Mar 9, 2010

Daily Markets - Financial News And Opinions

Daily Markets - Financial News And Opinions

Eaton Vance Targets PIMCO With 5 Active Bond ETFs

Posted: 09 Mar 2010 02:01 AM PST

Just as we were discussing why actively-managed bond ETFs may be doing better than actively-managed equity ETFs, Eaton Vance has stepped into the field by filing to launch 5 active bond ETFs. Eaton Vance is a Boston-based asset manager that is a giant in the closed-end fund space, managing in excess of $163 billion as of Dec 31, 2009, $42.7 billion of which was in fixed-income investments. Eaton Vance first announced its interest in the ETF industry back in Aug 2008, and coming from such … [visit site to read more]


Where Is Wall Street Hiding Hundreds Of Billions In Losses?

Posted: 09 Mar 2010 01:01 AM PST

Banks are increasingly healthy, right? Our nation’s accounting rules promote real transparency and integrity in our financial reporting, right? Housing is bottoming, right? No, no, and no!

Why so pessimistic, you may ask? I am not pessimistic at all. I am merely searching for the truth in the midst of the smoke and mirrors on Wall Street and in Washington.

Thank you to our friends at 12th Street Capital for sharing a recently released letter from Congressman Barney Frank imploring … [visit site to read more]

Video: HAFA Progam Provides Foreclosure Alternatives

Posted: 09 Mar 2010 01:00 AM PST

The Obama Administration announced that the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives (HAFA) program will launch on April 5. … [visit site to read more]

Russell 2000 Index Hits New Recovery Highs But Must Break Key Resistance

Posted: 09 Mar 2010 12:01 AM PST

In an interesting turn of events, the Russell 2000 “Small Cap” Index broke to new recovery highs last week in a sign of bullish strength, but now faces headwinds from the weekly 200 period moving average.

Let’s take a quick look at both the daily and weekly Russell 2000 chart to see what level we should watch for important clues as to the strength - or pause - in the recent strong rally.

Russell 2000 Daily:

In the daily chart, we see one of the most powerful sustained rallies … [visit site to read more]

Where Has The Chinese Yuan, Or Renminbi, Been Tracking?

Posted: 08 Mar 2010 11:01 PM PST

With all the talk in the media it’s worth a brief look at some data on the currency of China, the CNY. Many commentators have been suggesting a small move sometime this year and last year various leaders around the globe implored the Chinese authorities to alter their exchange rate policy.

For example top officials from the ECB visited China, but to no avail. The exchange rate policy has been implemented as a crisis measure, according to the Chinese authorities, and will only be … [visit site to read more]

One Year Later: Top Ten Performing ETFs Since The Market Bottom

Posted: 08 Mar 2010 11:00 PM PST

March 9, 2009 is a date etched into the memories of many investors. After months of unprecedented volatility, depressing statistical releases, and countless false bottoms, that's the day most equity markets finally hit their lows. It also marked the beginning of an impressive rally that saw most major indexes climb steadily for the remainder of the year, reclaiming big chunks of the ground lost during the downturn. While the "great rally of '09″ boosted most asset classes (and their … [visit site to read more]

Forex Trading: GBP/USD Corrects Within Strong Accelerated Downtrend

Posted: 08 Mar 2010 10:20 PM PST

Price action on GBP/USD, a daily chart of which is shown, has made a bullish correction since the beginning of March after having dipped well below the key 1.5000 psychological level on March 1st. This bullish correction exists within the context of a steep accelerated downtrend in the pair. After having corrected up to approach the 1.5200 price region, the directional bias continues to be bearish in line with the strong current downtrend.

The key price level to watch to the downside … [visit site to read more]

Three Tasty ETFs To Watch

Posted: 08 Mar 2010 10:01 PM PST

As consumers around the world continue to opt for choices that don’t break the bank, some fast-food eateries remain attractive and for good reason.

Most recently, the most well known fast food franchise in the world, McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD), reported that same stores sales are on the rise.  The retailer stated that sales at restaurants open for at least one year increased 4.8%, marking the largest one month gain in nearly one year.  Domestically, analysts suggest that the gains may be … [visit site to read more]

AIG Sells Alico Unit To MetLife For $15.5 Billion, Raising More Money To Repay Fed

Posted: 08 Mar 2010 08:47 PM PST

American International Group Inc. (NYSE:AIG) today (Monday) agreed to sell its American Life Insurance Co. unit, better known as Alico, to MetLife Inc. (NYSE:MET) for $15.5 billion, taking yet another step towards paying off its U.S. government debt.

MetLife will pay $6.8 billion in cash and $8.7 billion in equity securities for Alico, AIG’s second-largest foreign life-insurance business.

With a deal inked a week ago to sell its Asian life-insurer unit, American International Assurance … [visit site to read more]

Chart Of The Week: US Non-farm Payrolls And Unemployment Rate

Posted: 08 Mar 2010 08:30 PM PST

Any week that the employment report is released, that data is automatically in the running for the chart of the week. Given that the Bureau of Labor Statistics corrected some of the historical data series and stocks rallied sharply off of the not-as-bad-as-feared payroll losses, this seemed like a good time to update a chart that has always been a big hit and I that I have not published in seven months.

The chart below shows monthly changes in nonfarm payroll employment and the … [visit site to read more]

Forex Trading: Traders Gain Confidence In Euro As They Lighten Short Positions

Posted: 08 Mar 2010 07:34 PM PST

The U.S. Dollar had a choppy, directionless day. The lack of event risk was likely the main reason for this as well as the easing of the Greek fiscal crisis. Trading could continue in a similar manner over the next few days because the first major report, Weekly Jobless Claims, is not due out until Thursday. This will be followed by the Retail Sales Report on Friday.
The Greenback started the New York session under pressure against most major currencies except the Japanese Yen. Trading was … [visit site to read more]

Video: The Day Ahead: ABC Consumer Confidence

Posted: 08 Mar 2010 07:00 PM PST

The stories, data, and stocks that may have the greatest impact during the next trading session. … [visit site to read more]

A Bit More Light-Hearted

Posted: 08 Mar 2010 06:44 PM PST

OK, I guess I’ve had enough doom-and-gloom for the moment. Time for something a bit more light-hearted.
The Christian Science Monitor has compiled a humorous list of their Top 10 favorite words birthed by the recession. Here are five of them:

1. Decruited, adj. To be fired from a position one has not even started yet.
Sample sentence: “At first I felt really bad about being decruited from that corporate law firm after spending two summers of law school interning for them. But then I … [visit site to read more]

Stock Picks For Tuesday 9 March: DryShips, Palm

Posted: 08 Mar 2010 06:44 PM PST

( click to enlarge )

DryShips (NASDAQ:DRYS) shares surged more than 7 percent Monday on the potential for M&A action. According to Briefing.com, DryShips could be a potential buyout candidate for Danish conglomerate Maersk. The stock ended the session at $6.09, up 43 cents, or 7.6%. DryShips stock gave an important buy signal with the break above trendline resistance at 5.80 region. My long target at 6 was reached, however my model remains long, targeting 6.61. Immediate support is … [visit site to read more]

An Emperor-Has-No-Clothes Moment

Posted: 08 Mar 2010 05:43 PM PST

In the classic Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” a crowd fooled into believing in a fantasy version of reality is brought down to earth by the words of a small boy.
Substitute “bank-sector and other investors” for “a crowd” and “actions of the FDIC” for “words of a small boy” and that goes some small way towards describing the potentially ugly fallout from developments detailed in the following Bloomberg BusinessWeek report, “'On the Edge' Banks Face … [visit site to read more]

Can India Get Soaring Food Inflation Rates Under Control?

Posted: 08 Mar 2010 03:20 PM PST

India's inflation in food prices has been soaring lately — holding for weeks above 17 percent — due to a combination of factors including the weakest monsoon rains in nearly 40 years, new taxes on gasoline and diesel, and increased excise taxes on a wide variety of products.
From BusinessWeek:
"An index measuring wholesale prices of lentils, rice, vegetables and other food articles compiled by the commerce ministry rose 17.87 percent in the week ended Feb. 20 from a year earlier, … [visit site to read more]
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