That Was The Week That Was-4th Week March

 

Stocks Lose For The Week. The Nasdaq saw the worst week in 17 months, according to Dow Jones’s MarketWatch.com. Consumer spending was off in February. IPOs saw mixed action as investors got picky. Asian and European shares rose with Asian markets mostly up for the week.

What Every Retirement Portfolio Should Have, according to Rob Isbitts of Dow Jones.

1. Consistent Income
2. Preservation of capital
3. Liquidity
4. Competitive Costs
5. Long-term Growth

And while all that is good, Isbitts qualifies by reminding us if we’re investing we are realistically lucky to have two or three.

Wall Street Braces for deluge of IPOs. Mary Krantz reported in USA Today March 22nd that so far there have been 48 new issues this year! There will be more including two big China deals. One in particular is a dandy! But you still have to be cautious because it’s a Chinese company with a iffy management history. Investors who know they don’t qualify for any IPO stock can still take advantage through several ETFs.  Call me for their names and more information. pstanley@westminsterfinancial.com

Tucked away in a remote corner of a publication was this chart showing that the market performs by the day of the week- or has in 2014. This from the Bespoke Investment Group, that did the study. 3/24/2014

Markets Down Monday Naz off 50 points. Apple supposedly in talks with Comcast for streaming deal boosted shares but later another report said the WSJ report didn’t have their facts straight. U.S. stocks drop after economic data signaled a slowdown in manufacturing. The Markit Economics preliminary index of U.S. manufacturing decreased to 55.1 in March from 57.14 a month earlier. Anything over 50 shows expansion. Bloomberg 3/24/2014. The G-8 became the G-7 as Russia was voted out of the group. Some economists believe sanctions will throw the Russian economy into a recession. It won’t help the EU recovery or certain business groups in the U.S. either. Someone said we should flood the E.U. with our strategic oil reserves and that would bring the Russian’s to some sort of a conference. That’s assuming that the Russian leadership is willing to talk. This is chest thumping and flag waving time and that trumps common sense  every time.

‘Cody Willard reported in MarketWatch.com that markets were acting weak and that some fear was creeping back in. Momentum stocks were being hurt-bad. Biotech down 10% in the last 2 trading sessions, Cody reported Tuesday morning. He also believes that big banks and the Fed want gold to go lower before the end-game comes…someday. Yes, I’ve been reporting that as late as last week as GS said gold wouldn’t hold in 2014. In all pre-2014 predictions gold was a source expected not to do well.

There seems to be a ‘desperation’ to these markets. At least that was the sense Tuesday as the DJIA popped up almost 100 points, gold was up $5 and the wafting of M&A was in the air as FB acquired another company to its growing string. More news from MarketWatch.com as a list of 44 candidates that Morgan Stanley said could be soon acquired was published –3/26/2014. While The U.S. is on a fast-track to growing its government benefit programs other governments are looking for ways to divest some of their ‘stuff’. The WSJ reported that Australia plans on selling the country’s largest health insurer in an IPO. The country is looking for ways to raise money to update its infrastructure and thinks the best way of doing it is selling ‘stuff’ the country owns to private owners. Other assets that could be sold include the…wait for it…Australian Post Mail Service. New Zealand’s government raised billions of dollars selling shares in power generators and Air New Zealand,Ltd. The result is the country expects to see a surplus by 2015. Selling assets owned by the state is nothing new and could be a way to get roads and bridges fixed and save the postal service.

 

Wednesday Markets Sold Off- Up in the Early Going and Down Hill in the Afternoon. Cramer, on CNBC, said it was because the ‘Bigs’ were rotating out of secular companies, that do well in most any market, to cyclical stocks. This rotation, Cramer warned, will hurt investors for no good reason. It was the reason for the massive sell0ff in the biotechs earlier, he explained. The DJIA was off 114 points. Joeseph Greco, managing director of trading at Meridan Equity Partners, said the markets sold off when the President spoke and traders perceived a ‘tougher’ tone to the Russia-Ukraine situation. Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott, said that 2014 is going to test traders fortitude for being long and it’ll be a grinding out kind of year.

 

 Rotation or Precursor for Correction? Markets have been acting weird..or weird-er. This included Thursday’s action which saw the social media stocks get crushed along with many of the momentum stalwarts …with possibly more hurt on the horizon. What sectors has been holding up are the usual suspects: Consumer staples, utilities and health care. A choppy sideways market will probably continue. Clues that investors have not lost all their common sense is the abysmal failure of Candy Crush IPO. If you’ve been an investor for any length of time these markets usually come after a BIG up year, so there shouldn’t be a surprise to this new found volatility. Remember last year there was no news bad enough to stop the choo-choo express from going higher. The markets simply shrugged off any and all news and marched on. This year- not so much.

Finally- Northern Trust’s Jim McDonald wrote: The investing climate isn’t as favorable as a year ago. 3/28 And Chuck Jaffe writes, ‘It’s Not 1929!’ More from Jaffe next week.

Information gathered from sources considered reliable and included WSJ, Barrons, CNBC, Bloomberg, and others.

Questions call Paul @ 586 295 0430 or write him at pstaney@westminsterfinancial.com. Share this blog with someone who cares about their money.

SECURITIES OFFERED THROUGH WESTMINSTER FINANCIAL SECURITIES, INC. MEMBER FINRA/SIPC.

That Was The Week That Was-3rd Week March

  Are We Heading For A Summer of Discontent? In a CNBC article posted 3/17 a unnamed Wall Street forecaster believes we’ll have exactly that along with a flat market as global tensions continue. Worse than expected winter plus global disturbances could tip us into a ‘grumbling discontent rather than a steady and progressive U.S. lead recovery.’

CRASH PROOFING YOUR INVESTMENTS MAY BE INDEED IMPOSSIBLE BUT YOU CAN LIMIT PORTFOLIO RISK. LEARN HOW- EMAIL OR CALL ME FOR DETAILS.  pstanley@westminsterfinancial.com

  My Favorite Financial Sister Duo –Mary Anne and Pamela Aden report that the stock market is still on a roll despite Ukraine, and other worrisome signs. Caution is warranted, they say, since anything is possible.  Even an unexpected crash. The sisters caution investors to watch the 15 day moving average, or 1820 on the S&P.

  We’re Not Bubblicious Quite Yet…Jeremy Grantham in a Barrons.com 3/15, interview, the founder of Boston based money manager GMO, said stocks are high but not in bubble territory.  Grantham has a history of sniffing out tops and explained that the S&P 500 had to go to 2350 before he called it a bubble. That’s 30% higher than we are now and so, Grantham concludes, we got a ways to go.

The Chinese Are ComingTwo of The World’s Largest Internet Companies Will Have Their IPO in the U.S.A.  Hint- one does what Amazon does only more and the other is the Chinese equivalent of our Twitter. 

A Delta Flight from Florida to Atlanta Lost a panel off a wing last Sunday. The plane landed safely but no news on where the panel fell, or on who or what. It’s not as if they flew over the ocean to get to Atlanta…there’s people down there.

Stocks resumed their climb Monday. Investors felt comfortable with the ‘democratic’ vote in Crimea and ignored the ‘Russia Can Nuke the U.S.’ rhetoric by certain Russian reporters. Okay, it was a relief rally and I would certainly watch the VIX, as it came down some but didn’t relax completely. Russian GDP revised downward. Gold for Monday down. You can expect more volatility as rhetoric increases. Putin isn’t going to back down anytime soon and sanctions will hurt the  E.U. and us. Tuesday, the rally continued.

Matthew Lynn @ MarketWatch.com Gave 6 Economic Consequences of a New Cold War:

1. The EU economy gets worse
2. Energy costs rise
3. The Russian Economy Declines
4. Defense Spending Increases
5. More Quantitative Easing 
6. Strategic Economies Get Support (think  Greece and Turkey)

According to Employee Benefit Research Institute One-Third of All Workers Have Less than $1,000 Saved in Their Retirement Plans and Other Savings. Only 44%, the survey found, have tried to calculate how much they need for retirement. My feeling is that the industry has made it seem so overwhelming to save that a great many workers simply have quit trying. The solution has to be made simple and fundamentally easy. It hasn’t helped that wages have fallen, while food and housing have increased and energy costs have gone through the roof this winter.

Janet Yellen, new Fed Chief, Speaks for One Hour and Markets Only Hear Three Words….’ around six months,’ when defining what she meant when tapering might end and rate hikes could begin. And that was in answer to her definition of what long-term meant when she said ‘a considerable period’ in her statement.  According to ‘experts’ did she mean six months when she said it? Probably not, since making a defined time table is not something a Fed Chief does. They like to appear more vague. It didn’t matter, once out of her mouth markets sold off big time. The Dow fell over 100 points and all indices were hit. As Thursday dawns overseas markets are down and U.S. indicates a lower open. 

SURPRISE, SURPRISE, SURPRISE! Markets bounced back higher Thursday as traders reflected on ‘exactly’ what Yellen meant. DJIA +108, gold was positive +$7.00.

29 out of 30 Top Banks Passed Stress Test. The test was what would happen in a severe recession where joblessness would be over 11%, along with a 50% drop in the stock market. How much capital would the banks retain in such a downturn. Its estimated that there would be $501 billion in losses, consisting of $316 billion in loan and lease losses plus $151 in other monies. Here are the results as published by the Federal Reserve.

Markets Down Friday – Up for The Week 1%

Gold Outperforms all Indices YTD.

Goldman Sachs reports rise in metal cannot last. 3/21

Questions call Paul @ 586 295 0430 or write him at pstanley@westminsterfinancial.com. Share this blog with someone who cares about their money.

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That Was The Week That Was-2nd Week March

For the week the Dow was off 2.4%…

Two Divergent Views on Which Way The Markets Are Headed- Michael Sincere writes for Dow Jones and predicts 3/10 the markets are at the top and what you should do, while Ben Levisohn at Barrons, 2/08, states that the Nasdaq will soon hit 5000, a number last visited in 2000.  Both agree in the ‘frothiness’ in the hot stocks of 2014. And both agree that the investors who will be the winners will be those that had entered the party early and go home early. Sincere warns against emerging markets, writing that the current advise on buying that sector is wrong. The clock is ticking, he concludes, but offers no advice on what investors are to do. That also includes Ben Levisohn’s advice. The only thing they do suggest is believe that the markets are at their top and soon to collapse. What reason do they give? Nothing of substance. CNBC reports that the Bull Market still has some sizzle. Not as much as the 30% of 2013 but unnamed experts are still expecting it to run higher. There are some pitfalls to navigate: The Fed cutting back on bond buying; increasing labor market = higher inflation; and, disruptions in the global economy. Treasuries are still expected to trade lower (3/10/2014). Gary Thayer, chief macro strategist at Well Fargo Advisors, summed it up 3/08/2014, ‘We still have the capacity to grow further if there aren’t any major disruptions in the global economy….there’s a lot of room for further gains. It may not be smooth sailing every year, but we see more gains.’

We’ve been hearing these for 3-years. It’s amazing we’ve gotten this market this high with all the negative whispers about. The  investors that won, when the markets collapsed, were those that held firm, didn’t panic, and rode out the depression.

IS YOUR PORTFOLIO ALLOCATED PROPERLY? CALL OR EMAIL ME FOR A PORTFOLIO REVIEW- www.pstanley@westminsterfinancial.com

 

Warren Buffett, a long-time proponent of buy and hold,  said it again and Jack Bogle, of Vanguard, repeated the same in answer to a bearish call by Seth Klaman in a CNBC interview 3/10.  The average investor does not know when the best time to enter the market after selling. No one calls and informs them that ‘now’ is a good time, Bogle responded. Meaning Mr. Market calls and says everything okay to move money back in.

 

 

Speculation – Markets Correct to S&P 500 1800 in the near term? Tuesday’s CNBC Squawk had Joe Quinlan and Ed Keon as guests, executives with U.S. Trust. Consensus in crystal ball markets have a good five years of growth. Certainly with corrections and more volatility but not a recession in sight. Domestic markets will lead global growth. Earnings will propel markets higher. If you believe bears there is a ceiling on earnings .

Pump & Dump? Fannie and Freddie Crashed Tuesday as Senate Banking Leaders agreed to dismantle the housing behemoths. March 5th WSJ crowed how Fannie and Freddie were all the rage with Wall Street. Shares had increased in value by 1600% from their lows before falling 27% Tuesday. Barrons.com 3/11/2014.

Squawk Wednesday…panel discussion on the possibility of lower oil prices. Suggestions to look at industries that benefit from lower prices may include: trucking, airlines and delivery services.  

Almost a 1/2 a foot of snow Wednesday and a snooze in the markets as the Naz continued its climb and most other indices off. My golf buddy brightened my day saying April 28th starts our season, and now have something to look forward to and counting the days. Snow or no snow I plan on teeing off. China’s  retail and industrial data disappointed investors 3/12, although Asian markets were up in pre-market Thursday.

 Cody Willard, in his MarketWatch column, blasted penny stock manipulation on Wall Street. He especially got after the ‘battery’ firms. They’ve had a huge run and then fell apart the other day. Cody writes he wouldn’t touch the industry for at least two years and when he does he wouldn’t be investing in the current ‘du jour’ firms investors have taken a liking to.

Do You Know What Style Drift Is? Did You Start With an Income Plan and Now Find Yourself With Something Else? Call or Write For An Analysis: pstanley@westminsterfinancial.com

Thursday Markets Dropped 231 Points DJIA on China and Ukraine Worries. Yes, dear reader, simply because most people’s attention have been on the missing Malaysian airliner doesn’t mean that investors have taken their eye off what’s happening in the Far East and eastern Europe. China’s continuing economic slowdown and the price of copper decline finally caught up to propel markets lower. Barrons.com 3/13 GE plans credit card IPO. The company announced it would be selling off its credit card unit in a initial public offering. It is the largest U.S. issuer of credit in cards of retailers and other partners, including JC Penny, Lowe’s and WalMart. Two of China’s leading internet businesses plan on a U.S. IPO, as does GoDaddy.

Putting the week behind us won’t make things better for the week ahead. What lead to the declines last week is still ahead of us for this week.Threats of sanctions will hurt the EU as well as Russia. Sanctions will not make our economic lives better and a shooting war over the Ukraine will not be something anyone wants. The Russians want their long held port and will do just about anything to hold on to it. China’s numbers were far less than expected and that’ll need to be sorted out over some time. Until we get closure on these two issues consider increased volatility and sideways action in our domestic markets.

Information compiled from sources considered reliable and included WSJ, Barrons, MarketWatch.com, CNBC, Bloomberg, and others.

Questions call Paul @ 586 295 0430 or write him at pstanley@westminsterfinancial.com. Share this blog with someone who cares about their money.

SECURITIES OFFERED THROUGH WESTMINSTER SECURITIES, INC. MEMBER FINRA/SIPC.

 

That Was The Week That Was – 1st Week March

USA CARTOON FROM COLLECTION PRINTED 3/11/2014

Monday Markets Tanked as Nothing Good Was Seen Coming From Russian ‘Troop Maneuvers in Crimea. But Tuesday morning news that the Russian President had called troops back from ‘war games’ saw markets reverse. Still it’s like waiting for the next shoe to drop because Russian troops are still hanging out in Crimea. If you’re an investor there was nothing safe during the trading day except cash as the markets fell Monday, albeit in an orderly fashion. It was very much like a mild sell-off. There was no panic, reported Barrons.com. CBS news concluded on their evening newscast that there was very little except sanctions that the U.S. and E.U. could impose on Russia that would do anything to catch the Russian’s attention. Even sanctions would impose an equal hardship on the U.S. and its Allies. Oil prices could certainly go through the roof and $4 a gallon gas would put the kibosh on our consumer spending. It was reported that  President Obama spent 90 minutes speaking with Putin Monday last. The thing is that the Russians are still in Crimea. even though they’ve called off the ‘war games’, and are likely to stay there for a very long time. By the end of last week this was old news.

Robert C. Doll, CFA. Top Themes For The Week.

1. 4th quarter GDP estimate was revised down 2.4% from 3.2%.
2. China’s competitive position is still strong but its balance sheet has weakened.
3. Tax reform legislation is not likely this year.
4. Stocks are no longer cheap, but neither are they expensive, and valuation risk is not elevated as long as the global recovery stays on track. This was written before the crisis in Crimea. 3/3/2014

Monday Markets Blew The Doors Off With a Huge Relief Rally! The DJIA Closed Up Over 200 Points! Don’t let that stop you from jumping on the equity train as Lawrence J. McMillan at MarketWatch.com wrote that  an ‘upside breakout confirmed’. He then supplied charts with arrows, red squiggles and other lines that showed what he was talking about. But we know that because we confirmed that last year! 2014 WFI Investment Strategy- Economic & Policy Drivers:

• GDP growth accelerates
• Housing and Autos remain strong
• Unemployment declines more quickly than expected
• Corporate EPS reach record levels –again
• Inflation increases but remains at 2% level
• Global economic growth recovers

CALL OR E-MAIL ME FOR YOUR ANNUAL REVIEW OF INVESTMENTS INCLUDING RISK, RETURN AND SECTOR ALLOCATION: pstanley@westminsterfinancial.com.

The Russian Problem Won’t End Here. Art Cashin warned not to get too excited about the Russian situation. It’ll probably play out further, he said on CNBC to Bob Pisanti on Tuesday 3/4/2014.

Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. wrote in his WSJ article that if Putin wanted to invade Ukraine he would not have talked to Obama for 90 minutes or given a televised interview. Jenkins went on to scold Western leaders as being a short-term minded lot. He also reminded them and us how the West has allowed the head of the Russian klepto-banquet to do whatever they wanted like seizing the oil giant Yukos on trumped up tax charges, looking the other way when he double crossed Western oil companies, on a serial basis. The West also looked the other way from murders of journalists and Russian legislators and inconvenient persons- possibly including Mr. Putin’s own mentor, the late mayor of St. Petersburg. Putin’s biggest fear Jenkins writes is of finding himself hanging by his heels from a lamppost or sitting in a dock for 20 years answering questions about the theft of food money to the murder of critic Alexander Litvenko in London. 

Wednesday Markets Were Flat- While doing my research for each day’s news there is that underlying theme that things are not just right and investors and markets are simply waiting for the next explosion from Europe, or shoe to drop. Activists in the Ukraine have split up into hundreds of 100 paramilitary volunteers, according to Bloomberg’s Will Kennedy and Balaz Penz. It wouldn’t take much for the Russian army to simply roll into downtown  Kiev.

Happy News From Jeff Kleintop in Wednesday’s Barron’s, ‘Wall Street’s Best Minds’, column. He goes on to explain how well 2013 equity returns were and  predicts that 2014 may not be as good. However, new investors and those that have participated in the past can take heart, he writes, ‘…we have the potential for a good ten years to look forward to based on predictive relationships that have withstood the tests of time.’

And, you may ask what is that predictive relationship? It’s the valuation and performance that has worked consistently in different economic, political and demographic environments of the 20th Century. The valuations of the stock market,measured by the trailing price-to-earnings ratio has been a very good indicator of long-term returns. He also writes that a investors should expect during this same period volatility, a possible recession and a bear market along the way.

By the by-Has anyone seen Jack Welch recently?

Yawn….Thursday. Mixed Market. Dow Up. Former Fed Chair Greenspan, in the WSJ, 3/7 and Oaktree’s Howard Marks agree that investors have not fully fallen in love with stocks – again. When that last person finally capitulates, so will stocks. We’re just not at that point, yet. Greenspan goes on to write in the American that by keeping liquidity in financial institutions we can prevent the kind of a meltdown we saw in 2008. He specifically wrote ‘contingent convertible debt (co-co-bonds) that would automatically become equity under pre-determined crisis conditions.

Better Than Expected Jobs Report even with the weather factor surprised markets, which ended slightly up Friday. YTD market gains up 1.61% and almost 8% from ‘market correction’ in January. Earning season is out of the way and the markets will have a rather quiet week going forward and perhaps digest ‘global’ disruptions. Morningstar wrote that this better than expected jobs number may continue to accelerate. Oil ended flat for the week after a 7-week climb.

Information gathered from multiple sources considered reliable, including but not limited to WSJ, Morningstar, MarketWatch.com., Barron's, CNBC, Bloomberg.com

Questions call Paul @ 586 295 0430 or write him at pstanley@westminsterfinancial.com. Share this blog with someone who cares about their money.

SECURITIES OFFERED THROUGH WESTMINSTER SECURITIES, INC. MEMBER FINRA/SIPC.

That Was The Week That Was-4th Week February

Should You as Investors Worry About Russia versus the Ukraine?

Reading Sunday opinions and factoids and other stuff finally came down to the reality of the U.S. markets hit records last week against a ‘backdrop of the crisis in Ukraine, which followed protests in Venezuela and Thailand, and yet another currency crisis in Argentina.’ Randall W. Forsyth in his Up and Down Wall Street Column reported that last Sunday along with reminding us that the Arab Spring, which hasn’t brought peace, prosperity or civility to the area as Syria’s conflict continues. The fact that American investors could care less what happens outside our shores is even more evident as they make the U.S. markets more attractive to investors. Proof was in the Friday markets last which saw a 200 point swing from top to bottom to close positive as news of troops massing on the Ukraine borders was made known to the outside world. More concerns should be on China, its banking and politics. Gavan Nolan, director of credit research at Markit, wrote, ‘The broad economic and financial environment today is very similar to that of the second half of the 1990s, when the equity bull market turned parabolic.’ Finally Forsyth concludes that investors shouldn’t worry until the yield on the 10-year is higher than the long bond.  That, he concludes, isn’t going to happen anytime soon. 

MARKETS DISLIKE DISRUPTION AND THE UNKNOWN. EXPECT VOLATILITY UNTIL THIS CRISIS IS RESOLVED.

 That doesn’t mean the Ukraine crisis won’t, in the short-term, be volatile. Monday, before the bell, S&P 500 futures were off 1%. The WSJ reported early that the European markets saw investors cut their exposure to equities as Russian markets saw the heaviest losses, down 10%. The ruble hit a record low against the dollar. Emerging markets were under pressure as Poland’s stock market fell 3.6%, at the open. Germany’s DAX dropped 2.5%, while the U.K.’s FTSE 100 AND France’s CAC both declined by around 1.8%. Our VIX was also up substantially in the pre-market indicating a huge move to volatility.

 

 

 

Josh Brown writes a blog entitled, ‘The Reformed Broker,’ and the following makes sense as we head into more volatile market action and the previous weeks we’ve seen investors buy stock funds at the fastest pace in three months: ‘Efficient market guys will tell you that rational investors will allocate based on where the greatest returns are and that capital flow will follow value. Over long stretches of time, we can say that money is eventually allocated efficiently –but the journey to get there is where trends and volatility come from. In other words, the efficient market isn’t a state of being-it’s a verb, a process.

‘But in the short –to intermediate –term flows don’t follow value, they follow performance. They chase it. Each week witnesses money being thrown at whatever has worked best during the prior week.’  

Last Monday Markets Rocked-DJIA closed up over 100 points. Michael Kahn’s ‘Getting Technical’ in Barrons.com 2/25 reported: Stock charts suggest rally is for real. ‘The S&P 500 poked its head back into new high ground Monday morning in a broad based advance.’

Five of nine sectors are at or near 52-week highs, suggesting that the stock market advance is broad and many different types of stocks are at the party.

Art Cashing explained Monday’s Melt-Up as being sparked by relief of last week’s options expirations and some short-sellers pulled out of bets that stocks would go down. CNBC 2-24

Hedgies looking at 2 stocks for ten to fifteen baggers and talked about such in 2/24 WSJ on what they expect and when. For speculative risk investors only- so call me.

George Soros went from Euro hater to Euro lover over a weekend last, and talked to a German newspaper. Reported in MarketWatch.com. 2-24. Earliert the billionaire/activist said that the euro was doomed because you couldn’t have a central bank in Europe without a central Treasury. He’s changed his tune and seems to like certain banks overseas but other experts such as Yves Lamoureux, president of Lamoureux & Co., a market advisory company, said he expects further de-leveraging and stock dilutions, and cautions investors to stay away. Get your list of EU banks on your watch list as bargains may not last long and you’ll want to track the sector.

 

MARKETS WERE DULL TUESDAY AND SLIGHTLY DOWN ACROSS THE BOARD.

Wednesday markets mixed. Barrons.com expects markets to grow higher March – April. Jim Strugger at MKM Partners expects the VIX to fall,  as stocks move higher. He said in the Barrons.com 2/26 issue that conditions exist to sell high priced stocks now and replace them with calls that expire in a year.

Good News on Home Supply? WSJ reported 2/27 that bank lending has turned up for land development and construction after hitting a 14 year low last year. It’s possibly a sign that the supply crunch for new homes could ease in the coming months. This may provide some sort of a lid on prices that have been rising and squeezing some buyers out of the market. Several home builders were up substantially last Wednesday. Even existing home values popped from last year as many have been getting recent assessment valuations from the city.

Best Country to Retire? The U.S.A. ranks 19th behind South Korea, U.K. and a few former communist countries. This from some survey I discovered while looking for something else. 

Good Times, good times! As the S&P hit an all time high Thursday. Blew the doors right off 1850 and closed at 1854. Then the folks at MarketWatch.com, where the above chart came from 2/28,  wrote that we should stop shooting for the moon and that S&P 500 reaching 1850 isn’t that important- that after reading lots of scare articles from other writers/bloggers/financial heads that all said it was. Then we get there and suddenly it’s not that important. It’s like making first team varsity and then someone says it’s not that important unless you play for a Big Ten school, the NFL or some other cold water splash.

What’s More Important? Wouter Sturkenboom, strategist at Russian Investment, says: Need growth and earnings to validate lofty validations. What’s going to happen on the Chinese credit front? And then you got the emerging markets headache that just won’t go away with now the Ukraine piling in to the mix. I’m not even going to get into the other doomster that is predicting a 30% drop in the markets in the second half of this year. This especially, and recently, comes from Steen Jakobsen of Saxo Bank, who sees the world a lot differently then others. But, Steen says, there is a good possibility we’ll see 1890 on the S&P before that happens.

That’s one way to take the fizz out of the bubbly…

It was a Roller-Coaster Ride Friday! If you were not paying attention the markets edged up slightly and by mid-day were triple digits to the upside- surprising viewers and then word about Russia and the Ukraine dashed cold water and markets did a and were deeply negative, making the volatility index VIX surge. But by the closing bell and before the President issued his hollow threat to the gangsters of the Evil Empire markets relaxed and ended up positive. Bloomberg 3/1 reported that it was the best period for stocks (February) since last July. Consumer confidence rose, orders for durable goods fell less than forecast in January. Equities in February seemed to be on a mission to trend higher, said Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management. The S&P 500 closed at record high. The MSCI All Country World Index of stocks was up 4.9%, including dividends, in February, its strongest advance since September. There was more good news as gold rallied (unexpectedly), coffee was up as were several commodities plus European Bonds, advancing 18%, as investors eyed potential monetary stimulus. The U.S. 10-year Treasury closed the month little changed at 2.65%.

INFORMATION GATHERED FROM WSJ, BARRONS.COM, MARKETPLACE.COM, BLOOMBERG, TIME, INC., CNBC AND OTHER SOURCES CONSIDERED RELIABLE.

Questions call Paul @ 586 295 0430 or write him at pstanley@westminsterfinancial.com. Share this blog with someone who cares about their money.

Securities offered through Westminster Securities, Inc. Member FINRA/SIPC.