Weekly Market Update -Nov 24

No update for this past week -I'm currently out of town for the holidays. Slow week in the market (Thanksgiving). Still expecting the market to re-visit the August lows before rebounding.

Weekly Market update -Nov 17

Another wild week in the markets, with a huge 'up' day on Tuesday, only to sell off most of the gains by Friday, which was also option expiration day. We are getting close to the August 16th lows, so we could start to see a turnaround this week. Not much else going on.

Some of the commodities got hit hard this week, with a big pullback in Gold from about $840 to around $790 (see previous post), and Oil dropping a bit too. The US Dollar finally stopped it's free fall for now.

Bonds still heading higher reflecting a flight to quality, and another cut in interest rates expected from the Fed.

News stories:
Subprime losses could reach $400 billion, analysts say
Dow falls 121 as fear slams financial stocks
Trouble brewing for Starbucks?
NYSE Chief Is Chosen to Lead Merrill Lynch

Weekly Market update -Nov 11

The markets continued to sell off this week (see last week's post); more concerns about the sub-prime fallout (Citigroup reported another $11b write-down on top of the $5.9b previously announced). The short-term market direction got a little clearer this week: down! We are probably going to re-test the August 16th lows (caused by the original sub-prime news).

We also saw some of the large-cap tech stocks begin to fall this week, after Cisco announced their earnings. (GOOG dropped over $80, AAPL dropped over $25, RIMM dropped around $24, and BIDU dropped over $87). Consequently the Nasdaq 100 (QQQQ) saw a huge drop as well.

The US Dollar sank to fresh new lows again this week. This helped push Oil prices over $98 and Gold to a high of $845. Expect a pullback soon though!

News links:
Tech slump pushes Dow down 550 for week
More problems ahead for Citigroup
When Will the US Dollar Bottom?
Our biggest export: Inflation
Wall Street doesn't want you

Weekly Market Update -Nov 3

We had another roller coaster week in the markets, with the Fed cutting interest rates on Wednesday, a better than expected GDP number, a good monthly Payroll report on Friday, and shakeups in management at Merrill Lynch and Citigroup (Merrill took a write-down last month of about $8.4 billion, and Citi had a $5.9 billion write-down) -busy week! Also, most of the bank stocks tumbled this week. As I mentioned before, the sub-prime and real estate debacle is far from over (foreclosure rates just doubled compared to last year). On the bright side, Google crossed $700, and BIDU crossed $400.

Bottom line is that we still have a market with no clear direction. We did move up past the 1540 level on the S&P 500, then headed back down as predicted (see last week's comment). This week I see the possibility of more downside action coming, given all the bad news.

The US Dollar sank to fresh new lows again this week, with corresponding highs in the Euro, Canadian dollar, and other world currencies. This helped push Oil prices over $95 and Gold over $800. In spite of this, the government insists that we have no inflation. Do you believe the government numbers, or how much you are actually spending every day! I expect we'll get a bounce in the US Dollar soon, before it resumes the downtrend.

Bonds headed higher this week hitting a new high for the year, and reflecting a flight to quality.

India markets on the move too!

News links:
Big Drop in Merrill Stock on Hint of New Troubles

Citigroup Chief Is Set to Exit Amid Billions in Losses
Fresh Credit Worries Grip Markets
Foreclosure Filings Soar in 3Q
Dollar Falls to Record Low Versus Euro on Credit Concern, Fed
Gold closes above $800 at highest level since 1980