Nice Start to the New Year

The Dow is up 5%, the S&P 7%, and the Nasdaq 100 12% in the New Year, continuing the trend from December. The impetus seems to have come from an improving  economy and better jobs reports in the U.S., plus the realization that Greece doesn’t spell the end of the world, whatever the outcome there. It’s emotionally comfortable [...]

Posted on 14 February 2012 | 12:33 pm

Investing in 2012

Although the December rally seems to have stalled just above S&P 1250 (not far from where we started 2011,) there’s been a nice rally  in some big cap recession resistant stocks like food (e.g. Kraft, General Mills,) and drug stocks (e.g. Abbott Labs and Pfizer.) Some big retailer rallied into the end of the year while others [...]

Posted on 29 December 2011 | 6:01 pm

Here Comes Santa Claus?

Well, after my early November post the market did test support at 1200 (S&P 500) and promptly went down another 3% to 1162, basically the middle of the late summer/early fall trading range. Then we found support. This last weekend Central Bankers, led by our Fed, brought the markets a gift, actually a gift swap-Dollars for Euros. Now we’re [...]

Posted on 2 December 2011 | 3:39 pm

Testing Support

Big (3%+) sell off today off the continued dithering in Europe-adding Italian dithering to Greek dithering. We’re getting near the top of the late summer/early fall trading range and near to the 50 dma on the major U.S. indices. I think these levels will prove to be good support, assuming the EU doesn’t disintegrate. (Earnings season is out [...]

Posted on 9 November 2011 | 2:45 pm

Good Set-Up?

From early August through early October the market (S&P 500) traded in a range roughlybetween 1120 and 1220. In late October we broke out to 1280, then pulled back this week to 1220, the top of the late summer base. We’re holding above 1220  (in spite of the fixation on Europe debt.) This is known as a Good [...]

Posted on 3 November 2011 | 10:43 am