ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
The first rate pain continues with First Solar (FSLR). At the time of posting, First Solar has dropped over 4% (to $108) in after hours trading upon the release of its 2009 annual report. No doubt the seventeen pages describing risk factors contributed to the latest reason to sell First Solar shares. These morbid details … Read more
During his State of the Union address, President Obama sent a cheer amongst Congressional Republicans when he announced (confirmed) his support for nuclear power as a source of clean energy. Obama followed through with his promise when he announced last week $8 billion in loan guarantees for building two nuclear plants by Southern Company in … Read more
The New Poor – Despite Signs of Recovery, Long-Term Unemployment Rises – Series – NYTimes.com Even as the American economy shows tentative signs of a rebound, the human toll of the recession continues to mount, with millions of Americans remaining out of work, out of savings and nearing the end of their unemployment benefits. (tags: … Read more
In the past two years or so, I have often marveled at how differently the U.S. markets react from Asian and European markets when it comes to “bad” news released overnight (Eastern time). I do not yet have formal data or analysis, but I wanted to share some informal, personal observations. During the market recovery … Read more
FT Alphaville » BNP Paribas says a weak euro could rescue Europe When FT Alphaville met with BNP Paribas’ head of currencies Hans Redeker in an informal meeting a couple weeks back, one of the subjects discussed was the need for a weaker euro to stimulate German exports beyond the Eurozone to offset falling demand … Read more
Solar investors and traders know the post-earnings routine all too well by now: 1) solar company releases earnings, 2) after hours trading initially sends the stock up on stellar headline results for the last quarter, 3) and then trading sends the stock into negative territory once guidance rolls across the tape or during the conference … Read more
(A version of this post also appears on Inflation Watch) The Federal Reserve essentially warned us in its most recent written testimony to the House of Representatives that part of its exit strategy from emergency monetary measures is to increase the spread between the funds rate and the discount rate. This evening, the Fed did … Read more
First Solar (FSLR) reports earnings tonight, and short interest is at a record high. Data from nasdaq.com. Latest update January 29, 2010 This short interest represents about 36% of FSLR’s float. Toss in negative news flow and for the first time in a long time, negativity is running extremely high going into FSLR’s earnings. As … Read more
The Australian dollar is my favorite currency. I have remained very bearish on the British pound since first writing about the currency last September (yes, there actually IS a currency I dislike more than the U.S. dollar!). For whatever reason, it only recently occurred to me to pull up a long-term chart comparing these two … Read more
FT Alphaville » BNP Paribas says a weak euro could rescue Europe When FT Alphaville met with BNP Paribas’ head of currencies Hans Redeker in an informal meeting a couple weeks back, one of the subjects discussed was the need for a weaker euro to stimulate German exports beyond the Eurozone to offset falling demand … Read more