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

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Financing Health Care

Here’s the "Pelosi" or House Plan costs It has a direct impact on 1.2% of Americans.

• 1% increase on those earning over 280K to 500k
• 1.5% increase on those earning 500k to 1 million
• 5.4% increase on those earnings over 1 million.

The nuts and bolts (lower costs & greater choices) of the plan explained here

Bottom Line – The growing income inequality is one of the major economic problems that has done  seriously harm to this nation.  No matter what you feel about this imperfect plan the Republicans had 8 years and did nothing while health care prices skyrocketed. The Democrats and Obama are moving in the right direction.

Knowing that heath care costs are covered, 10′s of millions of Americans will be more likely to spend money.

Sotomayor Hearings

The Supreme court has become a highly charged political entity. The 5-4 vote for President Bush in 2000 proved this beyond any doubt.

So naturally the Sotomayor hearings are a circus of political correctness. The OWMP (Old White Men’s Party) or Republican’s are further alienating themselves from America’s growing non white community by going  after an eminently qualified Hispanic women jurist. In the NYT Maureen Dowd has a column appropriately  entitled "White Man’s Last Stand" here

Waiting Game

Huffington Post photo

The NYT has an editorial that reflects similar views of Investors411 over these past month. Why is the Obama administration waiting to act on some critical economic factors? See editorial here

STOCKS

AS ALWAYS, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING!

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

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

Technicals and Fundamentals

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

Markets moved slightly higher after Monday’s big gains in reduced volume. A Bullish confirmation signal

Financials are probably going to continue their charmed existence, because t he Obama administration & the Fed has deemed the big ones too big to fail and they keep kicking the can down the road on any major fix of the problems that created the economic meltdown.

Intel’s earnings report  was a grand slam . Intel is the mother of all chip stocks and chips are the picks and shovels of technology. Therefore, this is a fundamental sign that technology is full of "green shoots," (green shoots is an overused term that of signs the recession is receding) At least technology is one sector of the worldwide economy moving forward.

Significant forecasting tools/Indexes for stock markets

BDI - The Baltic Dry Index measures the flow of goods (world trade) As predicted for the last two days the BDI has turned back and yesterday mover significantly (3+%)  higher. So the prediction on Monday about a bullish turn has come true.  Bulls Rule momentum

In a nut shell the BDI is

• short term - turning bullish
  
• mid term – clear bearish pattern
• long term - bullish pattern
  

$USD - The Dollar is still comfortably in its in its 5+ week long consolidation pattern between $79+ and 81+.

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Monday’s Fearless Forecast for week – So expect a rise with some financial stocks reporting early in the week and that rally to get tempered later in the week Intel surprise is a strong fundamentally Bullish factor

Changing Long Term Outlook back to NEUTRAL – Both the BDI (world trade) and technology are green shoots

Our Positions

Intel earnings positively impact four positions

• IFN – India We outsource much of our technology to India.
• QLD – This in its own right (not part of the "the Hedge" trade) becomes a buy the dip trading opportunity again
• FXI – Benefits less directly. But anything that helps the US helps China more.
• The Hedge – This should certainly help the QLD or tech part of this trade.

Personally I’m adding to positions early this AM and/or on any dips. (5% to 10%) addition.

This doesn’t mean that the worldwide recession is out of the woods – there are some long term problems that are no where near solved – but Intel’s news and the BDI turn should really  juice stocks.  The benchmark S&P 500 is at 905 and the next resistance level is 930 then the yearly high of 956. Rally ho

Note change in Long Term Outlook up ANOTHER level to CAUTIOUSLY BULLISH

AS ALWAYS DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING!

What’s Up? – David Patraeus on torture and Gitmo – The Supremes sing in Spanish – Californification, Is the Golden State falling into the sea? Will the US join them – Women’s historic win in the Islamic state of Kuwait – Fearless market forecast.

Petraeus – Huffington Post photo

Torture

• Obama says – torture bad – closing Gitmo good – Right wing says NO
• McCain says the same thing – Right wing says NO
• Powell says same thing – Right wing says NO
• Admiral Mullin (chair joint of staff & a Bush appointment) says the same - Right wing says NO
• Sec. of Defense Gates says the same (another Bush appointee) says the same - Right wing says NO
• Now the hero of the right wing General Petraeus says Obama is right – what will Cheney, Limbaugh and the rest of the right wing now say  about torture and closing Guantanamo Bay?

Californification

California is up to its neck in quicksand. Its one of the leading states in foreclosures and unemployment. Will the US follow California? Previous posts over the years have brought up California’s two major problems

• Proposition 13 - This state taxes property at what you payed for it. So for example if you payed $50,000 for a property 30 years ago and it is now worth $1,000,000, you pay only a tax on$50,000. Someone who buys property now pays today pays a whole lot more – This has lead to a serious short fall in revenues.
• You need a 2/3 vote in the legislature to make any serious changes in tax structure.

In the USA we too have self interested people who want to pay almost no taxes & have to overcome a 60% filibuster in the Senate to make any serious tax changes.  Not as bad as California, but still a problem.

Want to learn more – See Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman’s editorial California - A State of Paralysis. 

Sotomayor – AP Photo

Supremes

Front page of every newspaper – An “inspired” (obviously others might disagree) choice for the Supreme Court – Sonia Sotomayor. – - Impressive legal background, compelling life story, first Hispanic ever nominated to Supreme court. For more see NYT editorial

Aseel al-Awadhi photo – Boston Globe

Women in Kuwait

4 of the recently elected 50 members of parliament in Kuwait are now women. This begins to breaks the mold of how women are treated in Muslim countries and a first for the Gulf States. This is truly a historic move

STOCKS

AS ALWAYS, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING

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Technicals & Fundamentals 

Forecasting what markets will do is all about how potential investors feel about the  fundamental aspects of stocks and the economy. Technicals (looking at chart patterns) gives us some idea of where the traffic signals are. It all about predicting attitude.

Yesterday the US stock markets exploded higher as volume rose. However volume was below average and below the down days of both Wed. & Thur. of  last week. While the price move is encouraging and explosive, what natural for a sustained rally is increasing above average volume. This show buyers or potential investors are not moving back into stocks.

Yesterday is certainly not a bad day and it may be the start of another leg higher. However for right now it is a move from near the bottom of the consolidation pattern we’ve been in for the last three + weeks to near the top. Therefore, no big green light till volume confirms a breakout.

One interesting pattern is developing – The first trading day of each week recently shown a  a significant move higher and the rest of the week has given up those gains.

Good consumer confidence numbers were said to be the fundamental behind the market move. Never seen consumer confidence boost the markets this much. Very suspicious over lack of volume.

News this AM – GM bondholders say no and it looks like GM will go into bankruptcy.

XLF - The ETF that tracks financials (mostly shadow banks ) rose +3.26% . This index closed at 12.04. As stated in past updates for the last 3 weeks financials have been trading between @ 13+ and @11+ (more specifically support at 11.33 and resistance at 13.08) Any close above or below these support of resistance levels would turn confirm a longer term trend for bull or bears.

WTIC - Oil prices again closed over their $60 support level +1.26% at $62.45. Energy related stocks kept the rest of the US markets from loosing more ground. As stated before – Higher oil prices are an indication of economic recovery, but also hurt that recovery because it means energy prices will rise.

Reading The Tea Leaves - Yesterday we moved up within the consolidation range. (see above or chart of SPX) There has yet to be any breakout in any US or world indexes.(except Brazil) The formerly leading Financials (shadow banks) are now a bit behind the major US indexes. The NASDQ (techs) seems in the lead.

Positions - (See positions section of blog for more)

•  EWZ - sure looks like it was a mistake to take our substantial profits (+26) in Brazil (EWZ) Brazil reached a new closing high yesterday. As stated Thursday looking for a dip (-5 to 10%) to get back in.
• Inflation – GLD (gold) is one of the hedges against inflation. As recommended last week I was able to add to this position as about $93. We sold some gold at $95 earlier this year. 
• There are ETF’s that also will move higher if/when inflation occurs. Considering TBT  (explanation later this week), but is has way too high a price right now.
• FXI – our major position here only rose +1.24% yesterday due to the proximity of China to the nuclear test in North Korea. 

AS ALWAYS DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING !