As a result of high demand for Portuguese bonds, the European debt crisis eased for the time being and got the market in rally mode early yesterday morning. The latest talk now is that Portugal may not need a bailout after all. The Fed’s beige book confirmed that the economy was growing at a moderate pace with pockets of strength …
Good Start—Mediocre Ending
After a solid attempt to move to higher ground, the markets ran into unknown resistance yesterday, sold off, but managed to close on the positive side of the unchanged line. The drivers for yesterday’s action turned out to be higher commodity, energy and metals prices. Crude oil pushed through $91/barrel while gold rallied some $10. Interest rates were higher while …
European Debt Worries
Over the weekend, I talked about European debt concerns, which again moved to the front page yesterday and pushed the markets lower at the opening. At issue were worries as to whether Portugal and Spain, and to some degree Italy, may need to be bailed out and if they were able to fund their borrowing needs later on this week. …
Dollar Strength Equals Equity Weakness
The dollar and the domestic stock market have been moving in opposite directions over the past couple of years. This relationship is clearly visible in the above 1-year chart. However, lately there seems to have been some decoupling as the WSJ reports in “Dollar To Stocks: You Can Go Your Own Way?”For much of the fall, after Fed chairman Ben …
Sunday Musings: A Scary World
Reader Mark has some justified concerns as to where we’re going economically and how we can prepare ourselves investment wise for an uncertain future. Here’s what he wrote: I want to ask you about something that is beginning to worry me as it relates to the markets domestically and to a lesser degree internationally. Much of the world is pinned …
Little Volume—Big Returns
Reader David pointed to a link titled “ETFs With Little Volume but Big Returns, Revisited” and commented as follows: This article discusses “wide-spread confusions” re the significance of an ETF’s average daily volume, or per-minute dollar amount traded. I am one of those confused, and I would appreciate your discussion of this article. I recall you writing that you avoid …