Insights

Someone I love is bi-polar. It serves as a real challenge for them, even on medication. The stock market has been strongly bi-polar but its cycles are extremely short, lasting only hours. That makes life very interesting for those of us who manage people's retirement...

The revised GDP # for 2Q/2011 was released today as 1.0% growth. That was lower than expectations of 1.4%. That follows 1Q GDP of 0.4%. Welcome to Japan, boys - 1% or less interest rates, a large and rapidly growing national debt, a poor stock market and awfully slow...

Stocks were up strongly in the US and Europe. The S&P 500 finished up 1.3%. Europe was up more, 1.5%- 2.6%. Asia closed earlier and was down. The only gripe with the rally today was that volume was fairly low. Remember too that 3 weeks ago we had a sharp 3-day rally...

Here are the #s: S&P 500 3.43% DJIA 3% Nasdaq 4.3% Sml Stks 4.9% Gold -3.75% I don't trust this rally in stocks today. It will have to prove itself by continuing significantly higher. A sharp one-day 5% rally is not uncommon in a bear market. Usually, it is a small...

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...