Home Prices Record Plunge; U.S. Trade Gap Grows; Social Security Funds Running Out Early; Citigroup Lends Most TARP Money; Big Shipper Maersk Posts Loss; EU To Do Bank Stress Tests
Our own bearish beliefs remain unchanged. From day one, we’ve said the current rally is one for suckers. But we admit suffering certain twinges of regret; stocks have proved more resilient than we expected. Here’s a quick bullet list of why we remain bearish on stocks’ near-term prospects:
One business day removed from the government’s bank stress tests, four of the largest U.S. banks – BB&T Corp. (NYSE: BBT), Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF), U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB) and KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY) – announced plans to raise capital through stock offerings.
Euphoria managed to out-run swine flu last week as the epidemic-du-jour, with “consumer” confidence jumping and the big bank stocks nudging up. The H1N1 virus fizzled for now, at least in terms of kill ratio, though we’re warned it might boomerang in the fall with a vengeance. No one was surprised to see Chrysler roll over like a possum on a county highway, but the memory of their muscle cars will linger on like a California surfing song. Here in the northeast, where Sundays are not spent at the NASCAR oval, the spring foliage reached the tenderly explosive stage and it was hard to feel bad about anything.
From the tidal wave of e-mails and comments I have received from numerous different sources I am under the impression that most investors view the recent rally in the world’s stock markets as a bear market rally. I suppose we would need to define a bear market rally as a rally that fails to make a new all-time high (for the S&P 500, above the 1576 reached in October 2007) and is also followed by a new low for this cycle (below 666 for the S&P 500 reached in early March 2009).
We have had our suspicions about the current stock rally ever since it kicked off by ‘leaked’ memos by Citigroup, BoA and JPMorgan Chase announcing a return to profitability.
Barring some dramatic – and unforeseen – news this week, expect investors to tread water until Thursday, when the government is expected to release the results of the bank stress tests it conducted on the 19 largest U.S. banks.
The 31st bank is closed in 2009… China is showing signs of improvement… The so-called “decoupling” taking place?
Jobs Jamboree ends the week… And Now… Today’s Pfennig!
Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and Citigroup Inc. (C) were told by federal regulators to raise more capital after government “stress tests” revealed that the banks were not adequately protected against additional deterioration in the economy, published reports said yesterday.
US GDP falls more than expected…FOMC holds course…Canadian dollar has a great week…Oil helps commodity currencies…And Now… Today’s Pfennig!
