ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
Earlier today, the Bank of England (BoE) maintained interest rates at 0.50% and did not change the size of its quantitative program… and the market essentially yawned. Such sluggish behavior has characterized the British pound’s behavior against the U.S. dollar for almost three weeks now. Source: dailyfx.com charts (Click for larger view) The over-extension of … Read more
While we await another challenge of the June highs by the S&P 500, copper has quickly recovered almost all its losses from the sell-off that began in May. Copper is potentially heading for fresh post-crash highs. Source: stockcharts.com Of course, copper is now much more important to the emerging and developing markets than to developed … Read more
I wrote earlier about a “stealth” rally in solar stocks featuring ReneSola (SOL), Solarfun Power Holdings Co Ltd (SOLF), LDK Solar Co Ltd (LDK), Trina Solar Ltd (TSL), and First Solar (FSLR). In all the excitement, I managed to neglected (at least?) two other stocks publicly traded in the U.S. that are in the green … Read more
I tried to make the case on Monday that the shrill commentary about the struggling American economy and its tepid stock market were getting overwrought with the kind of fever only a contrarian could love. It turns out there were other sentiment indicators flashing important extremes: “Bullish Sentiment Plummets to Credit Crisis Low“ (CNBC, August … Read more
So much for the dollar being “…poised for additional gains, especially versus the euro.” Instead of slowly grinding higher over its 50-day moving average (DMA), the U.S. dollar index failed its test of this important resistance line. Now another test of the 200DMA is right around the corner. *Chart created using TeleChart: Most of the … Read more
OK, by “stealth” I really mean I have not paid close enough attention to the rallies in several solar stocks. 2010 has been a year of true divergence for solar stocks. Some solar stocks have been in year-to-date rallies and others have been declining all year. The net result is an awful -25% year-to-date performance … Read more
The Swiss franc is back to all-time highs against the euro, and the extrapolations have begun. This morning, Bloomberg reports that UBS expects the franc to remain strong for the entire decade: “The Swiss franc will stay strong and investors should hold it as a proxy for the old German deutsche mark as the currency … Read more
I am far from bullish on the financial markets, but it is getting harder and harder to stay bearish given the accelerating negative buzz about deflation, double-dips, and, most importantly, all the talk about the uncertainty that is supposedly paralyzing the entire country, preventing business owners from operating the engines of American commerce and preventing … Read more
The U.S. dollar index has made little progress since its tremendous one-day rally over two weeks ago. Over the past week, the dollar index has stalled out right at its 50-day moving average (DMA). [Click for larger view] *Chart created using TeleChart: I set my plan at this point to dial my positions to net … Read more
We finally got the news on INTC that the market appears to have long anticipated. This morning, Intel (INTC) lowered revenue and margin guidance. Revenue guidance is now “…$11.0 billion, plus or minus $200 million, compared to the previous expectation of between $11.2 and $12.0 billion.” Margin guidance is “…now 66 percent, plus or minus … Read more