While we all first learned that bonds and stocks perform "inversely" of each other, because bonds are relatively safe while equity shares are more risky, it should be understood that this is firstly and finally a ridiculous adage to waste a moment recalling. The oversimplified credence should, and soon will be, destroyed once and for all as long term
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Cracking the code of deserving prices for oil futures has become an interesting game of cat and mouse between the bulls citing a momentous trend of dollar destruction gaining momentum and fundamentalists hammering home the demand side of the argument. True, inflationary environments for currencies allow for the relative value of commodities priced in the domestic
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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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While Financials may have lead us into the current rally and continue to gain steam from FASB Rec. 157 revisions, U.S. Banks are dependant on economic growth for profits. Equities are overbought. Financials may not lead pullback but pessimism towards equities will taint banking sector. Less transparency and rule changes do not warrant further moves
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Thursday morning the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) announced a change to the mark to market accounting standard, technically known as FASB Recommendation 157. Under new accounting rules banks will be allowed to value the toxic paper tied to mortgages based on cash flow valuations rather than fair market prices. Many mortgage backed assets are
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U.S. equities closed substantially lower across the board on Monday as the overbought rally and fear leading into 2009 Q1 earnings data caused selling pressure among stocks. The Sunday announcement that General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner had submitted his resignation raised eyebrows among analysts and investors as they questioned the reasoning behind his departure. The
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Excluding the bottomless pit of Wall Street executives now tarred and feathered to satisfy the constituents of the "blameless" U.S. congress, the Big Three automaker CEOs rank second as they were publicly chastised for their own inadequacies. While much blame has been rightfully bestowed on Ford, GM and Chrysler for declining from market dominators to
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Diamond Slice Portfolio Disclosure: Proshares Double Short Oil (DTO)  iShares 30 Day VIX Futures ETN (VXX) iShares 5 Month VIX Futures ETN (VXZ) Proshares Ultra Short Xinhua China ETF (FXP)

U.S. equities felt strong selling pressure in pre-market trading Friday due to expected yet unfortunate economic data. Markets were unable to build optimism throughout the day Friday as the overbought tech rally ran out of gas and all indexes ended the day down; DJIA -1.87%, S&P 500 -2.03%, NASDAQ -2.63%. Consumer spending for February came
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Crude began to rally early Thursday as U.S. commodity markets opened on positive news that 2008 Q4 GDP numbers were not as terrible as expected. Futures prices are completely ignoring the stockpiles of crude throughout developed countries, in the Arab world, and floating off-shore in tankers. While WTI crude futures were trading below $45/barrel they were
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