Chart Review: Stock Recoveries, Critical Resistance, and Emerging Breakouts

The current extended overbought period has produced many amazing chart patterns. In this chart review, I am highlighting some charts I find particularly interesting and compelling. There are impressive recoveries, stocks dancing with critical resistance, and emerging breakouts. Some charts are quite telling in that they completely contradict the presumed economic disaster from an imminent … Read more

Following the Lead of AK Steel’s CEO As He Buys Company Stock

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha. Click here to read the entire piece.) Steel stocks have essentially collapsed during this summer’s severe correction. Some have retested lows going all the way back to March, 2009. The stock market is essentially placing its votes and bets on a double-dip … Read more

Flowserve Loses All Its QE2-Inspired Gains

Late August has become a benchmark for the success of the Federal Reserve’s last money-printing campaign given at that time Chairman Ben Bernanke first floated the suggestion that another round of quantitative easing (QE2) was on its way (see speech at Jackson Hole, WY, August 27, 2010). I am also using this date as a … Read more

AK Steel Suffers Largest One-Day Loss In Three Years on Poor Earnings

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha. Click here to read the entire piece.) The shorts finally nailed AK Steel (AKS) (shorts are about 17% of AKS’s float). On July 26, AKS reported it will be squeezed by lower steel prices and higher input costs – especially iron ore. … Read more

Chart Review: Tops and Bottoms – CAT and LDK

July has continued a healthy recovering from the June lows for many stocks. However, some stocks have remained stuck in stock market purgatory. Today’s chart review shows two examples of this dichotomy. The extra bonus is that the stock in recovery mode, Caterpillar (CAT), has apparently topped while the stock stuck in purgatory, LDK Solar … Read more

Profiting from Physical Assets in a Resource-Constrained World – Rules and Picks (Part 2 of 2)

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha. Click here to read the entire piece.) {snip} This piece is a follow-up post to “Preparing for Profits in a Resource-Constrained World” (Part 1) in which I discussed the implications of Jeremy Grantham’s fundamental thesis of a new world where resources are … Read more

Movers of Household Goods Feel the Pressure

Several months ago, I had the opportunity to “talk shop” with a truck driver who specializes household moves. I will call him “Bob.” When Bob discovered that I write a blog dealing with trading and investing in financial markets, he asked me for my forecast for the economy. I did not have anything good to … Read more

Smash A Toyota, Boost the American Economy?

In her Nightly Business Report blog, Terri Cullen summarizes the potential economic impact of Toyota’s problems in “Toyota Recalls and the Economy.” In this article, Cullens suggests that what is bad for Toyota (TM) might be good for the U.S.: “The Toyota recalls may turn out to have a positive impact on the U.S. auto … Read more