Blog Archives

Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act

December 14, 2009

Good morning. It was a very inside week in the market last week, with the SPY up a whole .10, closing at 111.11. That represents a very dramatic move up of 66% from the March lows, and puts the market back to where it was on 10/2/08. It does seem like the advance has slowed, at least temporarily, as the SPY traded over 110 two months ago and has basically flat lined since then. The market is still down almost 29% from its all time high of 156.33 in October of 2007.

Different Administration, Same Problems

July 13, 2009

Good morning. Dull and down for the market last week, with the SPY down 1.95, or 2%, to close at 87,96. The onslaught of earnings season continues this week, but the initial earnings report of Alcoa (AA) showing sales down over 40% from last year tells the tale. It’s true that AA has shown some management aggressiveness in cutting costs (and some solid PR in telling everyone what a good job they are doing) so the earnings, although negative, were not as bad as expected.

Assumptions Going Forward

June 22, 2009

Good morning. First real down week for the market in a while, with the SPY down from 95.08 to 92.04, or 3.2% on the week. A lot of the down move was caused by a correction in the price of commodities, most notably oil. Oil was down over 3% on Friday, and the oil part of the SPY (XLE) was down 8% on the week, from 53.51 to 49.21.