Tech in the News
Survivors of the last Bear Market (2000-2002) remember it well. The Nasdaq fell from tremendous heights. Getting slammed when the Tech bubble burst, it lost -76% of its value. Though it’s gained some traction in the past few years, the once-enviable tech index is worth half its January 2000 value....
Financials Offset Energy Gains
The market was relatively flat today. The Dow closed down -44.13 points, off -0.3% while the S&P closed virtually unchanged at 1403.04. Pockets of strength continue to offset the decliners. This time, financials and healthcare dragged on advancing energy, materials, and industrials. So what caused...
Let The Sun Shine In
Stocks tumbled on Wednesday, led by the financial services sector and even more specifically the brokerage stocks. Not coincidentally, the sell-off ensued as SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said his agency will soon require investment banks to publicly disclose their capital and liquidity levels. Mr. Cox...
Sector Rotation and IYW
Snapshot: IYW — Dow Jones U.S. Technology iShares ETF Today’s stock market debate is whether or not there is sector rotation from materials, metals, energy and so on and so forth into things like technology, financials, and retailing. I took a snapshot of a broad-based technology fund to...
Crude Oil Cracks $117/Barrel
Today, Nigerian terrorists sabotaged a pipeline in Lagos slowing crude exports from the West African nation. After the attack, traders at the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) saw clear skies for the price of crude, sending it up to close at $117.48/barrel. To give you some perspective, Crude Oil...
A Tale of Two Sectors
Today was a good day on Wall Street. The broad market rallied again, giving rise to renewed optimism for the next few months. Despite election year jitters, the market managed to extend its upward trend. The Dow rose +93 points or +0.72% and the S&P 500 gained another +1.05%. However, this overview...
Real Estate Recovery?
Funds related to real estate and construction now dominate the top of our relative strength rankings. This may seem a little odd. Are we not in the midst of a real estate crash? The answer is both “Yes” and “No.” There are all kinds of real estate: commercial, residential,...
Three Strange Facts
Last week’s stock market gains are beginning to seem like a distant memory to many traders. The very sectors that led the market higher before Easter – mainly financials – are once again lagging. In the bigger picture we note three news items of interest today. First, mortgage rates...
Banks and Brokers Go Boom
The financials are on the move! Bears and Bulls are getting creamed left and right. The financials, with gigantic short interest going into Monday, have catapulted higher on the back of the latest Fed announcements and the Bear Stearns bail out. Investors short just got blown up. Folks speculating on...
Energy Conundrum
Following Monday’s sharp decline, the Fed announced its latest rescue plan, this time in the form of a $200 billion “credit facility” that allows banks to rid themselves, at least temporarily, of some of the troublesome mortgage securities that have been cluttering their balance sheets....
