Closing Market Commentary For 07-20-2012
The markets sloshed along sorta sideways and sorta down and sorta boring. Today’s volume, albeit very low, was mostly red and not very convincing as it tapered further off as it approached the closing bell. This is making most of us wonder what will Mr. Market have in store for us on Monday.
Four pm FINALLY arrived with the markets remaining down, well sorta, for the day. The red volume made a halfhearted attempt at 3:58 to move the markets down as some profit taking took place. The red volume actually moved up enough to be called moderate, but the ‘BTFD dippers’ fought back making the 10 minute move look as if nothing happened. That sorta sums up the day too as I head out into the rain – couldn’t be more perfect, well sorta. (Note: Past 5 pm and I can’t publish because Comcast sucks has connection issues – maybe it will stop raining.)
Ah, the MSM is exaggerating again to sell some more paper, er, television time. The word ‘sharply’ in the Foxnews blurb below is really more like molasses on a cold January day. Besides, this news that came out at 12:30 pm was as old as the hills as we knew it and reported on it early this morning. The real news is what DaBoyz have up their sleeves to shake more money out of our pockets.
The markets are falling sharply as worries that Spain, the eurozone’s fourth-biggest economy, could find itself locked out of private credit markets bubble back to the surface. The Dow is down 104 points, while the broader S&P 500 is off 0.84%. The losses are being led by the financial, health-care and consumer discretionary sectors.
The DOW at 4:00 is at 12822 down 120.79 or -0.93%.
The 500 is at 1362 down 13.85 or -1.01%.
The $RUT is at 791.54 down 10.63 or -1.33% and leading the pack being down all day.
SPY is at 136.43 down 1.28 or -0.93%.
The trend is neutral to slightly negative and the current bias is down.
The price of crude oil moved down Friday morning on what looks like profit taking after seven straight days of gains that pushed prices to a two month high.
WTI oil is at 91.48 trading between 92.31 and 90.65 and the bias is neutral.
Brent crude is at 106.57 trading between 107.73 and 105.70 and the bias is neutral.
Gold is down today at 1585 trading between 1586 and 1574 with a positive bias.
Dr. Copper is at 3.44 down from 3.53 earlier.
The U.S. dollar was hovering around its 2-year high versus the euro which is down.
The USD rose from 83.64 to 82.96 settling at 83.58.
The 500 at the close. You can see the dreaded ultimate ‘Black Cross of Death’ approaching as the blue 50 day MA is about to cross the violet 200 day MA. Doug Short doesn’t give it much credence in market prognosticating. Doug said, “completely worthless as an indicator for the market or the economy.”
But you never know – just saying . . .
The DOW at the close.
Italian and Spanish bond yields are reaching dangerous levels once again as exuberance from the short-term liquidity fixes set forth by European leaders appears to be running low. With the Spanish 10-year note yield above 7%, the EURUSD has fallen to its lows of the day.
Although EVERYONE knew it, we finally have a whistle-blower. Does The I In IMF Stand For Idiot?
Scandal At The IMF: Senior Economist Resigns, Says “Ashamed To Have Had Any Association With Fund At All”
“The rats everywhere are now jumping furiously off the titanic . . . with the departure of Peter Doyle . . . Not content with quietly slinking off the scandal ridden organization . . . where humor about Lagarde’s Louis Vuitton panhandling bag is as pervasive as punchlines about just how incompetent the organization is at actually doing its duty, Doyle has penned the following scathing letter which tears down every myth about the IMF: . . . . “After twenty years of service, I am ashamed to have had any association with the Fund at all.” Pretty much says it all. This is a scandal in the making . . .”
A thought or two for anyone thinking of remaining long as we go into the weekend.
Read at SA
“This [world financial mess] is a death spiral which hopefully ends with the end of Keynesian thought, or as it should be called, liberal orthodoxy wrapped up in an economics costume. The end.”
“This is one terrible market to trade and need I say, “Abandon Hope Ye who enters here” and holds for more than a few hours?”
“The market is rigged, the individual investor mom and pop or Joe average doesn’t matter.”
“in other words the market is dead duck walking, or zombie market.”
Spain’s IBEX suffered the worst one-day drop in two years. The country’s Valencia region announced today that it would be seeking a bailout. Ed Shing, head of European equity strategy at Barclays, said:
“There is very little to stop Spanish bonds moving up at the moment and that is a big concern… This is just another piece of bad news reminding people that it is not just that government that has issues but also the regional governments.”
It has been a tempestuous week where good is bad, worse is better, but European news is to be sold. Here is your one stop summary of all the notable bullish and bearish events in the past seven days.
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Written by Gary
