Microsoft and Intel Continue to Diverge

I was clearly far too early in restarting a pairs trade short Microsoft (MSFT) and long Intel (INTC). Over the past two months, the performance of MSFT has steadily improved, while Intel’s performance has steadily worsened. The MSFT/INTC ratio is now at 10 month highs. Source: stockcharts.com Typically, I would look at this divergence and … Read more

Gold and Silver Break 4-Month Old Primary Uptrends

The cooling process for gold and silver has moved slowly and deliberately. The first step featured a fight through parabolic upswings, especially for silver. The next step finally seems underway with the first break of primary (short-term) uptrends. Gold closed below its 50-day moving average (DMA) for the first time since August. Silver closed below … Read more

The Stock Market Is Finally Overbought Again (including an update on first-of-year performance)

Throughout the stock market’s meandering upward in December, I maintained that technical conditions were not yet overbought. I also noted that T2108, the percentage of stocks trading above their 40-day moving averages (DMAs), would likely not reach the overbought threshold (at least 70%) until a rush of “panicked buyers” sent the market soaring higher. I … Read more

RIM Completes Another Share Repurchase Program and Cannot Restart Until Summer

Research In Motion (RIMM) reported earnings December 16, 2010. The general reaction to the report has been muted with the stock trading down 1.7% since the market close before the report. I have followed RIMM’s stock repurchasing activity for a while now, but I neglected to note earlier that RIMM announced the (aggressive) completion of … Read more

The Australian Dollar Ends the Year with A Flourish

I thought it would be fitting to close out another year of blog posts to celebrate the performance of one of my favorite investments: the Australian dollar. Despite beginning the week with another round of tightening by Chinese monetary authorities, the Australian dollar put on another stellar show. The “Aussie” closed the week up over … Read more