S&P 500)

*5% + Emerging Markets
EWZ (Brazil) should out perform other emerging markets in a rally and under perform in a fall – highest risk
FXI (China ETF)

*5%+ Alternative Energy
GEX(Alternative energy ETF) (Obama administration will focus on this area )

*5% Gold
GLD is the ETF for gold

Chief Strategy – Buy the DIPS of trending sector – This is not your fathers market- over the 8 Bush years the Dow has gone from 11,000 to 8,500 and uncertainty clouds the future.

The major trend now is volatility.

Traders who have a strong tolerance for risk jump in on dips and invest more. Sell or go short into major rallies. Long term Investors who can tolerate risk and are 100% in cash nibble just a little on big dips. (5% on each big dip) Do not buy into rallies.

Shorting – Three ETF that short 2x what the the major indexes do.

TWM – ultra short Russell 2000
QID – ultra short NASDQ
SDS – ultra short S&P 500

As Always Do Your Own Research Before Investing