Free Republic

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Better-than-expected reports on retail sales and consumer sentiment lifted big blue chip stocks Friday, but gains were limited by weakness in technology and the strength of the U.S. dollar. The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) rose 66 points, or 0.6%, to finish at its highest level of 2009. The S&P 500 index (SPX) gained 4 points, or 0.4%. The Nasdaq composite (COMP) ended little changed. The Dow and the S&P ended the week higher, but the Nasdaq slipped. Big consumer stocks Coca-Cola (KO, Fortune 500), McDonald's (MCD, Fortune 500) and Walt Disney (DIS, Fortune 500) were...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks tumbled Tuesday afternoon across the board, as investors eyed weak global markets, a rising dollar, falling oil and gold prices and some disappointing profit news from 3M, McDonald's and Kroger. The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) tumbled 100 points, or 1%, with more than two hours left in the session. The S&P 500 index (SPX) lost 10 points, or 0.9%. The Nasdaq composite (COMP) shed 11 points, or 0.5%. Stocks slipped right out of the gate as investors took a cue from falling global markets and a rising dollar. The weak dollar has added to...

Dow Futures down 327 as of 2:41AM. NASDAQ down 70.75. S&P down 41.70.

Glum trader who missed most of the upside is now convinced the market will only go down for the rest of the year. The Dow is down over a hundred points today and it's making professional traders nervous. We spoke to a friend this morning at a large prop trading desk inside an investment bank and we’ve never heard him so bleak. He says that all the equity traders on his desk think the market will do nothing but go down for the rest of the year. “We’re all waiting for the market to crack. And it looks today like...

Stock Market Still Riding A Thermal Wave by: Benign Brodwicz November 15, 2009 Birds can stay aloft for hours riding thermals or updrafts of warm air. I look at the human responses to adaptation level effects in much the same way. When things are better than what we have in recent memory, we feel good, relatively speaking. The stock market now is riding an emotional thermal upward and may continue to do so for a while. Of course, it is also riding a tsunami of Fed-supplied liquidity that has engendered a new carry trade in paper assets. My best guess...

I was on the Kudlow Report on Tuesday, and Larry made a savvy point about this. He said 10% unemployment is good for stocks in the short run. Here is the logic: 10% unemployment is the number that gets everyone’s attention in Washington. Ten percent changes the national conversation. Ten percent affects the president’s popularity and that of his programs. Democrats from red districts are terrified of running on 10% unemployment in 2010. But elected officials aren’t the only ones focused on 10%. The Federal Reserve considers it, too. Like it or not, they do look at unemployment. In a...

Forget 11,000, Dow Heading For 6000 And GE Still a Short, Charles Ortel Says Posted Nov 12, 2009 02:38pm EST Aaron Task in Investing Coming off its highs of 2009, the Dow is heading for its first down day of November, which is pretty much a non-event and arguably overdue. But there's plenty more down days ahead for the Dow, and big ones, according to Charles Ortel, managing partner of Newport Value Partners. When this current "hope-based" rally ends, Ortel believes the Dow will fall into the 5000-6000 range, based on the following: * Economic fundamentals: In addition to huge...

With the bond markets closed, all the attention today was on commodities and equities. Crude oil ended up 0.3% at $79.28 a barrel and gold futures hit a new record of $1119 an ounce today, nearly breaking the $1120 mark before dropping down to $1115. The three major indexes all ended higher. The Dow, which has been up every single day this month, ended at 10,293, up 47 points, the NASDAQ at 2166, up 16 points, and the S&P 500 clocked in at 1098, up 6 points. Energy and utilities took a lot of losses today, with Time Warner Cable...

Stocks Rocket To Biggest Gains Of 2009 Vince VenezianiNov. 9, 2009, 4:03 PM Today was one for the record books. The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit its 2009 year high today, going as high 10,228 in late afternoon trading and finishing at 10,227. The NASDAQ didn't do too bad either, ending up 41 points at 2154. The S&P 500 was able to gain 23 points to close at 1093. The Federal Reserve today also released a survey that shows banks are still limiting the amount of credit offered to both businesses and consumers. The market couldn't have cared less. Gold...

U.S. stocks rallied Thursday as another bout of upbeat economic data and positive results from Cisco Systems Inc. lifted the Dow Jones Industrial Average back above the 10,000 level with its biggest daily rise in points since July 15.

Prechter: The 2008 Crash Was Merely A Warmup Joe WeisenthalNov. 5, 2009, 6:19 AM Elliot Wave analyst Bob Prechter explained to Maria Bartiromo why this market rally is kaput. The internals are ugly, momentum is breaking down, valuations are too high, and everyone's too bullish. He ominously described the 2008 crash as a warmup, and he likes Treasuries.[snip](click on the site to see the video)

Will Markets Miss Another Shot At A Healthy Correction? Ron Coby Nov 02, 2009 9:05 am Every time they're ready to break down, they rally instead. My favorite Peanuts cartoon was Charlie Brown and Lucy with the football. I’m sure you all remember them: Lucy convinces Charlie Brown she’ll hold the ball while he kicks it. But every time Charlie Brown runs to kick the ball, Lucy pulls it away, leaving Charlie Brown flat on his back , crying out in pain and disillusionment . Well, that’s how the bears have felt since March. They’ve played the part of Charlie...

Stocks Get Spooked By Elizabeth Trotta 10/31/09 - 02:56 PM EDTNEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Volatility spiked, and a strengthening dollar, compounded with a soft consumer spending report and sustainability fears, made for a dreary close to the month and what one observer called "a precarious position." October held true to its reputation as a bad month for stocks: The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up less than one half of a point; the S&P 500 lost just less than 2%; and the Nasdaq fell 3.6%. Much of those losses materialized Friday. The Dow lost 249.85 points, or 2.5%, to 9709,...

NYSE Open Disrupted By Flood Of Orders On 2:44 pm EDT, Friday October 30, 2009 NEW YORK (Reuters) - A huge influx of orders prevented the New York Stock Exchange from disseminating quotes shortly after the start of trading on Friday. (NYSE:NYX - News; Paris:NYX.PA - News), the parent of the exchange, said the delays followed "an inordinate influx" of orders received as Friday's session got under way. Later in the session, the company had to temporarily transfer quote processing to a backup system. The exchange's quote delays caused some tickers to be locked, but an NYSE spokesman said "trades...

Jeremy Grantham: The Sucker's Rally Is Almost Over Posted Oct 27, 2009 08:30am EDT by Henry Blodget: Jeremy Grantham of Boston-based GMO called the crash. He also called the rally. He also called a whole bunch of stuff before that--although, as he is the first to admit, like other value folks, he does have the habit of being early. Not this time, though. Within days of the March low, Jeremy published "Reinvesting While Terrified," in which he observed that it was time to bet the farm. He soon called for a stimulus-fueled rally that would take the S&P 500 to...

How Much Juice Is Left In This Bear Market Rally? By Bill BonnerOctober 23, 2009 10/23/09 Waterford, Ireland – Since it peaked in 2007, the UK stock market lost 60% of its value. As of yesterday, it had recovered half of what it had lost. All over the world, the story is about the same. Markets have recovered half or more of what they gave up. The US is a laggard. While the S&P is up 60%, the Dow isn’t yet at the halfway point. Some foreign markets, meanwhile, have 100% + gains. Fund managers who missed the rally are...

Dow Falls Below 10,000 As 'Sell The News' Prevails By Elizabeth Trotta 10/23/09 - 04:24 PM EDT NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The Dow fell below 10,000, and the major averages retreated Friday, as better than expected data and earnings from Microsoft(MSFT Quote) and Amazon(AMZN Quote) did little for other stocks in a "sell the news" environment. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 109.13 points, or 1.1%, to 9,972.18, while the S&P 500 gave up 13.31 points, or 1.2%, to 1079.60. The Nasdaq edged down 10.82 points, or 0.5%, to 2154.47. Microsoft and Amazon shares were higher by 5.6% and 26.7%,...

Stocks Mixed, But Tech Brightens By Elizabeth Trotta 10/23/09 - 10:26 AM EDT NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The major averages were mixed midmorning Friday despite better than expected existing-home sales data and warmly received earnings from Microsoft(MSFT Quote) and Amazon(AMZN Quote). The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 38 points, to 10,044, while the S&P 500 gave up 2 points, to 1091. The Nasdaq advanced 13 points, to 2178. Stocks were briefly lifted by report a from the National Association of Realtors that showed existing-home sales rose more than expected in September, to 5.57 million, from 5.09 million the month prior...

The major indices broke a mini losing streak with a monster day yesterday. The Dow wound up back above 10,000 when it gained 131.95 and closed at 10081.31. Both the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 also had similar gains. Meanwhile, earnings continue to roll in. Microsoft just announced earnings and they crushed estimates. Microsoft's earnings came in at 40 cents a share with estimates expected at 32 cents a share. Meanhwhile, Amazon and American Express had their earnings after market yesterday and they also beat estimates. Exelon, Fortune Brands, and T Rome Price will announce their earnings later this morning.

The Dow was up until the last couple hours yesterday and then it turned. The Dow went from up about fifty points at the time to down 92.12 at the close. There's still plenty of earnings to chew on but the weekly first time unemployment numbers just came out. The current weekly number was up to 531,000 and last week's number was revised to 520,000. That breaks a streak and keeps the number above 500,000. So, once again, the weekly first time claims numbers gives a very unclear picture about the jobs picture. The four week average did get better.

Stocks Fall Ahead Of Close By Elizabeth Trotta 10/21/09 - 03:39 PM EDT NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Oil surged more than $2 but stocks sold off early heading into the close Wednesday as Wall Street raised the bar for earnings. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was recently down 59 points, to 9983, while the S&P 500 shed 5 points to 1086. The Nasdaq gave up 6 points to 2157. Earnings remained in focus, as Yahoo!(YHOO Quote) and Morgan Stanley(YHOO Quote) were still 3.2% and 6.2% higher, respectively, after after strong quarterly reports. Boeing(BA Quote) shares, on the other hand, were...

Market Movers That Aren't Housing by: Wall Strategies October 20, 2009 The market is fixated on the less than desirable housing-related reports out Tuesday morning. Such below-consensus readings on starts and permits are a shot across the bow for regulators to cut the smooth talk and extend the housing tax credit. Whether the tax credit has had a huge impact on overall housing demand in recent months is not very supported in the statistics (low mortgage rates arguably a bigger component). But, much could be said about bolstering market psychology, in this case that of homebuilders. Maybe it is time...

A Big, Fat Stock Market Selloff By Eric Fry 10/20/09 Laguna Beach, California – Stocks prices are very, very high… Our contrarian colleagues over at The 5-Minute Forecast continuously lament…which means that the collective anxiety of investors is very, very low. Our colleagues don’t mind that a rising stock market is adding trillions of dollars to the asset side of household balance sheets. That’s good news. But the worrisome part is that a falling stock market could erase those trillions from the ledger just as quickly as they first appeared. And as our colleagues correctly point out, rising share prices,...

Harry Dent Sees A Big Crash Coming, Urges Investors To Prepare By Rocky Vega 10/20/09 Stockholm, Sweden – In an interview with Moneynews, Harry Dent, author of The Roaring 2000s Investor and The Great Depression Ahead, said that “deflation in turn will trigger crashes in stocks, bonds and real estate.” According to Dent, the deflation will be caused by “way too much debt in our system,” and he advises investors to stay in cash. His debt calculation includes corporate at $11 trillion, government at $14 trillion, and the financial sector at $17 trillion. The solution he suggests is that “we...

Dow Could Go To 13,000. But Will Likely Reverse (Suddenly) By More Than 20% Stock-Markets / Articles Oct 20, 2009 - 07:21 AM By: Andrew_Butter This is the analysis used to predict in May that the Dow would reach 10,000 without a major reversal, (personally I didn’t expect then that it would happen so quickly). I’ve put on my estimate of where I reckon it is now (in red). It’s approaching the “danger zone” (dotted black ring), although reversals when the mispricing is negative tend to be more restrained. That analysis was based on two lines of logic, the first...

The Market Suspense Continues by: David Brown October 20, 2009 On Monday of last week, I posed the question whether the market was about to break out or top out, and for most of the week breaking out seemed the likelier outcome. The plethora of positive earnings, together with better-than-expected revenue from a number of major players -- Google (GOOG); JP Morgan (JPM); Intel (INTC), among others -- fueled the market onward with the Dow crossing 10,000 and the S&P 500 approaching 1,100. The economic indicators were generally good as well, with slightly improved new jobless claims, a very pleasant...

Why the Dollar Will Likely Rally in the Next Crash by: Washington October 20, 2009 As I have previously noted, HSBC currency chief David Bloom doesn't think that the dollar will rally when the stock market next tanks: The dollar rallied last year because we had a global liquidity crisis, but we think the rules have changed and that it will be very different this time [if there is another market sell-off]. Is he right? I have argued that the new dollar carry trade could very well unwind during the next crash, which could create an enormous need for dollars....

October 2007 Shows Us How This Rally Ends By Ron Coby On 2:10 pm EDT, Monday October 19, 2009 Crisis, What Crisis? As I scroll through hundreds of charts, I continually see that markets are right back to where they were before this credit crisis began. It's almost like investors have completely forgotten why markets collapsed more than 50%. They must believe the Federal Reserve has once again saved the day. Who can blame them really? The Fed saved the day in 1987, 1997, 1998, and 2001, so why not today? You know the formula: Markets correct or crash, the...

Today is the 22nd anniversary of Black Monday in 1987 when the Dow lost 22%. While we've had a lot of volatility in the markets recently, I think everyone would be stunned if we had that kind of a day. All three indices were down on Friday and that followed a bad day on Thursday as well. Futures are pointing up modestly this morning. A lot of companies including Hasbro, Texas Instruments, Apple and Boston Scientific will announce earnings before, during, and after the market hours today. Also, Ben Bernanke will give a speech on the economy this morning and...

Wall St Week Ahead: Earnings Blitz To Test Market's Mettle Sun Oct 18, 2009 10:53am EDT By Ellis Mnyandu NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks could slip this week if the spate of earnings from bellwethers including Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N) do not live up to heightened expectations. After a 60 percent run-up in the stock market since March and the Dow again eclipsing 10,000, investors believe the market is priced to perfection. So if earnings fail to hold up their end, stocks could come under pressure.[snip]

Dow 10,000: Show Me The (Real) Money Tim Price October 18, 2009 And you thought you had broken even. If investors had bought gold when the Dow first closed above 10,000 in March 1999, they'd be up almost 280%. Put another way, Dow 10,000 a decade ago “cost” 36 ounces of gold, treating each Dow point as $1. When the Dow revisited that level Wednesday, it was worth only 9.276 ounces of gold. In oil terms, the Dow has gone from 609 barrels to 133. - The Wall Street Journal on "Dow 10,000." There were somewhat half-hearted celebrations last week...

For a couple of days last week, the Dow Jones industrial average hung above 10,000, a symbolically significant position it hadn’t occupied since Oct. 3, 2008, when the bottom was falling out of the financial markets. At the end of the week, though, investors seemed to tire of propping up the best-known of stock market indexes, and it slid back to 9,996. The question is whether we should be sad or relieved. The Dow has been climbing for a while and is up roughly 50 percent from the low point the index reached in March. But it should be clearly...

From May through October of 2008, Zimbabwean stocks skyrocketed, shooting from 72,000 to almost 400,000 by early November as measured by the S&P/International Finance Zimbabwe Index. For intrepid investors with a world bent, it would appear to be an attractive return of roughly 5,300%. The only problem is that, while investors had indeed earned more Zimbabwe dollars, the value of those dollars over the same period had nearly evaporated amid the country's hyperinflation, meaning the "return" was actually a catastrophic loss. One Zimbabwe dollar in May of 2008 had lost 99.99% of its purchasing power by November of that same...

Yesterday was another up day for the three indices. The Dow was up 47 points to close at just over 10062. The other two indices were up more marginally. The NASDAQ was up just over a point and the S&P was up 4.54. That's the second day the Dow finished above 10000. The Dow will test that levels this morning. There's all sorts of earnings news this morning. Tech stocks like Google and IBM came out after the market closed yesterday and they were positive. On the other hand, both GE and Bank of America have come out with numbers...

Why Dow 10,000 Is About As Meaningless As You’d Expect By Rocky Vega 10/15/09 Stockholm, Sweden – Now that Wall Street hearts are a-flutter with Dow 10,000, it’s worth taking a moment to figure out what the Dow Jones Industrial Average actually tells us about its components. The Dow is a share price-weighted average, meaning that when the index is figured out the companies with larger share prices carry more weight. This means that the companies currently with the largest share prices make up a greater portion of the Dow’s weight than other companies with a lower share price. These...

Citibank and Goldman reported this morning and both put up what looked at first blush to be better-than-expected numbers. But both sold off in the premarket. Why? The bulls were expecting not just beats, but stunning blowouts. But what we are not hearing from the banking industry is "we have enough loss reserves allocated and will not have to allocate more as loss rates are and will continue to come down." That's the problem at the end of the day - where is the end of the line? Asset quality continues to deteriorate pretty significantly and this deterioration is driven...

The Dow Jones Index Average (DJIA) closed above 10,000 yesterday. Unfortunately, hardly any American understands the reasons for the increase and bounce off the March lows. Most DJIA companies receive at least half of their revenues from abroad. Coca Cola (KO), McDonald's (MCD), Procter and Gamble (PG) have been expanding overseas for decades. Even Wal-Mart (WMT)--unfairly stereotyped as a rural, "red state" store--has been expanding aggressively in Mexico, the U.K., and the EU. Why are these international forays relevant? Over the past year, the American dollar has collapsed. The Canadian dollar, once the laughingstock of the world, is almost at...

U.S. Stock Markets Disconnected From Reality Stock-Markets / Market Manipulation Oct 15, 2009 - 03:57 AM By: John_Browne Earlier this year, I predicted that the 2009 rally in U.S. stocks could bring the Dow Jones Index as high as 10,000. It looks like that level has been achieved. If, at this point, the index reverses course, I would have made a fairly good prediction. However, it is important to get beyond the charts and look at the fundamentals. The furious six-month rally in the stock market has certainly not been mirrored by the economy as a whole. Instead, the country...

There's lot's of news. First, the Dow moved up above 10,000 for the first time this year yesterday. The markets all had a great day. That was largely on the strength of better than expected earnings from JP Morgan Chase yesterday morning and Intel after close the day before. The last time the Dow was at 10,000 was last October. The first time, however, was nearly ten years ago. So, it's very difficult to value its current value.

I remember that just a year ago people on the Left were excited with the Dow’s fall because the “rich” on Wall St, “the wealthy,” were losing money. So… why are they now excited with the Dow’s 10,000? Furthermore, in late ’03, under President Bush, the Dow in a period of just a few months reclaimed 10,000 of its 7,600 low. I do not remember the left calling that a “recovering” economy, and in November ’06 when the Dow was at 12,000, the Left didn’t call it a “good” economy either.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit the 10,000 mark Wednesday afternoon, reaching the psychologically important level for the first time in more than a year, as strong earnings reports from Inteland J.P. Morgan Chaseboosted sentiment. The closely watched market measure last traded above 10,000 on Oct 7, 2008, and hasn't closed above that level since Oct 3, 2008.

So what's your feeling about the jobless recovery and the economy? Should we all be flush with hope and change and take the joy ride or not?

Yesterday was a relatively quiet day in the markets. The Dow was 14.74 points to 9871.06. The NASDAQ was up .75 points to 2139. 89, and the S&P 500 was down 3 points to 1073.18. That likely won't hold today. With earnings season in full swing, the big news this morning is from JP Morgan Chase. They crushed their estimates, mostly through investment banking business. That's not only sent the stock itself up but much of the market with it. JPMorgan shares were up 2.4 percent in premarket trading after the Wall Street giant posted quarterly earnings of 82 cents...

Intel’s better-than-expected earnings on Tuesday will position the Dow Jones Industrial Average within striking distance of the psychologically important 10,000-point mark when the market opens Wednesday. Futures were also lifted by near stunning results from the banking conglomerate JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM: 45.75, n.a., n.a.%), who beat analysts' estimates by a wide margin. As of 7:20 a.m. in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures jumped 118 points, or 1.2%, to 9927, the S&P 500 futures were up 14.8 points to 1083.50 and the Nasdaq 100 futures were up 23.5 points to 1750.25. Shares of the chipmaker jumped...

The Biggest Bust Will Follow The Biggest Bubble By Bill Bonner 10/13/09 London, England Our ‘Crash Alert’ flag goes back up the pole… October is almost half over. Will we get through the month without a major sell-off? Dear reader, if you think we know the answer to that you’ve got us mixed up with someone else. Someone who is crazy. No one with his wits about him thinks he knows what the stock market is going to do. Still, here at The Daily Reckoning, we have our hunches. We think it’s time for a major pull back. Frankly, we’ll...

Stock Market Bull Trap Heading For A 50% Crash To 5,000 Stock-Markets / Financial Crash Oct 13, 2009 - 11:00 AM By: Captain_Hook At the risk of getting ahead of myself prior to being able to confirm the turn, I am suggesting stock market action over the past week bears the distinct odor of a bull trap, with even informed technicians still waiting for a push to 50% retracements on the indexes. In this respect then, you should realize the context of such a bull trap would be profound in that we are talking about the March lows being tested...

Dow 10,000 - Springboard or Final Kiss Good Bye? By Simon Maierhofer On 11:32 am EDT, Friday October 9, 2009 What would you like to hear first, the good news or the bad news? Well, the good news is that we are approaching Dow 10,000. The bad news is that Dow 10,000 may be nothing more than a good selling opportunity. On March 9th, the Wall Street Journal ran an article titled 'Dow 5,000? There's A Case For It.' The Dow (DJI: ^DJI) bottomed that very day at 6,440, along with the S&P 500 (SNP: ^GSPC) and Nasdaq (Nasdaq: ^IXIC),...

With the prospect of higher unemployment hanging over the markets, some experts expect a correction. So are they right? Michael Cuggino, president and portfolio manager at Permanent Portfolio Funds, and John Lekas, CEO and portfolio manager at Leader Capital, shared their insights. (See their recommendations, below.) “I think we go below the double dip,” Lekas told CNBC. “By year-end, we drop below 6,300 on the Dow and by 2011, we’re at 4,200.” Lekas said although Monday's ISM services index was “neutral,” the unemployment number was at 785,000 last month and that number is expected to worsen. “So 26 to 27...

Why Dow 10,000 Will Remain Untouched For Years By Simon Maierhofer On Monday October 5, 2009, 12:31 pm EDT On March 9th, the Wall Street Journal ran an article titled 'Dow 5,000? There's A Case For It.' The Dow (DJI: ^DJI) bottomed that very day at 6,440, along with the S&P 500 (SNP: ^GSPC) and Nasdaq (Nasdaq: ^IXIC), and went on to rally for seven consecutive months. Fast forward to September 17th, when the Wall Street Journal ran an article titled 'The Dow Will Hit 10,000 Soon. So What?' It's too soon to say with certainty that the market has...

The most eventful day of most months is here. The monthly jobs reports just came out and the report was slightly worse than expected. In September the economy shrank by 264,000. The expected number was 225,000. The average work week fell back to 33 hours a week from 33.1 in August. That's a very troubling number. The average work week was shrinking until August when it began to grow again. This number is at all time lows. Companies will cut back hours before they fire and layoff and so this number is more a leading indicator than a lagging indicator,...