Insights

Asian markets were up nicely this morning partly on news that Chinese manufacturing was basically flat, which is an improvement. European markets followed suit but gave back a good bit of their gains. There were actually a couple of European economic reports that were...

It was a disappointing day for stocks, starting up strongly and then selling it off all day until stocks finished pretty much where they started. Europe was up 2%+ when US markets opened and then sold off most of their rally, following the US lead. Germany finished in...

Stocks are back at roughly the lowest closing price of 2011. S&P 500 -1.5% Dow -1.57%, Nasdaq -1.6% Small Stocks –1.6% European & Asian Stocks -1%-2%+ Gold +1.25 Corp. Bonds -0.1% Two main worries: US economy It is slowing down significantly which means analyst's...

As I wrote earlier, volatility has earned after a brief break the last few days. Here at the #s: S&P 500 -4.5% Dow -3.7%, Nasdaq -5.2% Small Stocks --5.6% European & Asian Stocks -4%-5%+ Gold +1.9& Corp. Bonds +0.1% (Click Chart to Enlarge) I wrote quite a bit last...

The Consumer Price Index 0.5% for July and 3.6% for the last 12 months. Of course, food and energy were up most and Core CPI was 0.2%. Oil prices have come down somewhat in August but food has continued higher. Jobless claims came in at 407,000 which was higher than...

Stocks are set to open down 2% today. In Europe bank selling has spilled over into other stocks and stock indexes are down as much 3.6%. Of course, gold is up and bonds should be too. The European financial crisis is back in the headlines after news that European...

For once, there was not much excitement in stocks today, which is fine by most folks. Bonds were up again today as was gold and food. Our stock market is having a hard time getting above 1200 on the S&P 500 but it is not dropping, either. The meeting between Angela...

Futures have stocks opening about 0.5% higher. That may not last. Europe is down -0.5%, Asia is mixed, the S&P is right around a resistance area at 1200 and volume on this rally has been weak. There is strong resistance at 1240-1260, about 3%-5% higher. More people...

Industrial production +0.9% to 77.5 Housing starts -1.5% Import prices +0.3% The main reason for the increase in industrial production were the bounce back in auto production after a big slowdown from part shortages related to the Japanese disaster. Mining was up 1%....

It was a risk-on day for investors as stocks, corporate and emerging market bonds, commodities, precious metals all were nicely higher. The only decliners were US Treasury bonds (only slightly) and the US dollar (down 0.5%). The volatility indicator, still pretty...