Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Dark Times Ahead?
I haven't posted since last Friday so I apologise. We haven't got a play on and I was just being lazy!!
Since that post the markets have declined some more with the Banks leading the way!! Anybody who took on board my comments about WM is probably sitting on some nice profits!! Merril Lynch (MER) are also looking pretty bad. I also note that the Seafields Gold (SA) is hovering around the $30 mark which is a nice entry point if you are looking for some gold exposure and don't actually want to buy the stuff!
Anyway yesterday saw a very choppy day. The Dow closed the session with a gain of 51.70 points to 13,010.14. The SPX added 6.43 points to finish the session at 1,439.70.
The Dow got off to a super bullish start being up triple digits in the first half of the session. News that housing starts showed a surprising rise of 3.0 percent in October was viewed positively, although building permits continued to decline. This is a sign that the worst might not yet be over for the housing sector. Of course, problems in the credit markets continue to be a concern for financial companies as well.
The Fed also released its minutes yesterday from the October meeting and it showed that the decision to cut rates was a tough one. However, odds remain better than even that the committee will cut rates at the December meeting. When looking at the outlook the Fed expect GDP growth to slow sharply in 2008, although they also see inflation pressures also easing. If there are any signs between now and the Dec. 11 meeting that economic growth is not going to be as bad as expected, we could quickly see Fed cut odds diminish.
Until next time.
Since that post the markets have declined some more with the Banks leading the way!! Anybody who took on board my comments about WM is probably sitting on some nice profits!! Merril Lynch (MER) are also looking pretty bad. I also note that the Seafields Gold (SA) is hovering around the $30 mark which is a nice entry point if you are looking for some gold exposure and don't actually want to buy the stuff!
Anyway yesterday saw a very choppy day. The Dow closed the session with a gain of 51.70 points to 13,010.14. The SPX added 6.43 points to finish the session at 1,439.70.
The Dow got off to a super bullish start being up triple digits in the first half of the session. News that housing starts showed a surprising rise of 3.0 percent in October was viewed positively, although building permits continued to decline. This is a sign that the worst might not yet be over for the housing sector. Of course, problems in the credit markets continue to be a concern for financial companies as well.
The Fed also released its minutes yesterday from the October meeting and it showed that the decision to cut rates was a tough one. However, odds remain better than even that the committee will cut rates at the December meeting. When looking at the outlook the Fed expect GDP growth to slow sharply in 2008, although they also see inflation pressures also easing. If there are any signs between now and the Dec. 11 meeting that economic growth is not going to be as bad as expected, we could quickly see Fed cut odds diminish.
Until next time.
# posted by Paul @ 4:45 AM 
