Stock Market Blogs Today
Stock News, Opinions, and Advice

Newsflash

You are here:  Home
Loading...
Today's Stock Market Blog Updates

We have gathered the best stock market news and stock market blog updates from around the web, and we update every minute to ensure you get the lastest stock market opinions and advice from the best of the bulls and the bears.  We divide our news into chart analysis, general market analysis, stock pricing alerts, IPOs and world markets.

Do you know of a financial blog that should be listed here?  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

 


Latest Stock News

1/28/12, Most of the World Wants More Bank Regulation Source: The Big Picture
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog

More business regulations.

That is what survey after survey around the globe shows that the world’s populations wants. Despite a relentless propaganda campaign of misinformation, fabricated data and false narratives, the public has not been fooled by the 1%. The best efforts of a well funded group of ideologues — Free Market absolutists, anti-Democracy and Randians — these pro-corporate radicals has not yet succeeded in fooling all of the world’s population all of the time.

How do we know this? A 25 country survey last year by Edelman. They asked the question:  “When it comes to government regulation of business, do you think that your government regulates business too much, not enough or about the right amount?

Most of the world thinks there is insufficient regulation across all industries. The United States, where 31% there was too much regulation. Ironic considering we originated the global financial crisis. The next closest country was Germany at 28%.

Significant pluralities or outright majorities stated that more regulatory oversight was required, with four exceptions: Singapore, UAE and the USA. Singaporeans at 21% were the lowest, but that is no surprise in a nation where spitting gum on the sidewall may lead to a caning. Only 33% of the Emirate residents said more regs were needed. In Sweden, the number is 31%. In the US, more business regulation was requested by 37% of Americans.

As we can can be seen in the chart below, most of the world has a very different perspective.

One major caveat: I would imagine the major events of the past few years probably has people thinking of disasters in specific industries: Banking, Energy Exploration and Nuclear Power. If the questions were asked about those specific industries, I believe the response for more regs would be much higher. And if the question was asked, “outside of banking, deep water oil drilling and nuclear plants” I assume we would get lower numbers.

Hence, this survey may be less about the ideology of regulation and more pragmatic about reigning in dangerous and disaster prone sectors.Too bad that concept never entered the surveyors minds . . .

>
click for large graphic

>

Source:
How the Public Sees Business Rules
FLOYD NORRIS
NYT January 27, 2012   
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/28/business/survey-takes-publics-pulse-on-business-regulations.html



Comment or Read More at The Big Picture
 
1/28/12, The Original 99% Movement Source: The Big Picture
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog

Top Military Man Invokes the Occupy Movement in 1933

General Butler addressed the Bonus Army in Washington D.C. in 1933, as they “occupied” D.C. to demand compensation for their service to the country:

Smedley Butler from Louis Proyect on Vimeo.

General Butler invoked the 99% movement, telling the veterans:

We are divided, in America, into two classes: The Tories on one side, a class of citizens who were raised to believe that the whole of this country was created for their sole benefit, and on the other side, the other 99 per cent of us, the soldier class, the class from which all of you soldiers came. That class hasn’t any privileges except to die when the Tories tell them. Every war that we have ever had was gotten, up by that class. They do all the beating of the drums. Away the rest of us go. When we leave, you know what happens. We march down the street with all the Sears-Roebuck soldiers standing on the sidewalk, all the dollar-a-year men with spurs, all the patriots who call themselves patriots, square-legged women in uniforms making Liberty Loan speeches. They promise you. You go down the street and they ring all the church bells. Promise you the sun, the moon, the stars and the earth,–anything to save them. Off you go. Then the looting commences while you are doing the fighting. This last war made over 6,000 millionaires. Today those fellows won’t help pay the bill.

Indeed, veterans today support the 99% movement. They understand … just as General Butler understood.

As Butler wrote:

WAR is a racket. It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small “inside” group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

In the World War [i.e. WWI] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows.

How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?

Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few — the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill.

(Watch an actor read Butler’s dramatic speech.)

No wonder the 1% persecute pacifists: they threaten the world’s most profitable game.

No wonder – as Nazi leader Hermann Goering noted – the war profiteers are always trying to trick the people into supporting war:

Why of course the people don’t want war … But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship … Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.



Comment or Read More at The Big Picture
 
1/28/12, How to Restore an Old Car Source: The Big Picture
 
1/28/12, China’s Factory Cities Source: The Big Picture
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog

Catherine Rampell, a business reporter, interviews David Barboza, a foreign correspondent, about working conditions in Chinese electronics factories and the role of U.S. companies.



Comment or Read More at The Big Picture
 
1/27/12, Donald Yachtman shares his investment strategy on Consuelo Mack Source: GuruFocus New Articles
http://www.gurufocus.comBy Dheeraj Grover. On this week's Consuelo Mack WealthTrack Great Investor Don Yacktman, founder and co-manager of the Yacktman Fund tells us how he continues to beat the overall stock market landing in the top one percent of all large cap mutual funds over the past one, three, five and ten year periods. Such outstanding performance was recently recognized by Morningstar, the mutual fund rating firm, that nominated Yacktman for Domestic Manager of 2011. Read more » »

Check out Donald Yacktman Stock Picks »
Download Guru portfolio reportDownload GuruFolio Report of Donald Yacktman (Updated on 01/27/2012)
Related Stocks: GS, USB, BAC, HRB, PEP,
Comment or Read More at GuruFocus New Articles
 
1/27/12, How Often Does the Film Industry Cry Wolf Over Piracy? Source: The Big Picture
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog

Via TechDirt, we learn the frequency with which Hollywood insists every new technology will destroy the movie business:

>
click for full infographic

giant infographic after the jump

http://i.imgur.com/8ubzj.jpg



Comment or Read More at The Big Picture
 
1/27/12, BofA CEO: Wouldn't Tell Employees to Leave over Pay Source: GuruFocus New Articles
http://www.gurufocus.comBy Bloomberg. Bloomberg Television's Erik Schatzker spoke to Bank of America (BAC) CEO Brian Moynihan this morning, live from Davos, Switzerland. Moynihan said that talks to cut employees' pay are honest and open and that he doesn't share Morgan Stanley CEO Gorman's opinion that miffed workers should leave. Asked if he would tell complainers to go, Moynihan said, I wouldn't. Read more » »
Related Stocks: BAC,
Comment or Read More at GuruFocus New Articles
 
1/27/12, What does Margin of Safety mean? Source: GuruFocus New Articles
http://www.gurufocus.comBy Stockopedia. "To have a true investment, there must be a true margin of safety. And a true margin of safety is one that can be demonstrated by figures, by persuasive reasoning, and by reference to a body of actual experience." Read more » »

Check out Seth Klarman Stock Picks »
Download Guru portfolio reportDownload GuruFolio Report of Seth Klarman (Updated on 01/27/2012)
Related Stocks: SPY, QQQ, DJI,
Comment or Read More at GuruFocus New Articles
 
1/27/12, Procter & Gamble: Fighting the Duo of Commodities & Competiton Source: GuruFocus New Articles
http://www.gurufocus.comBy The Science of Hitting. The Procter & Gamble Company (PG) delivered sales growth of 4% in the second quarter of 2012, with revenues reaching $22.1 billion largely due to higher pricing; the increase was company-wide, with all six business segments reporting higher organic sales versus the prior year period. Volume increased 1% in the quarter, and again showed us the polarization that P&G is seeing in the market: while volume increased at a high single digit rate in developing markets, developed markets continue to be a struggle, with volume dropping mid-single digits. Read more » »
Related Stocks: PG,
Comment or Read More at GuruFocus New Articles
 
1/27/12, Are Regional Banks Free from European Exposure? Source: GuruFocus New Articles
http://www.gurufocus.comBy Carmine Romano. Each time I read about U.S. Regional Banks, the articles stress that local U.S. regional banks have no exposure to European debt problems. They do not own any European debt and all loans are made in the U.S. Thus, they are a safe investment. Read more » »
Related Stocks: STL, ALR, KRX, FXE,
Comment or Read More at GuruFocus New Articles
 
1/27/12, Merger Madness to Continue in 2012 Source: GuruFocus New Articles
http://www.gurufocus.comBy investingdaily. In 2011, companies worldwide announced 27,668 mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, bringing the total transaction value to USD2.22 trillion. Two major up-cycles in corporate dealmaking have occurred in the 12 years. Check out this graph of quarterly deal flow.
Source: Bloomberg

The 2000-02 technology bust and the collapse of the high-flying Nasdaq halted the late 1990s boom in merger and acquisitions (M&A). The technology sector drove much of this deal flow, with aggressive large-capitalization acquirers such as Cisco Systems (CSCO) leading the way.

M&A activity bottomed in 2003-04, following the economy's lead. But dealmaking boomed during the subsequent three years, bolstered by robust economic growth and benign credit conditions. Private-equity firms fueled much of the surge in mergers and acquisitions, taking advantage of low interest rates to borrow vast sums of money for their war chests. Read more » »
Related Stocks: CSCO, MSFT, XOM,
Comment or Read More at GuruFocus New Articles
 
1/27/12, Why Prem Watsa Sees Value in RIMM Source: GuruFocus New Articles
http://www.gurufocus.comBy guruhl. Though many investors have shunned Research In Motion (RIMM) stock as it lost over 80% of its market share in the last three years and competitors eroded its market share, Fairfax Financial CEO Prem Watsa has done the opposite. He bought a total of 11,789,300 shares from the third quarter of 2010 to the third quarter of 2011 at an average cost of $40 per share; then, this week, he more than doubled his holding to 26,848,500, at about $16 per share, and joined the board. He now owns 5.12% of the company. Read more » »

Check out Prem Watsa Stock Picks »
Download Guru portfolio reportDownload GuruFolio Report of Prem Watsa (Updated on 01/27/2012)
Related Stocks: RIMM,
Comment or Read More at GuruFocus New Articles
 
1/27/12, Investing Mistakes and What Not to Do (End 2009-Mid 2010) Source: GuruFocus New Articles
http://www.gurufocus.comBy Chandan Dubey. I remember talking to a friend who had invested in some Microsoft (MSFT) stock in 2007. He had recently received a good dividend and we went to a restaurant to celebrate (he was paying). We had some minor discussions about stocks and dividends but nothing serious. As I was quite a novice in this area, I did not understand much. But the thought of letting your money work for you, as a passive income source, stuck with me. Read more » »
Related Stocks: CS, IBKR, UBS, RHHBY, HCMLF,
Comment or Read More at GuruFocus New Articles
 
1/27/12, Eastman Chemical Buys Solutia for $3.4 Billion; Good Growth Synergy Will Creating Favorable Earnings Source: GuruFocus New Articles
http://www.gurufocus.comBy Anh Hoang. With a lot of uncertainty and the significant drop in majority of stock prices in the current market, a lot of M&A activity is happened in a diverse range of industries. Just recently, another legacy of Eastman, Eastman Chemical (EMN) is offering to buy Solutia (SOA) in cash and stock for the total value of around $3.4 billion, to leverage the company for the growth of emerging markets, especially the Asia Pacific region. Specifically, SOA stockholders would receive $22 in cash and 0.12 shares of EMN common stock for each share of SOA. Read more » »
Related Stocks: SOA, EMN,
Comment or Read More at GuruFocus New Articles
 
1/27/12, Of FunMansions and Cheesecake Factories Source: MarketBeat
http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat
Getty Images
My God, it’s full of links!

Well, this is it, my last post on this blog.

My first post was on December 1, 2006. My twins were less than two months old at the time, and I was operating on no sleep, so I don’t remember posting it at all and don’t have any idea why I would have been posting in the first place. David Gaffen was off overseeing renovations on one of his sprawling estates, most likely.

The title of that post was “Of FunMansions and Cheesecake Factories,” and I’d like to think that neatly sums up what it’s been like to work with this blog on and off over the years: a big Fun Mansion that manufactures cheesecake, and Hindenburg Omens.

David Gaffen was the archetypal MarketBeat blogger, the golden sun god against which all other MarketBeat bloggers must be measured. But Matt Phillips and Dave Kansas, along with Jonathan Cheng and Tom Lauricella and a legion of diligent reporters from around the sprawling Dow Jones empire, and heroic editors like Emma Moody and Stephen Grocer, have managed to keep this thing thriving.

Despite my months-long campaign to single-handedly destroy this blog’s credibility and chase away all of its traffic — particularly white dudes (of which I technically am one), Hungarians and Slovakians — I think I have managed to deliver to Steve Russolillo a blog that still has a beating heart and a core of kind, intelligent, physically attractive readers who do not tolerate any sort of pandering, that’s just how awesome they are.

Steve is already proving himself to be a natural at this, so you may need to brace yourselves for a sudden, disorienting improvement in quality.

I’m moving on to what you might call a competitor, so I will be naturally inclined to think of this blog only with a smoldering, destructive anger from this day forward.

But I will also be, to steal the words of H.I. McDunnough, taking pride in its accomplishments, as if they were my own, wondering if it ever thought of us, and hoping that maybe we’d broadened its horizons a little, even if it couldn’t remember just how they got broadened.



Comment or Read More at MarketBeat
 
1/27/12, Blue Chips Suffer First Weekly Drop Of 2012 Source: MarketBeat
http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat
Bloomberg

The Dow Jones Industrial Average couldn’t keep its 2012 perfect game going forever.

The Dow dropped 74 points on Friday and suffered its first weekly decline of the year, dipping 0.5% for the week. Friday’s 74-point loss marked the biggest single-day decline of 2012 and fourth drop out of the last five trading days.

In other words, this week was a minor blip compared to what happened in the first three weeks of the year. The Dow is still up 3.6% in 2012.

UPDATE: The fine folks at WSJ Market Data Group just informed us of some interesting month-end factoids. The Dow is on pace for its fourth-straight monthly gain and biggest monthly rise since October.

The Dow is up 442.90 points this month, which would be the biggest monthly point gain in the Dow’s history. The 3.6% monthly percentage gain is the best since 1997.

For what it’s worth, here’s some info on the January barometer that everyone seems to love so much:

In the DJIA’s history the full year has matched the direction of January’s performance in 85 of 114 years, or 75% of the time.

On years when the DJIA ended the month of January with a gain, it finished the full year higher 82% of the time.

Since 1970 – The DJIA has an even better matching ratio of 92%, when the month of January is “UP”.

The Best January month was in 1976 with a gain of 14.41%

The worst January performance was in 2009 with a loss of 8.84%

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Comp are still batting 1.000 (Okay, enough with the baseball analogies). Both stock indexes have notched four straight weekly advances to start 2012 and are up seven out of the last nine weeks.

The S&P 500 dropped 2 points, or 0.2%, to 1316. For the week it edged up 0.07%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Comp gained 11 points, or 0.4%, to 2817. It rose 1.1% for the week.

This morning’s GDP report was the major drag on the market. The headline 2.8% figure was the best in nearly a year and a half, but it still fell short of economists’ expectations. Stocks picked up a bit after the consumer sentiment report. But the momentum was fleeting as the Dow languished through much of the afternoon.

Meanwhile, tech stocks were giddy after news that Facebook is close to filing for its highly anticipated IPO. Investment banks Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are among the best performers in the financial sector as they both are likely to have major roles in the IPO. Morgan Stanley rose 2.3%; Goldman Sachs gained 3%.

The market’s melt-up over the first four weeks of the year hit a bit of a rough patch over the last few days. Based on investor sentiment, it seems like investors will use this opportunity to “buy the dips.” Only time will tell whether investors will put their money where their mouths are.



Comment or Read More at MarketBeat
 
1/27/12, Data Points: U.S. Markets Source: MarketBeat
http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat

Dow Industrials, fell 60.02 points this week, or 0.47% to 12660.46.

  • Today, it lost 74.17 points, or 0.58%.
  • Biggest point and percent drop this year, since December 28, 2011.
  • Today’s top contributors to the Dow’s movement and their point contribution: UTX (1.59), AA (0.53), INTC (0.00), BAC (-0.08), CAT (-0.23).
  • Today’s laggards and their point contribution: CVX (-19.90), XOM (-7.11), BA (-5.75), TRV (-4.92), KO (-4.31).

Nasdaq Composite, up 29.85 points this week, or 1.07% to 2816.55.

  • Today, it added 11.27 points, or 0.40%.

S&P 500, up 0.95 points this week, or 0.07% to 1316.33.

  • Today, it fell 2.10 points, or 0.16%.



Comment or Read More at MarketBeat
 
1/27/12, Next Week’s Tape: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs Source: MarketBeat
http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat
Everett

Economics, FedSpeak and Eurozone Foolishness:

Monday

EU leaders summit in Brussels

Italy sells bonds

France sells bills

Eurozone confidence indexes for January

Personal income and spending for December

Tuesday

Case-Shiller home prices for November

Chicago ISM for January

Consumer confidence for January

Wednesday

Eurozone PMI for January

Car and truck sales for January

ADP employment index

Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser speaks

ISM manufacturing index for January

Construction spending for December

Thursday

France sells bonds

Weekly jobless claims

Fourth-quarter productivity

Friday

Jobs report for January

Factory orders for December

ISM services index for January

Earnings:

Monday

Gannett

Plum Creek

McKesson

Tuesday

Helmerich & Payne

Eli Lilly

Lexmark

PACCAR

Pfizer

Valero Energy

US Steel

Archer Daniels Midland

Biogen Idec

L-3 Communications

McGraw-Hill

Exxon Mobil

Boston Properties

Broadcom

C. R. Bard

Amazon

Aflac

Danaher

Mattel

Harris

UPS

Illinois Tool Works

Avery Dennison

C.H. Robinson

Wednesday

BMC Software

Hershey

Marathon Petroleum

Marathon Oil

Northrop Grumman

NiSource

Thermo Fisher Scientific

JDS Uniphase

Equity Residential

Electronic Arts

AvalonBay Communities

Ameriprise Financial

Assurant

Aetna

Whirlpool

NASDAQ OMX

Franklin Resources

Ford Motor

Chipotle Mexican

QUALCOMM

Allstate

Thursday

Stericycle

Sara Lee

Novellus

Merck

MasterCard

Diamond Offshore Drilling

Cummins

Boston Scientific

Allergan

Xcel Energy

Wisconsin Energy

TECO Energy

Snap-On

Spectra Energy

Roper Industries

Ryder System

PulteGroup

National Oilwell Varco

International Paper

Starwood Hotels

Goodrich

CME Group

Cameron International

Cardinal Health

Sunoco

PerkinElemer

Principal Financial Group

Genworth Financial

Fiserv

CareFusion

Dow Chemical

Kellogg

Viacom

CIGNA

Kohl’s

Edward Lifesciences

Gilead Sciences

Friday

Beam

Clorox

Estee Lauder

Tyson Foods

Aon

Simon Property

Weyerhaeuser



Comment or Read More at MarketBeat
 
1/27/12, 39 stocks closed at all-time lows Source: uglychart.com: a blog about stocks
http://www.uglychart.com/blog

“It is one of the great paradoxes of the stock market that what seems too high usually goes higher and what seems too low usually goes lower.” – William O’Neil

Symbol Price Volume Avg. Volume % Vol. Increase
TZA       20.83 22492360 25454000 -11.63%
ZSL       10.13 6499269 6754140 -3.77%
GMXR   GMX Resources, In    1 2200358 1181020 86.30%
TWM       32.85 1576302 2925700 -46.12%
EDZ       13.85 1175463 2209900 -46.80%

– Click here for today’s full list –


Comment or Read More at uglychart.com: a blog about stocks
 
1/27/12, 290 stocks closed at all-time highs Source: uglychart.com: a blog about stocks
http://www.uglychart.com/blog

“It is one of the great paradoxes of the stock market that what seems too high usually goes higher and what seems too low usually goes lower.” – William O’Neil

Symbol Price Volume Avg. Volume % Vol. Increase
SOA        27.52 78706248 2876290 2636.38%
ZNGA        10.05 14872593 0 N/A%
AAPL   Apple Inc     447.28 10630942 11631100 -8.59%
CCI   CROWN CASTLE INTL     48.72 7246692 1610370 350.00%
CPHD   CEPHEID     43.14 5651400 610639 825.48%

– Click here for today’s full list –


Comment or Read More at uglychart.com: a blog about stocks
 
1/27/12, First Quarter GDP Could Be a Big Goose Egg: Lombard Street Source: MarketBeat
http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat
Everett

Yes, zero!

A very bearish call on the US economy from Charles Dumas, chief economist at Lombard Street Research.

He argues that the unexpected element in the somewhat weak fourth-quarter GDP growth was that two thirds of it came from a build-up of inventories.

The inventory contribution to growth, nearly twice what his research team’s expectation at 1.9%, means that inventories are more likely to contribute negatively to the first quarter than positively.

This points to the potential weakness of both consumers and capital expenditures and, more importantly, that government spending is now a major drag on GDP.



Comment or Read More at MarketBeat
 
1/27/12, Train Reading: Ten Words Source: MarketBeat
http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat
Getty Images

Can you sum up your investment philosophy in 10 words? — Total Return

More on ten-word investment philosophies — Abnormal Returns

Today’s lesson in three parts — Josh Brown

LTRO smackdown — FT Alphaville

Austerity really is a stupid idea — BondDad Blog

The dumb money is in junk bonds — Aleph Blog

The world’s first computer password was annoying, too — Wired

A balloon could fly into outer space — Scientific American

New law prohibits kaleidoscoping while driving — The Onion



Comment or Read More at MarketBeat
 
1/27/12, Do You Hear That? It’s the Crying of the Treasury Bears. Source: MarketBeat
http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat
AP

Just when many Treasury bond bears thought the wheel of fortune was turning in their favor, their party was crushed this week by the Federal Reserve–which gave the safe-harbor market a new lease on life.

The Fed’s decision Wednesday to extend its ultra-low interest rate policy into late 2014 from mid-2013 has fired up bond bulls and pushed bears onto the sidelines. Friday, a disappointing report on the pace of U.S. economic growth added to the allure of safe-harbor Treasurys, sending bond prices higher for a fourth straight session.

Bond prices posted a strong price gain this week, a turnaround from the selloff last week. The benchmark 10-year note’s yield, a key rate for the U.S. government to borrow in capital markets, jumped to this year’s peak of 2.094% during Monday’s trade. But the yield dipped below 2% and fell to as low as 1.886% Friday, the lowest in over a week.

“The Fed is giving the bond market a backstop,” said Thomas Roth, executive director in the U.S. government bond trading group at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities (USA) Inc in New York. “We are seeing a slow grind to lower yields again.”

In late-afternoon trade, the benchmark 10-year note was 10/32 higher to yield 1.896%.  The yield fell from 2.028% at the end of last week.

The 30-year bond was 15/32 higher to yield 3.093%. The two-year note was flat to yield 0.215%. Bond prices move inversely to their yields.

A key boost came from the Fed’s decision Wednesday to extend its ultra-low interest rate policy into late 2014 from mid-2013 to juice an economic recovery. Coupled with the central bank’s ongoing purchases of longer-dated Treasurys, the Fed’s monetary stimulus cheered up bond bulls and frustrated bond bears’ push for higher yields.

Dave Lutz, head of ETF trading and strategy at Stifel Nicolaus in Baltimore, said the disappointing data and Fed’s extension of the low-rate policy has driven many investors to buy longer-dated Treasurys. Among them are investors moving out of money market funds.

Lutz noted that $24 billion in cash has moved out of money market funds so far in 2012. The money reflected U.S. investors cutting exposure to the euro zone trapped in the sovereign debt crisis and parking cash into longer-dated Treasurys that not only provide safety but also relatively higher yields in a low yield environment.

Indeed, intermediate Treasurys, those maturing from five years to seven years, have been the best performers from the rally over the past three days. Friday, the rally sent the five-year note’s yield to a record low of 0.739%. The note was recently 2/32 higher to yield 0.757%.

While bond bulls have the upper hand at the moment, the question is how low can Treasury yields, already at meager levels, manage to fall in the months ahead.

The 10-year yield tumbled to 1.672% in September, the lowest level since the 1940s. Now the yield is stuck in a tight range of 1.8% and 2.2% since the start of November.

A key risk lies in the development of the euro zone. The bond-swap negotiations to reduce Greece’s debt burden and avoid a default in March haven’t yielded a final result, though European Union Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said Friday he sees a “fair chance” of reaching an agreement in the coming days.

Should a deal ease worries about the euro zone’s debt crisis, it could spark profit-taking in safe-harbor Treasury bonds, traders said.



Comment or Read More at MarketBeat
 
1/27/12, Data Points: Energy & Metals Source: MarketBeat
http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat

Nymex crude for March delivery gained $1.23 per barrel this week, or 1.25% to $99.56.

  • Today Nymex Crude Oil lost $0.14 per barrel, or 0.14%.

Comex gold for January delivery rose $68.10 per troy ounce this week, or 4.09% to $1731.80.

  • Up $166.00 per troy ounce, or 10.60%, over the last four weeks.
  • Best week since the week ending Friday, October 28, 2011.
  • Today Comex Gold gained $5.50 per troy ounce, or 0.32%.
  • Up $67.60 or 4.06% over the past three sessions.



Comment or Read More at MarketBeat
 
1/27/12, Succinct Summation Of Week’s Events (01/27/12) Source: The Big Picture
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog

Succinct summation of week’s events:

Positives:

1) Italian and Spanish bond yields continue lower, 10 yr in Italy below 6%, Spain’s below 5%
2) German IFO business confidence rises to 8 month high
3) German consumer confidence at best since April
4) Euro zone mfr’g and services composite index unexpectedly moves back above 50, led by Germany
5) US Durable Goods orders in Dec surprise to upside but how much was pulled forward from 2012 due to 12/31 expiration of full depreciation expensing?
6) Jan UoM confidence rises to best since Feb ’11
7) Richmond and KC mfr’g survey’s both rise
8) Bank of Thailand cuts rates, Reserve Bank of India cuts reserve requirements

Negatives:

1)Portuguese yields spike, 5 yr CDS up 150 bps on week to new high
2) Spanish unemployment for Q4 rises to 22.9%
3) Italian consumer confidence holds at lowest since at least ’96 when survey began
4) Q4 US GDP rises 2.8%, a touch below expectations but nominal GDP gains just 3.2%, the weakest since Q3 ’09. If deflator was in line with expectations, Real GDP would have been up just 1.3%. Real final sales up just .8% vs 3.2% in Q3
5) Initial Jobless Claims normalize at 377k after holiday distorted 356k last week
6) Inflation expectations within UoM rise to 3.3%, the most since Sept and remains above the 20 yr avg of 3.0%. Expectations also rise to multi month highs in TIPS market
7) New Home Sales remain anemic, prices fall 12.8% y/o/y
8) FOMC stretches out zero rates until late 2014, US$ resumes downward trend against everything. Fed destroying the price mechanism as if interest rates are artificially priced, what are assets really worth? If we don’t know what assets are really worth, how can capital be efficiently allocated? And, if ZIRP was effective, Japan’s economy would have boomed over the past 10 yrs.



Comment or Read More at The Big Picture
 

Market Shop

Your Quotes

Loading...