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

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Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

Ever since the 2008 meltdown Investors411 has stated financial and economic conditions are “far far far far far bigger than first imagined.” This statement that has been made many times and is still bolded in the position section of the blog.

Poll after poll (except among Tea Party supporters) have said “To Hell with the Deficit, Its Job, Jobs, Jobs.“ See yesterday’s Investors411 for  a list of historians and economists who make the same case less colorful language.

Immediate Help

• Extend unemployment benefits its “the human thing to do.” Republican Billionaire Mort Zukerman
• Extend unemployment because (the average American unemployment check was under $300 a week in 2009) it will stimulate the economy. These people will SPEND the money and we all benefit because money flows.
• Republican’s know that the longer they can delay a vote on this the less money will flow and consequently the more people unemployment will grow before the November elections. Every day they delay = the more votes they get in November, because they can blame Obama for unemployment.
• It’s certainly hypocritical to endorse the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy. Next vote for unnessesary war funding outside the budget for over 10 years. Then play politics because our own American families of former workers are going hungry.

Longer Term Help

• Infrastructure projects get you the most bang for the buck according to Mort Zukerman (who I usually don’t agree with) and most economists.
• We need an Independent Infrastructure Bank Not one where a powerful Senator like Democrat Harry Reid can take $350 million for a high speed train from LA to his home state of (Los Vegas)Nevada.

Bottom Line – Andy Grove, Intel’s CEO had it right – Globalization has created a major “scaling” problem in the USA. Unless we somehow change that direction the ultimate result is going to be very negative economically for the USA.

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	+0.56%	down
NASDQ	+0.88%	down
S&P 500	+0.60%	down
Russell 2000	+0.44%	-

Technicals, Fundamentals & Analysis

The High Frequency/Black Box traders (that are focused on the here and now) pushed the markets higher in weak trading. This has been the typical headline for many moons in what’s been a falling market since April. – Lower price highs and lower lows.

IBM was the earnings report of most interest and its down @-4% in pre market trading = Bearish

APPL – Both Monitor and Paul R have warned about today’s earnings report at close.

YOU have pretty much reached consensus that holding a stock, especially in a declining economic environment, is highly risky before its earning report. If you are an insane lover of risk (short term trader) and AAPL continues to drop before earnings – it does take some of the downside risk away.

Ruptured oil well leaking again and possible leaks on oil on ocean floor related to BP oil spill. Best site for this is The Oil Drum = Bearish

Significant Indexes-

• McClellan Oscillator (MO) rose to +21.91 [+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. = NEUTRAL
• US Dollar –  The dollar Friday was basically flat +0.04% [Anything over +/- @0.50 is significant.] The dollar is important  to stocks – Dollar up = stocks down and visa versa. The Black Box traders, have used the inverse relationship of the dollar as a key part of their trading system. Earning have trumped this indicator for now & we have consolidated for last two days. = NEUTRAL
• BDI - The  Baltic Dry Index (Measures cost of shipping – Higher costs good = more being shipped = Bullish. Also good proxy of China.) BDI is in free fall from a high of @4200 to 1700 yesterday. This is a huge -60% drop 8 weeks.  Often a leading indicator for stocks. Here’s a 3 year chart of BDI for context. The BDI rose for the first time in 8 weeks the BDI rose Friday & +0.70% yesterday. At long last the BDI finding a bottom - a bullish sign, but too early to tell.Fundamentally the -60% drop is very BEARISH

Reading Tea Leaves-

Don’t think the negative fundamentals of the BDI (Trade and China) & Europe have been fully integrated into stock prices yet. Sure fells like we are going to have a negative day. But, with Black boxes in control (almost everyone else has fled to safer investments of bonds and treasuries) – you never know.

Positions

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

Updated over weekends Investors411 holds ONE position at this time

From Yesterday – SH – The ETF that shorts the S&P 500 was bought at 51.45. It’s up over 3% now. 1/2 will be sold at 3% profit and a stop/loss has been put in place at what it was bought for. 1/2 of SH was sold for 53.02 for +3% profit.  Letting the rest ride and will sell when conditions on MO near oversold.

No other positions long or short are contemplated in immediate future because MO is neutral. Sorry, there is little to do but sit tight,  be happy you’re almost all in cash, and wait till we get oversold or overbought.

One exception is GLD or DGL (@200% GLD). Its dipping and if it falls to its 200 DMA – would consider buying on fundamentals.

More Troops – Bad Bet

Nicholas Kristoff’ s editorial in today’s NYT on why more troops in Afghanistan is a bad bet. Investors411 praised the fact that we tripled aid to Pakistan.  Here’s Kristoff’s money quote.  “American policy makers were completely blindsided in recent weeks by outrage in Pakistan at the terms of our latest aid package — and if we can’t even hand out billions of dollars without triggering nationalistic resentment, don’t expect a benign reaction to tens of thousands of additional American troops. ”

Jobs Jobs Jobs

Investors411 has painted a bleak picture of long term job prospects for Americans over the last few month. When you add to this shadow banks are still in the shadows and foreclosure problem is at best stabilized you have a bleak picture for Main Street USA.  Perhaps those that have seen gains in their stock portfolio’s since the spring will spend and juice the economy. However, especially for older workers, as Abby Gold in the comments section points out, on Main Street its not a rosy picture.

Solutions – One specific help would be to extend something like the $8,000 homeowner credit for first time home buyers. 350,000 buyers took advantage of this program – it worked especially for lower priced homes. The ripple effect is those new home buyers have to furnish those homes. Two respected individuals have offered their solutions

• Mort Zuckerman (right of center – editor of US News & World mag.) in an editorial titled “The free market is not up to the job of creating work” suggests a “massive program(s)to restore stable jobs growth.” He suggests a National Jobs bank and allocating $65 billion toward it. LINK
• Tom Friedman (left of ccenter/pro business – NYT columnist) looks at the failures of America’s education system to keep up with the increasingly  globalized world.  Here’s the money quote – “While the subprime mortgage mess involved a huge ethical breakdown on Wall Street, it coincided with an education breakdown on Main Street — precisely when technology and open borders were enabling so many more people to compete with Americans for middle-class jobs. ” LINK

Pay Cuts on Bailed Out Companies

Obama administration is forcing pay cuts on top executives of 7 bailout firms. Good first step, but what about all those other shadow financial institutions who used the Fed or collected big time from AIG’s  bailout? Goldman Sachs & many others gets away without any claw backs in this. Huffington Post LINK or NYT LINK

STOCKS

AS ALWAYS, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING!

Index	Percentage %	Volume
Dow	-0.90%	up
NASDQ	-0,59%	up
S&P500	-0.89%	up
Russell2000	-1.35%	-

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, Fundamentals & Analysis

This is a US stock market dominated by professionals and traders.  Some sort of programed trade kicked in the last hours and the pro’s left the building.  The volume way well above average and the fall from what was a rally was over 1%. Volume increased significantly in the last hour’s price collapse = Bears asserting dominance

The dollar fell significantly which almost always means US equities rally. This again = Bears asserting dominance

The dollar fell so overbought oil prices rose significantly LINK to chart +2.25 to $81.37 . Obviously oil prices above $80 is going to hurt ma and pa consumer in any recovery.  Sure looks like some entity or group is manipulating oil prices. Up 9 of last  10 days and going parabolic (up too far too fast)= Bears asserting dominance

The BDI rose (probably did not have time to react to swift fall in equities)

Reading the Tea Leaves – There is no specific fundamental(s) that you can point to that says yea that’s the reason stocks tanked in big time volume at in the last hour of trading.  Obviously “the Pro’s” know something us common investors do not. Earnings season has been much better than expected with companies beating on both TOP and bottom line. The dollar fell. The BDI is rising.  Stocks should be rising.

Stocks falling on good earnings news, a rising BDI and a falling dollar is a disconnect from what has been a historically a positive trend .  Think of this as a sign in the road saying WARNING SPEED BUMP AHEAD.

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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 is @ 30% 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 rose a significant +85 points Friday and closed at 2917. A higher high price on its chart pattern has been confirmed and it sure looks like a bullish run could be starting. =  Bullish for stocks & world trade right now

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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 fell a significant -0.55 % The dollar closed at $75.12 . We have developed a support now resistance (it’s called support on the way down and resistance on the way up) 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,(March 08 ) so there is a long way to go before the major and very crucial support level is reached .

The dollar does have a support level around $74.00( a high from about a year ago – see long term chart)

Positions

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

Trades made this week are updated at the end of the week. -  Sold 50% of position in EWZ and all of EWY. Have no position in XLE. Also for TRADERS (not investors) strongly considering buying some companies listed yesterday that had outstanding earnings, but have fallen over last few days.

AS ALWAYS DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING!