Wednesday, May 8, 2013

No Comment on Continuing Ramp

No comment until stocks post a losing session. Until then, just the numbers.

Dow 15,105.12, +48.92 (0.32%)
NASDAQ 3,413.27, +16.64 (0.49%)
S&P 500 1,632.69, +6.73 (0.41%)
NYSE Composite 9,463.32, +54.31 (0.58%)
NASDAQ Volume 1,715,862,500.00
NYSE Volume 3,797,192,750
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 4088-2261
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 724-29
WTI crude oil: 96.62, +1.00
Gold: 1,473.70, +24.90
Silver: 23.93, +0.121

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Stocks. Must. Go. Higher.

More new records.

Happy faces all around.

Dow 15,056.20, +87.31 (0.58%)
NASDAQ 3,396.63, +3.66 (0.11%)
S&P 500 1,625.96, +8.46 (0.52%)
NYSE Composite 9,409.02, +60.12 (0.64%)
NASDAQ Volume 1,674,661,000
NYSE Volume 3,558,739,000
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 4416-2064
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 670-25
WTI crude oil: 95.62, -0.54
Gold: 1,448.80, -19.20
Silver: 23.81, -0.149

Monday, May 6, 2013

Dead Markets for a Dying Economy

The entire range on the Dow Jones Industrials today was a bit over 47 points. For the S&P 500, 5.56 points.

It's a truly sad day when the major indices move less than four-tenths of a percent, top to bottom. It means that the now-soulless, machine-run market has gone nearly bidless as well. In the absence of any kind of data flow, the computers have nothing to do, so this is what we get... pretty much nothing.

So much for follow-on after Friday's euphoric jobs data rally, which was actually nothing more than numbers being pulled from a magician's hat.

This stock market runs on rumor and money printing and nothing more. When the Dow, S&P and the NASDAQ are 60% lower than where they are today, it might present an attractive investing opportunity. For now, it's just a mirage. Nothing about this market - from corporate earnings to government-supplied data - is real.

The fact of the matter is that America is a crippled marketplace, a stumbling, old, broken economy, but nobody is willing to admit it, at least nobody on Wall Street or in Washington.

Today was the three-year anniversary of the "flash crash" which is credited for keeping so many individual investors away from stocks. Perhaps it is a fitting reminder of that day to see no volume and little price movement. Just what the doctor ordered.

So, now you see that the market is all fixed. No big moves up or down in split seconds. Come on in a buy some stocks. They're at all time highs!

What a total farce this has become. Worthy of a Neil Simon work-up.

Dow 14,968.89, -5.07 (0.03%)
NASDAQ 3,392.97, +14.34 (0.42%)
S&P 500 1,617.50, +3.08 (0.19%)
NYSE Composite 9,345.17, +4.70 (0.05%)
NASDAQ Volume 1,452,282,625
NYSE Volume 3,214,814,500
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 3808-2622
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 476-25
WTI crude oil: 96.16, +0.55
Gold: 1,468.00, +3.80
Silver: 23.96, +0.059

Friday, May 3, 2013

Non-Farm Payrolls for April Send Markets Screaming Higher

When the BLS posted the non-farm payroll data for April at 165,000 - well beyond even the most optimistic guesses (average 145,000) - it was just what the Wall Street syndicate needed to push the S&P over 1600 - a new all-time high - and send everyone home for the weekend a winner.

Never mind that the numbers are mostly a fabrication of modeling, birth-death adjustments, include part-time employees and that the average workweek fell by 0.1%, effectively eliminating most of the gain, or that the March figure was 50% off and raised to a new level, it worked wonders for the market, soullessly searching for any kind of news, good, bad or inconsequential.

Whether one believes these numbers are meaningful, truthful or indicative of anything, doesn't really matter. It's simply more fodder for the one-percenters with which to feed their insatiable greed.

Welcome to the new world dis-order. Enjoy the Kentucky Derby and the weekend. At least we believe the horse races to be honest gambling venues.

Dow 14,973.96, +142.38 (0.96%)
NASDAQ 3,378.63, +38.01 (1.14%)
S&P 500 1,614.42, +16.83 (1.05%)
NYSE Composite 9,340.37, +93.64 (1.01%)
NASDAQ Volume 1,671,711,875
NYSE Volume 3,914,186,250
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 4734-1747
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 758-33 (beyond extreme: ridiculous)
WTI crude oil: 95.61, +1.62
Gold: 1,464.20, -3.40
Silver: 24.01, +0.184

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Markets Say 'Never Mind' about Wednesday's Declines

In a real-life parody of Gilda Radner's Saturday Night Live character, Emily Litella, stocks, commodities, everything simply took no heed of Wednesday's steep declines and said, "ever mind," as though they had been mistaken about the direction of the economy, the advisement from the Fed's FOMC, or something, and thus, virtually erased all of the bad from the day before.

Not to say that these markets are fickle, but there happens to be a very good explanation why all risk assets were hammered lower the previous session: no TOMO.

TOMO stands for Temporary Open Market Operations (as opposed to POMO, which are Permanent operations), the facility by which the Fed creates new money and promptly hands it over to the primary dealers, and, supposedly, other good friends of Uncle Ben Bernanke - he of the big heart - and the money is put to work goosing the prices of everything that isn't glued down, that being mostly stocks, but also, commodities.

In order to keep up with the game, the Fed has published a list of dates and amounts for the purchase of Treasuries, here. In may the Fed will purchase $44 billion worth of treasuries because they bought a billion too many last month ($46 billion) There is a separate list elsewhere on their site for Agency-backed securities purchases which amount to roughly $40 billion per month.

So, save those dates! Those are not days to go short the market, but they are certainly the ones you'll want to be long stocks, because the Fed is supplying the capital.

Sometimes, the reality is so stupid and obvious one has to just wonder how the whole system hasn't blown up already.

Dow 14,831.58, +130.63 (0.89%)
NASDAQ 3,340.62, +41.49 (1.26%)
S&P 500 1,597.59, +14.89 (0.94%)
NYSE Composite 9,246.72, +70.93 (0.77%)
NASDAQ Volume 1,715,556,375
NYSE Volume 3,686,534,250
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 4856-1594
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 395-46
WTI crude oil: 93.99, +2.96
Gold: 1,467.60, +21.40
Silver: 23.83, +0.487