That Was The Week That Was –4th Week July

•  Bloomberg Businessweek July 26th cover announced, ‘Do Not Buy Commodity ETFs’. A little thing called contango short circuits results and the ETF doesn’t share same investment result as the commodity it is supposed to track. (I already wrote about this earlier in the year.)  Whenever the Prez has lunch with a company CEO the stock goes up over the next 10-13 trading days. So reports the same Businessweek issue. Hey, Mister President, how about dining with a few fund managers?  
• Sweet! Monday markets moved 100 points higher after loitering in the pre-market. FedEx lead the transports while a jump in new home sales igniting the broader markets. Investors are still unconvinced despite nearly 73% of the S&P 500 reported better than analysts expectations.
• CNBC Fast Money reports FedEx reinitiates matching employee 401k contributions. Double dip doesn’t seem to be in the corporation’s crystal ball.
• Markets having a good earnings week but Treasuries still signaling ‘outlook uncertain’. A dip in the Treasury note yield indicates sluggish growth.
• Costco, Yum & Apollo Group insiders sold large blocks of their company stock. Hmmm,
• The SEC announced revisions in the 12b1 fees attached to mutual funds. The new 12b2 will be available sometime in 2011. More in a blog later.
• Oil finished July up 4.4% as it followed a stronger stock market & weaker dollar. Monday saw oil move over $80 a barrel.
• Visa disappointed and the stock tumbled along with Mastercard.
• Pimco chieftain Bill Gross loading up on long-term government bonds as he believes it’s deflation and not inflation the country will face next. Gross is rarely wrong. Government bonds and stocks paying significant dividends are part of the investment deflation hedge.
• Friday there was a slight scare but the markets corrected and finished flat as the entire week ended as one big yawn. For the month July was up over 7%.
• Finally the week ended with 106 banks closed year to date.

If you have questions call Paul @ 877 783 7080 or write him at pstanley@westminsterfinancial.com/ Share this blog with someone who cares about their money.