Insights

I wrote yesterday that generally when a high volume, high fear day seems to indicate that a selling climax has occurred the market will then go higher and in 2-4 days revisit that low. This is called a retest of the low and one must wait a day or so to see if the...

Federal Reserve Statement 110809 (Click for text) Note especially the first paragraph which describes current economic conditions. Also note the the Fed says that: 1. Downside risks to the economic outlook have increased 2. They anticipate keeping interest rates...

Stocks were up 4% - 7% today, depending on the index. Gold was also higher, as were bonds. Often, but not always such rallies last 1-3 days and then come back down to "test" the previous low. We bought a replacement for some of what was recently sold this morning when...

Was yesterday a selling climax? Stocks are up 1.7%-2.6%, depending on the index. Before our markets opened European markets turned up sharply from lower levels to finish mixed. Gold is down, which one would expect. In the last few minutes that rally has cooled...

How bad was it? The S&P 500 index was -6.66%, the DJIA lost 634 points (5.55%) while the Nasdaq lost -6.9% and the small stock index -8.71%. Gold gained 3.7% to $1,710. When selling gets to this pace, the bottom almost always occurs within a few days. We are down to...

The S&P 500 is off 3.5% this morning, about the same as Europe and Asia. Gold is up $57 today. Bonds are better so far. The big news is the downgrade of US Treasury bonds from AAA to AA+ with a negative credit watch, signaling that further downgrades might follow....

I said earlier today that the market might finally finish up today. The Dow finished up 60 while the S&P 500 was flat. Bonds and commodities were mixed, gold was up 1%. Yesterday and today we had some good signs. The volatility index (VIX) spiked up and volume was...

The employment numbers were better than expected, the first economic news of late that has happily surprised. The unemployment rate dropped to 9.1%. I wouldn't get overly excited. These numbers jump around a good bit and the rate can drop on people giving up looking...