Daily The market went from yesterday’s highs of $169.07 to this morning’s lows of $163.49. So far we’ve bounced to the 25% Fibonacci retracement of that move. Here are the Fibonacci levels to watch: 38.2% at $165.90 50% at $166.50 61.8% at $167.11 Measure the potency of the down move by using retracement levels of [...]

View the full post at: A Look at SPY Technical Levels

(NYSE:HD) - Home Depot – Shares in the home improvement retailer are trading lower on Thursday, off the lowest levels of the session but still down 1.25% at $78.69 as of 11:50 a.m. ET, amid a down day for U.S. stocks. Trading traffic in newly issued weekly options on Home Depot suggests some traders are taking [...]

View the full post at: Stock Options Watch: HD, IMAX, DOV

There was some initial consternation yesterday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gave the clarity we were hoping to see.  From Reuters: “If we see continued improvement and we have confidence that that’s going to be sustained then we could in the next few meetings … take a step down in our pace of purchases,” [...]

View the full post at: Bernanke Saves the Day

It’s come to this: A typical family’s health insurance costs as much as a typical family car. If you’re a typical American family, your “health” will set you back $20,728 every year. That figure comes gratis of Milliman, a benefits consulting group. A base-model Toyota Camry… the typical family’s most-popular make? It costs $22,055. Milliman’s [...]

View the full post at: Cost-Shifting’s Biggest Victims: Why You Can’t Afford to Be Uninsured

There’s nothing like a little mean reversion to start your day… The Japanese Nikkei fell flat on its face overnight. Investors looking for an excuse to take profits received just that in the form of soft Chinese manufacturing numbers. That’s all it took for traders to mash the “sell” button… After shooting as high as [...]

View the full post at: Stocks: The Trend is Up, A Pullback is Brewing

The important energy sector accounts for roughly 16.0 percent of the S&P 500 Index. Today, most of the leading energy stocks are declining lower at the start of the session. Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE:XOM) is the leading stock in the sector. This stock also has the largest market capitalization in the stock market at $406 [...]

View the full post at: All Eyes Should Be On Big Energy – XOM, DVN, BP, SU

FBN’s Adam Shapiro went behind bars with Madoff this morning at the Federal Correctional Complex in Butner, NC for a wide ranging interview, where Madoff went on the record directly accusing some of his clients of taking part in his fraud. Madoff claims business associates Stanley Chais, Norman Levy, Jeffry Picower and Carl Shapiro were [...]

View the full post at: Madoff Claims Some of His Clients Were Aware of the Fraud as Far Back as 1987

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein sat down with Bloomberg TV anchor Erik Schatzker at the company’s annual meeting in Salt Lake City. Blankfein said that the firm is committed to growing in China even after it ended a seven-year investment in ICBC: “ICBC is not the key to our interest in China, or the big [...]

View the full post at: Goldman (GS) Committed to China – Blankfein

Iran’s Guardian Council, the powerful vetting and oversight committee of the Islamic republic, announced Tuesday its list of eight approved candidates for the June 14 Iranian presidential election. A total of 686 presidential hopefuls had submitted their names for approval, though in recent days dozens of politicians and clerics had withdrawn their candidacies in support [...]

View the full post at: The Challenges for Iran’s Next President

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) The stock chart shows a reversal day pattern on very high volumes, with the stock price closing near the lows of the day slightly above the EMA50. Stronger volumes on down days remain a concern. The technical indicators are showing signs of bearishness. The 9-day EMA has turned down and the 50-day [...]

View the full post at: Stocks to Watch: AMZN, LNKD, PCLN

UPGRADES Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) upgraded to Hold from Underperform at Jefferies – Hewlett-Packard upgraded by Jeffries to Hold, citing solid execution and cost controls following the company’s Q2 results. The firm raised its price target for shares to $24 from $18.50 Seagate (NASDAQ:STX) upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank – Deutsche Bank (DB) upgraded [...]

View the full post at: Top Pre-Market Stocks Upgrades/Downgrades May 23, 2013

World markets reacted overnight to the major reversal in US markets yesterday and are down big this morning. Japan is getting hit the hardest, down around 7%, although it was up more than 50% for the year so far. The negative feedback loop also circled back to US futures, with the S&P e-minis down 15-18 [...]

View the full post at: Stairs Up, Elevator Down Market

One of the reasons that it is been so hard for a lot of analysts, even trained economists, to understand the imbalances that were at the root of the current crisis is that we too easily confuse national savings with household savings. By coincidence there was recently a very interesting debate on the subject involving several economists, [...]

View the full post at: Excess German Savings, Not Thrift, Caused the European Crisis

The US stock market and inflation expectations have been going their separate ways for the past two months, which is something new by the standard of the last five years. Is this a sign that marks a break from the past, when higher the outlook for higher inflation was generally cheered by the market? Or [...]

View the full post at: Stocks & Inflation Expectations: Diverging Paths, Many Questions

Dividend-paying stocks have never been more popular, especially among those income-oriented investors who are looking for returns that are a bit more substantial than Treasurys current disappointing yields, and are also willing to accept a slightly higher degree of risk. MarketWatch’s Laura Mandaro discusses in the accompanying video three income players with 5%+ yield. Garmin [...]

View the full post at: Every Dividend Investor Should Know These 3 Income Stocks with 5% Yield

There have been various calls in recent days for the appointment of an independent counsel to explore and expunge the IRS’s selective investigation of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status after 2009. From the right, Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal claims, for instance,that “we are in the midst of the worst Washington scandal since [...]

View the full post at: Special Prosecutors: Be Careful What You Wish For

I’ve attached two charts: the daily chart and the 60-minute chart, and both have potential massive topping tails. We see the same topping tails across many sectors right now. Bernanke triggered an early push higher in the market with his usual dovish comments, but it seems after he said the words “on the other hand” [...]

View the full post at: Stock Market: A Day to Take Notice?

Icelandic voters recently ejected its post-Crisis government – a government that successfully avoided economic collapse when the odds were stacked against it. The new government comprises the same parties that were originally responsible for the Crisis. What’s going on? This column argues that this switch is, in fact, logical given the outgoing government’s mishandling of [...]

View the full post at: Iceland’s Post-Crisis Economy: A Myth or a Miracle?

In testimony before Congress today, Bernanke explained why the Fed’s large-scale asset purchases are continuing. Inflation as measured by the CPI or PCE deflator has been about 1% over the last year, while the most recent report put the unemployment rate at 7.5%. Bernanke observed: With unemployment well above normal levels and inflation subdued, fostering [...]

View the full post at: Bernanke Says No Change for Now

My main beef with Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA) is that it is a major beneficiary of government largesse masquerading as a free market success story.  The company received a $450 million loan from the Federal government to set up operations.  It has just paid back that loan, but does not justify granting the loan in the [...]

View the full post at: Mr. Musk’s Wild Ride-At Your Expense (9 figures in 1 quarter)

The Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is beginning to testifying in front of the Joint Economic Committee. In his opening remarks, the head of the central bank has signaled that he shall continue to keep the current quantitative easing program in place. Traders and investors can easily see the decline in the U.S. Dollar Index [...]

View the full post at: Bernanke Vows To Keep The Peddle to The Metal

Yes, dear reader, the U.S. holds a new strategic energy weapon. The U.S. shale gale, or fracking revolution, has begun liberating not only “trapped” hydrocarbons like oil and gas, but also a liberation of U.S. foreign policy. All of a sudden, the U.S. isn’t so beholden to events in faraway places filled with people we [...]

View the full post at: America’s New Growing Energy Security

Lots of Fed chatter in the last week.  For openers, some background from Reuters: It decided on May 1 to keep buying at an $85 billion monthly pace, and many economists say mixed economic data warrants keeping up the purchases through year-end. But persistent warnings from more hawkish Fed officials had fanned talk that it [...]

View the full post at: And Then There is Bernanke

UPGRADES Chesapeake (NYSE:CHK) upgraded to Positive from Neutral at Susquehanna – Susquehanna upgraded Chesapeake based on increased oil and gas forecasts and re-branding initiatives by new CEO Doug Lawler. Price target raised to $26 from $23 Cree (NASDAQ:CREE) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Sterne Agee Bristol-Myers (NYSE:BMY) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup [...]

View the full post at: Top Pre-Market Stocks Upgrades/Downgrades May 22, 2013

It’s been a few months since I was in Istanbul and wrote about Turkey’s exciting cultural and economic transformation, and the country is still making headlines. The Emerging Europe Fund’s (EUROX) portfolio manager, Tim Steinle, has been very bullish on Turkey for multiple reasons, including its young growing demographic, its fiscal and monetary policies geared [...]

View the full post at: Making Investment Grade Is Only the Beginning for Turkey

In February, when Ben Bernanke gave his report to Congress, he spoke of his concern about “Excessive risk taking”. On May 10 he repeated his warning: very low interest rates, if maintained for a considerable time, could impair financial stability. For example, portfolio managers dissatisfied with low returns may “reach for yield” by taking on [...]

View the full post at: Bernanke KIKs the Can

The Senate hearings on Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) alleged manipulation of corporate tax laws have taken a rather unexpected turn. The usual political grandstanding even when it makes no logical sense has taken place, to wit John McCain’s comments: “Apple’s corporate tax strategy reflects a flawed corporate tax system that allows large multinational corporations to shift profits [...]

View the full post at: Rand Paul Upsets Senate’s Apple (AAPL) Witch-Hunt

(NYSE:SKS) - Saks, Inc. – High-end retailer, Saks, Inc., popped up on our ‘hot by options volume’ market scanner this morning on heavier than usual trading traffic in upside calls. Shares in Saks are up 10% on Tuesday morning at a new 52-week high of $13.54 after the company posted first-quarter earnings in line with analyst [...]

View the full post at: Stock Options Watch: SKS, HLF, ABFS

As we all know, almost every central bank in the world is printing money to boost exports and support asset prices in the stock market. To their credit, the money printing idea has worked as markets around the world have been rallying. Japan is now the most aggressive money printing country. The Bank of Japan [...]

View the full post at: Forget Stocks, It Is The Japanese Yen That Is Moving Markets

In what feels like the blink of an eye, the broad market is up nearly 17% in 2013… Look back to earlier this year. The boring stocks led us higher. Your mega-cap, super-safe, dividend-paying names were the stocks to own. These stodgy companies sprinted higher for weeks. Safe became the new speculative. Now, the rally [...]

View the full post at: Stocks Continue Their Sharp Ascent