Cash for Clunkers is driving up sales. Ford (NYSE:F) proves it doesn’t need the government, but some free money is always nice. Who else is profiting from Washington’s handouts?
Fed’s Beige Book disappoints…Dollar rebounds on the day…Currencies come back on the night…RBNZ leaves rates unchanged…And Now… Today’s Pfennig!
Through the tangle of green shoots and sprouting mustard seeds, a certain nervous view persists that the arc of events is taking us to places unimaginable. The collapse of General Motors and Chrysler signifies more than the collapse of US car manufacturing. It spells the end of the motoring era in America per se and the puerile fantasy of personal liberation that allowed it to become such a curse to us.
As near as we can make out, Tim Geithner’s trip to Beijing was, at best, a draw. He told his soothing lies. China listened. The markets reacted favourably.
For Russia lately, when it rains it pours. Not only have plummeting oil prices destroyed the country’s economy, but virtually nobody paid attention to its semi-aggressive war games last month. Even worse, Putin swears he will not be running for president anytime soon. Ford, Volkswagen and Renault are cutting their Russian production. And now the country’s currency gets a public smack in the face.
Congress now tells us that it has put off a vote on any Detroit bailout until after Thanksgiving. It warns the Big Three that it had better come up with a viable plan to use the money to get back on track or the check will not be written.
The S&P 500 Index (.INX) opened today at 795. That’s the first time the index has been below 800 since April 1997. Eleven years of stock gains have vanished.
Executives from Detroit’s “Big Three” auto companies – General Motors Corp. (GM), Ford Motor Co. (F), and Chrysler LLC – yesterday (Tuesday) joined Congressional Democrats on Capitol Hill to make the case for an industry-wide bailout that could spare their troubled companies from totally collapsing. Detroit’s bigwigs have been met with considerable resistance so far, but will continue to make their case today and into the New Year.
U.S. stocks are taking a beating. And ‘bottom feeder’ investors are on the hunt for a turning point. Rick Pendergraft at Investors Daily Edge says you have to be selective if you want to fish around the bottom. Just because a stock has slumped doesn’t mean it can’t sink further. Rick says the trick is finding a company with strong fundamentals (plenty of cash in hand) and bearish market sentiment…
If you are like me, you are suddenly realizing that your income did not go up by 0.2%, or any percent, because if it did, it seems like you would have remembered it. And anyway, if my income DID go up, then where in the hell is all of this money?