Investors 411 Blog

The Empire Forever-Photo from Atlantic

Israel’s Knife in Biden’s Back

VP Joe Biden, who many consider the greatest friend of Israel ever had  in the US Senate, has spent about a week in Israel.  He opened with gushing words of support for Israel. The next day Israel announced 1600 new homes in what Palestinians believe is their land. The far right Israeli government put a knife in the American backed peace process and basically said F— Y– to Obama. Laura Rosen from Politico on reaction

Janet Yellin for Fed Vice Chair

The Fed has an enormous influence over YOUR life. Janet Yellin has been leaked as Obama’s choice.  Almost all extremely well qualified choices like Yelin are quickly approved. But times have changed and politics rule. Experience, Intellectual rigor, have become secondary to political views.

Insults in Afghanistan

Iran’s Ahmadinejad (Add 911 was a CIA conspiracy, plus the old holocaust didn’t happen to his list of pronouncements) and Sec. of Defense Gates traded insults while both were in Afghanistan. Both visited so called “President” Karzai. Story link from foreign press.

A BRIC Wall

BRIC = the emerging market giants Brazil, Russia, India and China who many seem to think are taking an opposing view to US policy – On the front burner, see National Interest piece, on blockingsanctions for Iran

Public Option’s Last Try

Bernie Sanders will introduce the public option sooner rather than later

Empire Forever

Robert Kaplan has an outstanding piece in the Atlantic on Afghanistan & the American Empire.

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	+0.42%	down
NASDQ	+0.40%	down
S&P 500	+0.40%	down
Russell 2000	+0.34%	-

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

Technicals, Fundamentals & Analysis

See Positions , Strategy , and Overview for changes made over weekend. (No changes this weekend)

Almost the exact same as yesterday-” Another melt up day in decreased volume.” This is now a mantra. Volume is NOT confirming the move higher.

Again same as yesterday – “As suggested yesterday the XLF (ETF for financial stocks) was one of several possible catalysts for continuing the rally. As the chart shows, its broken out to new highs over the last two days in increased volume. Basically, any meaningful attempt to shadow institutions and bring transparency to related markets is getting crushed. Therefore, it sure looks like the shadow financials  will add fuel to the stock rally.” This move higher is being led by Citigroup which move up &% yesterday and traded an overwhelming billion+ shares again.  This stock, like IMAX,  is going elliptical and expect it to run out of juice today.

The benchmark S&P 500 closed directly on its 18 month high. Obviously, momentum is with the bulls.

3 positions are open on the Fed and Janet Yellen has been leaked as the choice.

Retail numbers [just came in much better than expected = rally ho] and consumer confidence this AM – Both significant fundamentals that can move the market.

As long as mild melt ups continue outlook remains bullish.

Significant Indexes

• McClellan Oscillator fell a bit to +60.06 yesterday. We are still well above +60 or Overbought territory. StockCharts has a better version of the McClellan chart ($NYMO) LINK. Last week the NYMO reached a high of 75.33. It looks like we could get above that. So there is room for a short term trade, but longer term overbought = sell
• BDI - The Baltic Dry Index, which measures the cost of world trade (also a good indicator of how China is doing since they are huge exporters/importers) has exploded higher in the last few weeks. After flattening for a few days it is once again moving higher = Bulls rule

Positions

The  Positions Section = latest buys and sells – (Revised positions last weekend) - These are positions I actually own

From Yesterday “ IMAX – has exploded higher in HUGE volume.  It has “gaped” higher three days in a row.  In short, its going elliptical. That means expect a pull back. IMAX also reports earnings today.” IMAX “gapped” higher at the open again and was up over 7% and ended the day down 1.00% in HUGE  volume.  Best read of tea leaves is IMAX will take another day or two to settle then consolidate of move up. 

Mistake was to not sell some IMAX when stock “gapped” higher.(Up 7%)

From yesterday “Shorter term traders – Even though we are overbought, it sure looks like the McClellan will reach above 80 sooner rather than later. You might want to go long with TYH(3X technology) or FAS (3X what financials do) Buy a dip and keep tight stops.” Bought a 10% (Of portfolio) position in TYH at 151.50. Put stop at that 151.5 and may sell 1/2 for 3 to 5% gain hopefully today. TYH closed at 154.99

Long Term Outlook = CAUTIOUSLY BULLISH

AS ALWAYS DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING

Crossroads – Nation Building

Violence in Pakistan

The Huffington Post has become a major focal point in opposition to expanding in Afghanistan.  Site founder Arianna Huffington has an excellent article “Why Joe Biden Should Resign. ” LINK Biden has opposed the Afghan buildup in favor of a focus on Pakistan. Three of you have chimed in on the blog and agree that since Pakistan has Nuclear weapons, many more al Qaeda and affiliates it makes sense not to focus resources (financially 30 to 1 ) on Pakistan instead focus on Afghanistan. 41 were killed yesterday in a coordinated attack on Pakistan Police stations. LINK

Looks like we are going to have a do over election in Afghanistan LINK and then send in more troops for another long costly war.  After that Pakistan, perhaps Yemen, the Sudan, Iran, then back to Iraq.  The LOOOOOOONG war in Afghanistan means nation building in a country whose #1 export is opium not oil.  How are we ever going to get out of debt while spending trillions nation building?

Seems like Obama without Biden is going down the same path as Cheney/Bush .  From an editor in London, Simon Tisdall – “With friends like the US, Pakistan doesn’t need enemies.” LINK Another from Paris by William Pfaff LINK Another from Paris by William Pfaff LINK

STOCKS

AS ALWAYS, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING!

Index	Percentage %	Volume
Dow	+0.47%	down
NASDQ	+0,05%	down
S&P500	+0.43%	down
Russell2000	-0,10%	-

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

Last hour rally lifts stocks. Always bullish to close at highs of day. Volume falls. We held onto Dow 10,000 and that’s psychologically bullish. Holding Dow 10,000 into weekend important

Google hit and IBM missed earnings reports. Last night GOOG was up 3% and IBM down 3% in after hours trading. GE and BAC missed this AM.

Good news is NOT having the positive impact it had last quarter. How markets react to news is our #2 confirmation factor. It has turned BEARISH

Warning – Financial sector seems ready for at least a light correction. 1120 on the S&P in technical terms a 50% retracement number. If you don;t know what this means – just think the S&P is at 1097 and there is a big boulder in the road ahead to 1200.

Famed investor George Soros this AM is quoted on CNBC saying  “the US will be a drag on worldwide economic recovery”

Rotation/Sector Rotation

What happens in a bull market is different sectors take over leadership. Leadership rotates. So far in the US – energy, tech and financials have lead. Many foreign markets have broken out before the Dow and other indexes reached new yearly highs. (Brazil, Chile, Australia, Mexico, Germany plus more) The US sector now in the lead is energy. Rotation is what the bulls love to see. It’s like a relay race where another runner picks up the baton or carries the markets.

The supporting themes that juices everything is a falling dollar,  the huge stimulus packages around the world, & bailed out shadow banks/financials.

Oil prices have now also broken out over $77 (new yearly high) and if they go north of $80 Main Street is going to get hit and Wall Street will eventually feel it too.

——–

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 is @ 40% (I haven’t done the math) off its high (early June) Before that it gained almost over 630% from its all time low of 663 in Dec. of 2008 (April 2009 high of 4291 )

The BDI nine day rally flattened out two days ago and has fallen 99 points. It shot up a significant +91 points yesterday and closed at 2688 =  Bullish for stocks & world trade right now

——-

$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

Stocks went up so guess what happened to the dollar – The dollar reached a new yearly low two days and steadied yesterday at +0.04 % The dollar closed at $75.50. We have developed a support level just below $76 . The dollar closed below its support level. = Bullish for stocks

NB -

• Earnings will probably trump the dollar as the #1 influencing factor for the nest two weeks. But the falling dollar is the main driver of stocks right now and we have a long way to go till we hit last year’s $71 low.
• A slow decline in the dollar = good a rapid decline = bad .
  

Last year’s low was around $71, so there is a long way to go before the next major and very crucial support level.

Positions

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

I will try to revise this section to make it clearer – Open to any private suggestions – just went over it today.

Recommendations-

• Buy GLD on dips.
• Our other positions have gone way up and are NOT worth chasing at this time .
  
• If you are a stock picker or short term trader do not chase hot stocks – wait for a dip. Everything seems overbought. Financials on dips still decent plays. Looks like dip is coming.
• Traders – Bought small position in CSCO a few days ago
• Traders – NVS (Novartis) 11+% profit so far. Usually would take profits now or at least sell 1/2, but going to wait till swine flu hits.
• Having reached a higher high on major indexes, you start to think more about how much to hold and how much to sell.

AS ALWAYS DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING!

The Mighty Casey Strikes Out

The beloved Boston Red Sox were eliminated from the playoffs . I’m going into a cocoon till spring training.

“Deja Vu all over Again”

Yogi Berra’s famous phrase is applicable to our financial situation.

It’s been just over a year since the shadow banks brought the world to its knees and we almost fell over the brink. We had the socialist or communist bailout – you the taxpayers. Nothing has been done to really fix the problems that existed. The dominance of the financial sector continues over politicians and the media continues. Our growth is being measured just like it was before.

This screams for any investor to keep a watchful eye on your investments. If we keep allowing GREED and self interest to run financials the next meltdown is going to be bigger than the last.

Afghanistan

Our #1 & #2 priorities should be Pakistan and Iran . If anything terrorist taking over part of what is equivalent to the Pentagon in Pakistan is very significant. LINK In Newsweek magazine Joe Biden comments that we spend 1/30 the money on Afghanistan than we do nuclear armed Pakistan. No matter how much of a war monger or peace nick you are simply recognizing the greater threat is critical. In fact it looks like any meaningful change has been at best marginalized.

Nobel Prize

Kudos to Obama on winning the Nobel Peace Prize. It sure helped that he wasn’t Bush. Will we continue to spend trillions on wars? Perhaps the Nobel committee is trying to nudge Obama to more peaceful of negotiated methods of solving problems.

STOCKS

AS ALWAYS, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING!

Index	Percentage %	Volume
Dow	+0.80%	down
NASDQ	+0.72%	down
S&P500	+0.56%	down
Russell2000	+1.18%	-

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

Basically the US markets have been up 5 days in a row and are close to reaching new yearly highs. Volume dropped Friday, so technically  its hard to see a breakout behind such weak volume figures.

Fundamentally, earnings season begins this week and next week they flood in.

The dollar is still the key to worldwide recovery.

For Jim Cramer fans here’s a critic for investment advisers Nick Kapur of  Motley Fool . LINK You should always take entertainers and the politically and self interest  driven comments coming out of CNBC with a grain block of salt with a grain of salt. Like everyone Cramer has his share of horrendous calls (“be out of the markets for the next 5 years”) and good calls. Remember their advertisers make $ every time you “buy buy buy” and “sell sell sell.”

The BDI has turned positive. = Bullish for stocks

Fearless forecast for week – The dollar has ruled. Basically the lower dollar has given US companies a chance for better profits. So last earnings quarter and future forecasts (providing dollar keeps falling & it looks like it will) should be better than expected. Technically we are approaching new highs is WEAK volume . Technicals, are telling us the resistance levels (old highs) will hold.

Markets rose even though the dollar was up significantly Friday (see below) . This is bullish The lack of Volume is giving us a Bearish signal . The BDI has turned Bullish -

Bottom Line – Mixed signals with a bullish tint. How markets react to news looks like it will drive stocks this week. So far reactions to Alcoa and other early earnings reports has been good.

——–

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 is @ 46% off its high (early June) Before that it gained almost over 630% from its all time low of 663 in Dec. of 2008 (April 2009 high of 4291 )

The BDI nine day rally continued. It rose a +46 points yesterday and closed at 2695 .   We seem to have started to reversed the longer term June move.  Resistance level of 2491 (last months high) first major hurdle to cross – We’ve broken out over these levels and technically created a higher high. -  Bullish for stocks .

——-

$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

The dollar reached a new yearly low (barely) last week and rebounded big time Friday +0.60% The dollar closed at 76.43. We have developed a support level just below $76.

Last year’s low was around $71, so there is a long way to go before the next major support level.

Positions

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

Our positions in gold GLD and Brazil EWZ are clearly out preforming US markets and our China position. The later two are approaching new highs. Would buy more of GLD & EWZ on dips.

AS ALWAYS DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING!