Insights

Yesterday I wrote that the traditional Santa Claus rally had been missing. Europe started the party early today, going up as much as 3% and the US markets have seen that and raised it, up as much as 4%. Even better, the market has continued to climb as the day has...

No sign of Santa yet - the normal "Santa Claus rally" that runs the second half of December and often well into the first quarter is nowhere to be seen yet. Meanwhile, markets in Europe and the US continue the pattern of starting out the day well and seeing gains...

The European Central Bank (ECB) has refused to loan money directly to governments in order to bail them out or to buy more than limited quantities of their bonds. It has, however found a back-door way of doing the same. It is offering unlimited 3-year loans to banks...

Today the CPI was reported as being flat from last year. What? - you say, how can that be since I pay more for things than I did last year? The answer is a little complex but simply put, because of the tremendous incentive for the government to understate the CPI - it...

There is a new government requirement that employers with a 401k plan disclose to participants the costs. If you are an employer, you need to look at your plan to find out the costs and see if they are as low as they should be. For the majority of people reading this...

I ran across a very interesting article at this address http://seekingalpha.com/article/313733-what-is-the-real-unemployment-rate?source=email_macro_view&ifp=0 The article makes the point that if the same number of people were looking for work today as in 2007 the...

Gold is now off 15% from its recent highs. As you know, I have an automatic sell rule when a security drops 15% so we will be selling gold. However, I like gold for the long term and see buying it back again at lower levels. It can go another 10-15% lower as people...

After 8 days of a declining market, stocks bounced higher in Europe and the US. In Europe, there is little reason to bounce other than simply technical trading reasons. Italian bond yields have spiked higher again after a very brief respite below 6%. The more people...

European markets were down 2-3% today while US markets finished down 1.5%. Most likely the cause, and despite the pronouncements of the media, one can only be sure that the reporter will oversimplify the reason and perhaps get it totally wrong, the most likely main...

I think US stocks would move higher if Europe can be removed from center stage. The question is, "can it?" Can Europe take a bow and let the US economy have the spotlight for a while? The agreement was reached today between all 17 Eurozone countries and all but one EU...