Thursday, July 25, 2013

Stocks Gain After sluggish Start; Amazon Misses

Halfway through earnings season and the Dow has tacked on nearly 600 points since the end of June, so, we're on pace for July - if the trend remains in place - for a gain of over five percent in just this month.

Didn't somebody say, "Sell in May and go away."

In this market, they're dead wrong.

After the close, Amazon (AMZN) reported a two cent loss on expectations of a five cent gain. Revenue was a small miss, but guidance for the next quarter was very soft. The stock was bouncing around in after-hours trade, down as much as four percent.

This remains a very dull market, despite the outsize gains.

Dow 15,555.61, +13.37 (0.09%)
NASDAQ 3,605.19, +25.59 (0.71%)
S&P 500 1,690.25, +4.31 (0.26%)
NYSE Composite 9,635.04, +29.98 (0.31%)
NASDAQ Volume 2,036,177,125
NYSE Volume 3,541,185,500
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 3927-2584
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 371-130
WTI crude oil: 105.49, +0.10
Gold: 1,328.80, +9.10
Silver: 20.15, +0.134

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Dow at New Record Close, NASDAQ, S&P Down, Apple Beats, Revenues In-Line

New home sales for June will be out tomorrow at 10:00 am EDT. This follows Monday's release of existing home sales data which was lower than June a year ago.

Also out tomorrow, prior to the bell, are earnings from Boeing (BA), which is trading near all-time highs.

Apple (AAPL) somewhat surprised markets after hours, beating eps estimates of 7.32 per share with a 7.47 show. Revenues were basically in-line, at 35.30 billion, on estimates of 35.02 billion. I-phone sales were well ahead of everyone's estimates and is a real driver for the company, even though same quarter earnings last year were 9.32. Growth is slowing, but Apple is still mightily profitable. As an investment, it may not be such a great performer going forward, much of its growth having been due to founder, Steve Jobs, who passed away October 5, 2011. Apple must stop pretending and create new and exciting products, not an easy task.

Incidentally, Apple's stock leapt in after-hours trading, just seconds before the earnings release, in yet another example of how the market is rigged to insiders and dangerous for individual investors.

For an idea as to how out-of-whack the markets are, consider the new highs to new lows today, at 536 new highs to 38 new lows. That's an extreme reading - sure, we're at all-time highs - but that's when things usually turn, and turn this market will, though probably without much notice. Keep powder dry.

Dow 15,567.74, +22.19 (0.14%)
NASDAQ 3,579.27, -21.11 (0.59%)
S&P 500 1,692.39, -3.14 (0.19%)
NYSE Composite 9,659.63, +9.04 (0.09%)
NASDAQ Volume 1,577,547,250
NYSE Volume 3,369,484,500
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 3435-3033
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 536-38
WTI crude oil: 107.23, +0.23
Gold: 1,342.80, +6.80
Silver: 20.44, -0.064

Monday, July 22, 2013

No Happy Meals For McDonald's Shareholders; Gold, Silver Rise

The signs of collapse are everywhere. You just have to know where to look.

Detroit declared itself a bankrupt city on Friday and on Monday, McDonald's (MCD) - home of the Happy Meal - reported earnings before the opening bell that were short of estimates. When the world's largest purveyor of cheap, unsubstantial, processed, nutrient-deprived food (though Yum Brands is a close second) can't meet the already-lowered bar of wall Street estimates, you know that something bad this way comes.

McDonald's is all about everything that is wrong with our society. Their main profit center is the dollar menu - cheap, boiled or broiled sandwiches or chunks of deep-fried processed chicken with gobs of unsaturated fats included at no extra charge - an affordable alternative to actual, pesticide-free nutrition, that gets goobed-up by the least of our society in massive numbers daily. The problem - in a very heuristic, superfluous, nebulous kind of way - is that numbers of the wretched poor can't even afford to eat this crap any more, so burdened are they by taxes, lack of meaningful and good-paying employment and general economic malaise. It's a much more serious problem than just not making the numbers. The American poor are being slowly, methodologically, starved into submission and death.

America was once the land of milk and honey and other worldly gifts, but, no more. Now, the country is devoid of morals, an aimless gob of humanity looking for a way off the debt treadmill. And Wall Street isn't giving them an escape route.

Bottom lime is that McDonald's food is junk food and their stock is a junk stock, like so many others, profitable upon the backs of cheap labor and unconscionable practices.

The market is dead. Gold - in backwardation since January - shot through $1300 like an unguided missile, dragging silver along for a gain of better than a dollar on the day. Land, precious metals, fuels, tools, skills. That's survival. The rest will vanish.

You thought last week's market was dull. Wait for Thursday. It will be like being struck with the wrong side of an axe. These aren't gains. They are mirages.

Dow 15,545.55, +1.81 (0.01%)
NASDAQ 3,600.39, +12.77 (0.36%)
S&P 500 1,695.53, +3.44 (0.20%)
NYSE Composite 9,650.61, +32.10 (0.33%)
NASDAQ Volume 1,459,571,875
NYSE Volume 3,047,999,000
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 3911-2541
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 607-74
WTI crude oil: 106.91, -1.14
Gold: 1,336.00, +43.10
Silver: 20.51, +1.049

Friday, July 19, 2013

Stocks Spilt to End Uneventful Week

Microsoft and Google both missed the mark on earnings for the second quarter, which is why the NASDAQ was down significantly on the day. Otherwise, the S&P hit a new all-time closing high and the Dow just missed.

While normally, such news would send markets screaming in reverse, the new normal of continued money printing and zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) by the Federal Reserve keeps stocks high, along with WTI crude oil, which has almost reached parity with Brent Crude.

Sell NOW.

Oh, yes, the city of Detroit has filed for bankruptcy, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the history of the United States. Now that just reeks of "recovery," doesn't it?

Obama continues to backtrack on ObamaCare, because the regulators (mostly the IRS) cannot implement all of the regulations without bankrupting (oops, there's that word again) not only the entire medical industry, but the entire country. Already, employers nationwide are downsizing weekly hours worked for most employees to under 30, in order to avoid compliance with the Affordable Health Care Act (ObamaCare), so, in our new labor normal, 30 is the new 40, as in full-time employment.

Welcome to the American Gulag, comrades.

Dow 15,543.74, -4.80 (0.03%)
NASDAQ 3,587.61, -23.66 (0.66%)
S&P 500 1,692.09, +2.72 (0.16%)
NYSE Composite 9,618.46, +31.26 (0.33%)
NASDAQ Volume 1,775,103,250
NYSE Volume 3,510,552,500
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 3228-3307 (odd, no?)
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 466-27
WTI crude oil: 108.05, +0.01
Gold: 1,292.90, +8.70
Silver: 19.46, +0.071

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Dull Session, Profit-Taking, Lack of Interest Sends Stocks Lower

Wow! Stocks closed lower for a change.

Change is good, but this is nothing but a little white noise in the overall scheme.

Considering that this is probably the slowest week of the year, unless something earth-shattering occurs over the next few days, Money Daily will return on Friday.

After all, it is major league baseball's All Star break and since our Fearless Editor is an All Star of sorts, he could use a break, too.

Dow 15,451.85, -32.41 (0.21%)
NASDAQ 3,598.50, -8.99 (0.25%)
S&P 500 1,676.26, -6.24 (0.37%)
NYSE Composite 9,485.55, -35.41 (0.37%)
NASDAQ Volume 1,559,187,125.00
NYSE Volume 3,137,933,000
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 2607-3853
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 430-33
WTI crude oil: 106.00, -0.32
Gold: 1,290.40, +6.90
Silver: 19.94, +0.096