U.S. stocks looked unusually strong on Friday as two major factors concerning short term risk in global markets changed dramatically. The stagnant housing market and uncertainty over a viable path to solvency in Greece, which have been weighing heavily on global markets, seem to be less threatening if Friday’s data were judge. Technicals remain extremely overbought in commodities and equities as markets now face Bernanke and Q1 GDP this week.

Nadar Naeimi, a strategist for AMR Capital Investors Limited of Australia, chimes in as he adds his two cents to the discussion on when this rally in equities will end. AMR Capital, with the help of Naeimi, manages assets for some of Australia’s largest pension funds, with total assets under management close to $90 billion.

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Earnings season officially began, as the first member of the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average to grab Q4 2009 earnings headlines, Alcoa (AA), reported a net profit of $0.01 EPS on Monday, January 11. The shortfall to the $0.06 EPS market consensus was explained by CEO Klaus Kleinfield by the unexpected weakness in the dollar,
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The May Consumer Confidence report released Tuesday morning created powerful support to consumer discretionary stocks and lifted the share values of U.S. companies across the board, allowing the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) to close higher by nearly 200 points (almost 2.5%). The Consumer Confidence Index increased from 43.0 to 54.9, marking the first time
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Tuesday morning market moves were difficult to swallow for objective traders who witnessed poor indications from the Goldman ISCG store sales and housing starts data. The Goldman report indicated sales during the May 16 ended week were down 1.2% from the prior week and -0.3% off comparable sales last year. Similarly dire were April's annualized
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The atmosphere at the New York Stock Exchange was quiet yet optimistic Monday, as the S&P 500 index gained nearly 3% and closed above resistance at 909 points. Much of the gains in U.S. equities were derived from the Monday rally in Asian stocks on the heels of the Indian elections. India elected the incumbent
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The appetite of new entrants tip toeing into U.S. equities seems to have worn thin. Following three straight days of declines in the S&P 500 and founded on data citing 38,000 additional weekly jobless claims (637,000 wk 5/9), equities moved slightly higher. The S&P 500 improved by 9 points to 893, drawing bulls to declare
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No one seemed to questioning the vicious buying of Bank of America (BAC) and Citi Group (C) on a Wednesday where stress test leaks suggested the two banks will need an additional $35 billion and $50 billion of common equity. Does the transparency of major U.S. banks' financial needs warrant the KBW Banking Index's gain
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U.S. equity markets ended only slightly lower on Tuesday as early morning economic data started off the day with a spurt of confidence. The ISM Non-Manufacturing report gauged Chicago area service related industries deteriorating at a lower rate than previous months in April. The report clocked in at 43.7, above the markets estimate of 42.2
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Taking note of the information at hand Monday yields little new information for the economy on a day that had been scheduled as the release of TARP stress test results by regulators. Instead the S&P 500 and equity markets are trading higher on lower than average volume due to an unexpected jolt in pending home
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