The selling continued early in the trading session with investors worried about the survivability of the financials but a massive mid-day reversal propelled equities higher during Thursday trading on the Canadian Markets. For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange added 2.20%, while the TSX Gold Index popped 5.1% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, gave back 0.62% with the declining issuers edging out the advancers by a 363 to 270 margin on a paltry 106 million shares traded.

Gold did nothing in the Far East during yesterday’s trading, but did develop a slightly positive bias as the London session advanced. The Comex open saw gold up about 1% immediately, only to have not-so-gentle hands hammer it (and any subsequent nascent rally) flat. The absolute bottom was during lunch hour in New York…and from there, a rally (short covering?) began.

Worries over the economy and corporate earnings weigh… Focus on inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama… S&P 500 futures off 1.5 pct, Dow futures off 1.1 pct, Nasdaq futures off 1.2 pct

Growing up in a depressed mining area (coal mining isn’t profitable for anyone but the mine owners) teaches you things you would never learn otherwise. This is the only advantage of growing up economically challenged. The word poor is so not cool anymore.

Alabama regional lender, Colonial Bank, just became the 6th largest bank failure in U.S. history and the largest since Washington Mutual last year.

Options symbols follow an outline.  Once you know the rules you can assemble and understand options symbols.

I received a question on my recent article titled “The Golden Age of America” and I wanted to post my response for your benefit.  

I’ve been quite bullish on Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (NYSE:FCX) for some time now.  In fact, the stock is up over 119% since I first recommended it to Investor’s Daily Edge readers on February 12th of this year.

Resource exploration stocks are notoriously volatile. Fear and greed play out in this sector like few others. Stocks tend to go irrationally high and stupidly low. And therein lies the opportunity.

If you look at recent headlines such as CNNMoney.com’s “Another Sign of a Housing Thaw” you may be inclined to believe that the housing market has finally found a bottom. Various reports cite increases in sales, slight increases in sales prices, and reduced inventory. These are the three factors needed for any housing recovery to begin. Throw in the first-time homebuyer tax credit, and we may have a winning formula.

If you want to do well in today’s market, ignore this rally. Pay all your attention instead to the only class of companies you need to know about. I call these companies the “best of breed.”  They’re probably the least-talked about companies in the market. Many investors are missing the boat. And that’s a shame.

In June, the World Health Organization (WHO) alerted the public that a worldwide pandemic of swine flu (H1N1) was sweeping the globe.  Health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have stated that the swine flu virus could infect up to 40% of Americans over the next couple of years.  At last count, the CDC said there are 43,771 swine flu cases that have been reported in America, and 302 deaths have been associated with the disease.

I’m no math wizard but I know enough to not buy state sponsored lottery tickets. Your odds are much better when you buy your tickets via the natural resource sector where you can stack the deck in your favor and make life changing money.

You can’t go back. So don’t assume that as the U.S. and the West recovers, they’ll attract foreign capital just like they did before the recession. It’s a far different landscape now. The easy-credit bubbles are gone. And they’ve left us with a hellacious debt burden.