Like in the movie, sacrifices have to be made to remind those NOT to rebel and go along with what the totalitarian DaBoyz dictate. The investor wannabees are the chosen to battle are pitted against the bigger and stronger Mr. Market who has trained since its conception to take all their monies and sometimes in brutal fashion with a ‘Flash’ attack. There can only be one victor in this fixed game and the loser could forfeit everything including profits.
Today we see poor uniformed traders in the market arena about to loose their shirts battling the unknown prowess of Mr. Market. All the while government and the ‘Main Stream Neurosis Broadcasting Company‘ (MSNBC) is touting deceptive and skewed employment numbers and other financial data to confuse the investor combatants. All last month and the month before we have seen Mr. Market deliberately feign weakness to suck individuals in only to take their monies and without pity.
We start the second scene next Monday as Quarter Two begins in earnest with Mr. Market about to deliver his ‘coup de grâce ‘ with any complacent trader. Investors be forewarned as this may be your last warning.
Will Q2 Begin with a Lurch? by Rick Ackerman
You gotta give DaBoyz credit for turning stocks around yesterday, since buyers appeared to have taken the day off. Nor was there much bullish energy as the day wore on – only the nervous drum beat of short-covering ahead of the final trading day of Q1. It was all window dressing, to be sure, and although the Dow Industrials ended the day 20 points higher, the modest gain belied the dark magic that eventually spirited the blue chip average into positive territory.
After being down as much as 93 points early in the session, the Indoos began to inch their way higher around noon. Of course, most of the gains came during the final hour, as is so often the case. Bears apparently had second thoughts about trusting Friday to be mellow, especially a Friday coinciding with the end of a fiscal quarter. » Read the full article
Another view.
Final Day Of Q1 Sees Good News
Stocks will likely end the first quarter of 2012 on a positive note, given the overall favorable news flow this morning. We got a better-than-expected read on consumer spending in the U.S., and reports out of Europe indicate the broad outlines of an agreement on the permanent bailout fund.
The monthly Personal Income & Outlays report showed that both Personal Incomes and spending grew at better-than-expected rates in February. Consumer spending increased at a 0.8% pace, compared to January’s 0.4% growth pace. The January gain was revised upwards from the original 0.2% pace.
Since consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of our GDP, this morning’s favorable consumption data will likely prompt positive revisions to current growth expectations of about 2% for the first quarter. This is particularly welcome given lack of positive revision in Thursday’s final read on fourth quarter 2011 GDP.
@advfn: Weekly Market analysis
“Overall strategy: The global economic outlook will continue to be an important market focus. The dollar will gain support from expectations that the US economy will out-perform other regions in the short term. The generally dovish Federal Reserve tone will, however, limit the potential for dollar gains, especially with continuing speculation that there could be additional action to boost the economy through further quantitative easing.”
Why the April Jobs Report Could Be a Disaster
In a speech by Fed Chief Ben Bernanke the other day – the one that turned any lingering “risk off” thoughts in financial markets decidedly back to “risk on” (at least for the day) as another round of central bank money printing suddenly seemed possible again – the subject of a surprisingly good labor market being out-of-step with other economic indicators was raised when Bernanke commented:
… we cannot yet be sure that the recent pace of improvement in the labor market will be sustained. Notably, an examination of recent deviations from Okun’s law suggests that the recent decline in the unemployment rate may reflect a reversal of the unusually large layoffs that occurred during late 2008 and over 2009.
“Despite the stock market’s strong performance in recent weeks, the sluggish pace of corporate profit growth should give investors pause.
As the first quarter comes to a close, companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index have warned in 81 instances that profits per share will fall below prior estimates, while they raised their outlook 28 times and said earnings should fall in line in 10 cases. The ratio of negative-to-positive pronouncements hasn’t been that high since the first quarter of 2009.
Written by Gary
