[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com] Giving out early session gain gains, US stocks finished lower Wednesday as the Federal Reserve’s call for modest growth tempered moods amid signs of improvement in Chinese factory output and American housing market. October US flash manufacturing activity notched up to 51.31 from 51.1 in September while the US housing industry continued to chug ahead, extending …
Exuberance Disappears As Markets Take It On The Chin; Europe Plunges
[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com] Stocks took another plunge today with the Dow Industrials hitting a seven-week low after a batch of weak US earnings numbers and worries over Spain deepened investors concern of a global slowdown. Risk sentiment soured after ratings agency Moody’s Investor service downgraded Spain’s five regions by one or two notches stating their long term funding alternatives …
Last Hour Lift-A-Thon Saves The Day; Europe Turns Lower
[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com] US market indexes staged a late-session comeback Monday that erased early losses to end marginally higher after the technology sector rallied to lift major equity averages. It was the usual afternoon lift-a-thon we have become accustomed to witness now that the Fed is officially in charge of stock market direction. Following last week’s steep losses after …
Can Equities Do Well Even If QE Generates Too Much Inflation?
Bill Gross of PIMCO thinks Treasuries and high-yield bonds will do well as investor become risk averse, which is a reasonable bet, says David Zervos, Head of Global Fixed Income Strategy at Jefferies. Gross probably believes quantitative easing does little good for the real economy and that’s where the subtle difference of opinion lies, he added. In the end, the …
Jobs Data Disappoints While Google Weighs On Equities; Europe Hits 16-Month High
[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com] US stocks turned lower Thursday falling for the first time this week as tech giant Google missed earnings target highlighting the storm brewing in the tech sector while a rise in weekly jobless rate eclipsed upbeat manufacturing data. The mood went sour after a Labor Department showed initial jobless claims jumped 46,000 to 388,000, reversing a …
Equities Eke Out Gain As Housing Offsets Earnings Lag; Europe Up As Spain Retains Rating
[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com] US equities managed modest gains Wednesday after a four-year high new-home construction data offset disappointing earnings results from technology bellwethers like IBM and Intel. It’s simply amazing to me that good data points (housing starts being one of them), way out of the range of normal, have appeared recently, very conveniently just prior to the elections. …