Tuesday Musings – April 3rd Week

• Dow 11,000 barely squeaked out and held last Monday as nervous traders did little except look ahead to earnings. Little action was also due in part, according to Nick Kalivas, VP of financial research at MF Global, a wariness of round-number levels. (I do not make this stuff up.) Losers outnumbered winners. Both oil and gold fell. And – China reported its first monthly trade deficit in 6 years.
• Avon suspends 4 execs for possible bribery in their China market. Latin America accounts for 40% of Avon’s biz.
• Tweet adds ads. It’ll go public when it gets firmly googalized. Watch for IPO. Alcoa downgraded.
• FDIC extends unlimited deposit insurance to business accounts at small banks that earn little or no interest.
• Internat’l Energy Agency revised forecast for global oil demand up 30,000 barrels a day. Higher than expected.
• FYI- the great recession has not been officially declared over. The Nat’l Bureau of Economic Research is the umpire for declaring beginning and ending of economic events.
• Cheapest value stock in the Dow- Microsoft, including its $4 cash per share hoard.
• Tuesday markets unsure -investors strong demand for Greek debt with EU guarantees. Barrons and others recommend to stay away from bad debt.
• Consumer Reports gave Lexus SUV a rare ‘Don’t Buy’ rating. Toyota pulls car from market.
• Morgan Stanley’s real estate fund losses wipe out 2/3’rds value of $8.8 billion making it largest loss ever.
• Tuesday another earthquake this time China.
• Intel scores big! Profits up 44% from year ago.
• Mark Coffelt of Empiric Core Equity Fund believes US market has a ‘long way to go’ before rally finished. (I never heard of him either.)
• U.S. will need 150,000 more doctors for for the millions of new patients.
• Wednesday was one day you just didn’t want to miss. Bernanke spoke and ‘surprise’ instead of tanking when the Chairman opens his mouth a triple digit day. JPM 55% profit coupled with Intel’s Tuesday move stoked all sectors. 52 week highs. Financials and Techs were the duo that moved everything.
• More than whispers saying we are in the middle of a V recovery. Meaning it went down fast and it’ll come back fast. Retail strong- ‘scuse I’m on the way to Target…the store that K Mart could have been if it didn’t lose its way. Does anyone believe we’ll see a K Mart in a decade?
• I get a strong sense that someone will do something to punish Big Banks simply for retribution and because they can.
• Thursday seemed markets were pooped from their run earlier. But still there was plenty of momentum leftover with tech and banks leading for a small gain. Google crushed with 37%+ profit surge. UPS reported better numbers. (Delivery stuff!)Manufacturing got in the way as Ford was up with better than expected European numbers. Across the board everything was up ‘cept oil.
• Friday the markets fell triple digits as the SEC charged Goldman Sachs with fraud.
• Markets still up for the week. Gold off as is oil.