Tuesday Musings 1st Week April

• Short market week with a good start. Google spreading the cheer with new iPhone. AT&T loses monopoly. Uncle Sam bails out of Citi selling 7.7 million shares diluting existing shareholder equity. Ford sells Volvo to the Chinese for 1.8 billion dollars- paying down debt as shareholders worry about economic downside and shares fell 1% Monday. Markets mixed on Holiday week trading.
• The worm turns on good news. Home prices rise (hurray!) and consumer confidence improves. Sounds good? Stock gains again erased Tuesday as debt concerns and strengthening of the dollar. Commodities firmed. On sovereign debt - Greek bonds were down sharply on concerns the Greek problem was not resolved.
• China wants to be taken seriously and sick of being considered an emerging market. Beijing wants country to be known for quality and not cheap labor. Look for the party to be over sooner than later. 
• Junk bonds are the rage, darling. $31.5 billion of high yield debt hit the market and buyers scooped it all up. What no one wanted and we grabbed all we could is now a scarce commodity. Healthy?
• Toyota stock still climbs higher no matter how bad the news. Go figure.
• The Medicare tax will hit the rich first and slowly, like the AMT, creep up and bite the middle class. Remember AMT was created because a few rich families paid no income tax. Today 4 million Americans get stuck paying higher taxes because of that ‘even-out’ tax.  Medicare tax on investment income is a first!
• Best stock for the quarter Boeing- worst Alcoa.
• Citi prepares Primerica IPO, prices it at $15 share. Primerica the Tupperware-like financial life and mutual fund sales firm populated by part-timers is still alive and attempting to go it alone.  Stock soars as investors climb aboard. I don’t get it.
• MOO hits a wall- the ETF specializing in agribusiness has barely budged in 2010, lost money for 2 previous years, and a major player thinks things too volatile going forward or backward.
• Thursday 70 point gain along with pluses for oil and gold wrapped up the week. Ford, GM and Toyota had big gains but little for Ford stock price. Stocks gain primarily on good manufacturing news. U.K. manufacturing strongest since 1994. Treasuries declined with 10-year at 3.874%
• Bonds may be at tipping point. Buyers of our domestic risk may be in mood for demanding higher interest rates for perceived higher risk. Questions or comments call Paul Stanley @877 783 7080 or write pstanley@westminsterfinancial.com Share the blog with someone you think will appreciate it.