Ian Mathias (The Daily Reckoning):
The U.S. government will finish its historic streak of debt sales today with a record $16 billion offering of 30-year bonds. This will pile on top the $65 billion in 3-year and 10-year paper auctioned earlier this week, both records in their own right.
Chris Weber: don’t bet your retirement on stocks right now DailyWealth
Porter Stansberry explains the forces behind the current rally The Daily Crux
America is running out of rope The Market Ticker
The world financial system’s Achilles’ heel The Daily Reckoning
Roubini on a U shaped recovery Naked Capitalism
Larry Flynt calls for a national strike The Huffington Post
Look for an X shaped recovery Real Clear Markets
The risk of double dip recession rising Financial Times
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.
What kind of scared little girls are we here at Notes? Here we were warning our readers of the dangers of the current rally in stocks while everyone else is out there “getting some.” Stocks surged yesterday. The Dow hit its highest level since January 13, closing at 8,426.
Being an underground investor means always trying to see past the “groupthink.” And it means trying to spot the man in the ape suit before the crowd does (which is always too late).
“The Next Big Storm to Hit the Markets” is the headline for an essay by John Robson & Andrew Selsby of Full Circle Asset Management, who write, “Above all others, the outlook for corporate earnings is the big issue”, and they expect that earnings will “also catch ‘fall off a cliff syndrome’.”
“Monumental beating” is how MarketWatch is calling it this morning for U.S. stocks.
U.S. stock futures pointed to another monumental beating on Friday – with leading contracts falling as much as rules allow — as a plunge in Asia reignited concerns about the health of the global economy.
S&P 500 futures dropped 60 points to 855.20 and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 85 points to 1,168.50. Dow industrial futures fell 550 points.
All three contracts fell so much that they reached pre-specified limits that can’t be broken until pit trading opens.
Thursday’s session for U.S. stocks was erratic but generally positive, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing 172 points higher and the S&P 500 rising 11 points, though the Nasdaq Composite slipped 11 points.
It’s a runaway bull market for a trend we’ve been covering since last year… “the basics.”
For most of 2008, oil refiners have led the race for the world’s worst investment. Refiners have crumpled under the soaring price of crude oil, their biggest cost. Most refiner stocks are down over 50% in the past six months.
I just can’t write about stocks today. I want to, but I can’t. My mind is on baseball. You see, I manage my 8-year-old son’s Little League team. And they had their first playoff game last Thursday.