Why First We're Heading Lower

 

Preet Chawla submits: Times are unusually uncertain. These are not my words. Imagine this – you have Malaria, Jaundice, Typhoid and the Flu, all at the same time. The doctor gives you the strongest possible antibiotic and extremely powerful steroids. You feel better and it seems as though there is a recovery. Then a few days later you have fever, are sick again and you feel unusually uncertain. You will need another boost of those powerful steroids or you may be at risk. But the doctor won’t give you those powerful steroids till you are really sick. So until then, your health must deteriorate because the diseases and the problems have not gone away. But don’t worry, the steroids are there.This is what I feel about the health of the US economy. We have many diseases which include high unemployment, a highly levered consumer, under-funded liabilities, a falling housing market and high budget deficits, to mention a few. We tried to treat these problems with QE. Well it helped for a while but take a look at what’s happened over the last few months. The effect of the money pumped is clearly fading and is now jeopardizing the so called “recovery.” The US economy is sneezing once again and we have not solved anything.Complete Story »

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  • Preet Chawla submits: Best Buy (BBY) has been one of my favorite plays in this recovery and the comeback of the American consumer. I know this "recovery" may not be sustained, as the Fed has given the economy a dose of steroids and we are still in a phase of vulnerability. However, that said, the consumer has begun to spend and gadgets are once again in demand.

  • Preet Chawla submits: Deflation has been a hot topic of debate these days. People are concerned that prices and wages may actually start falling. This is a likely event given that consumers are saving more and deleveraging is on its multi-year cycle. Housing is having a hard time standing on its own two feet even with rates artificially at ridiculously low levels. Consumption is 70% of GDP and such a high percentage is not sustainable going forward.

  • Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has warned that the outlook for the US economy remains "unusually uncertain" and that the Fed is ready to take further policy action to boost the fledgling recovery if necessary.

  • Timothy Lutts submits: As to the market, which is very good about following the rules of supply and demand, these are very interesting times. Demand is down, in part because of lousy economic news (which I’m not going to go into today). Bond yields are at record lows … a clear sign of the market’s “flight to safety.” And it’s extremely difficult to find an optimistic economist these days. (You know in your heart that they’re often wrong, but you listen to them anyway.)

  • Pacific Financial Planners submits:So let’s get this straight right from the beginning. The real world that we all live in has a lot of problems. Many economists say we are slipping back into a recession - a double dip. Others point out that the economy has never gained enough traction to come out of the original recession that started back in December of 2007.

  • An influential senator is looking into whether Congress should re-regulate dietary supplements because steroids and other banned substances are finding their way into over-the-counter bodybuilding products.

  • The Pragmatic Capitalist submits: It’s one of the favorite terms used by market commentators – “stocks climb a wall of worry”. You could easily argue that the “wall of worry” has been quite high over the last 12 months as investors appeared convinced that the global economy was imploding last March. Since then investors have steadily climbed back into stocks and out of cash and bonds as worries have slowly begun to subside.

  • Preet Chawla submits: In today’s volatile environment, taking directional bets is very risky. Buying a stock or an index is much riskier than it ever was. Let’s face it – the debt problems of the West are not going away anytime soon. Greece will default in three years. Portugal, Spain and Italy will continue to find it hard to borrow and this will create more problems. The sovereign debt crisis has just begun in Europe and it will make headlines for years to come.

  • Chris Damas submits: Yesterday's USDA crop production report indicated a record 13.15 billion bushels of field corn were harvested this year, an all-time record for the USA.This is up from the previous record of 13.0 billion bushels of corn set in 2007. It's a bin buster as they say.Complete Story »

  • Paul Price submits:Goldman Sachs (GS) shares have been hit hard and are trading with increased volatility due to the SEC’s charges of fraud concerning a tiny piece of their overall business. The news “is out”, the shares have already reacted, and estimates have been adjusted to reflect likely repercussions from the scandal.

 
DJI: 10419.63 0.96% |S&P 500: 1101.49 1.03% |FTSE: 5428.15 1.05% |Nikk.: 9114.13 0.56% |DAX: 6134.62 0.83% |HSI: 20971.50 0.49% |
FX: EUR/GBP: 1.1987 | USD/EUR: 1.2896 | JPY/USD: 84.435 | Commodities: Gold: 1247.55 | Crude - CLH09.NYM: 0.00 |