Setting Up for Another First of Month Pop…or A Bull Trap?

Buyers are again lifting the stock market from its intra-day lows and providing some potential clues on where to draw the bull/bear lines from a technical perspective. The case for a bullish setup is relatively strong: Three days of high volume selling is washing out sellers. 50-day moving average (DMA) essentially successfully retested, leaving primary … Read more

Spain’s Turn to Bring A Frown to Markets

The stock market has already started cooling off from overbought conditions, but the weakening euro, increasing bond yields, and widening spreads have markets on edge yet again. After listening to a Planet Money segment on the financial problems in Spain called “A Theme Park, An Airport And The Next Banking Crisis” by Chana Joffe-Walt, I … Read more

Fear of A Sideways Market?

Last week, I claimed that the market is not yet overbought and that any corrections in the short-term will most likely be shallow. Without some specific and new catalyst, traders and investors, especially the ones who missed this latest rally, will treat pullbacks as golden buying opportunities. Moreover, I noted how, as expected, many analysts … Read more

Don’t Blame the Buyers, Blame the Suppliers of Sovereign Debt

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), its 33 member countries will almost double government borrowing from 2007 to 2011 to the tune of $19 trillion. In the face of this ramp in borrowing (and spending) bond investors are supposed should sit back and calmly continue to absorb all the sovereign requests … Read more

BoE’s Posen Must Be Sleeping Well At Night Now

“It’s the main question that keeps me and my colleagues at the MPC up at night. That’s why in our last set of forecasts….we stressed there are upside risks. The slack in the economy is not pushing down on inflation the way we’d like…core inflation is higher in the UK; it’s not dragging down like … Read more