That Was The Week That Was-1st Week August

 

  Zacks reported Friday August 9th that the Breakout is on Hold. “Mr. Market,’ wrote Steve Reitmeister, Executive VP of Investment Research, ‘does not want investing to be so easy.’ There is a huge amount of Bullish confidence out there and still the markets stalled last week after reaching 1700 on the S&P 500 Index.

It was an Ugly Week! Bloomberg reported Friday last that U.S. stocks have worst week since June due to Fed concerns. Hank Smith, who oversees $7 billion as chief investment officer at Radnor, Penn based Haverford Trust Co., said in a Thursday, August 8th interview, ‘There is still plenty of skepticism and anxiety in the market.’  

 

Reuters reported Monday August 5th that the first taste of a Test-tube burger was described as, ‘Close to Meat.’  The patties were grown from cattle stem cells at a cost of $332,000. The burger was created by ‘knitting’ 20,000 strands of lab-grown protein combined with salt, breadcrumbs, red beet juice and egg powder. ‘It’s a very good start,’ remarked one of the tasters, who also wished that the test-tube burger was served with onions, ketchup and pickles.  Didn’t we already reach a culinary low with Hamburger Helper?

Makets Fell Monday August the 5th on news that the Fed was soon to taper. Where have we heard this before? Excuse du jour. Losers were utilities and industrials while consumer staples and technology gained.

Joe Terranova of CNBC said in mid-morning Monday that the markets were set to ‘rip higher’. Terranova also said he expected flows to continue from bonds to equities. Here’s some more Talking Head comments from the same program:

• Stephen Weiss of Short Hills Capital said he was taking a pause.
• Josh Brown of Fusion Analytics said he was a buyer.
• Jeremy Suefek sees bullish earnings growth.
• Stephanie Link of The Street said we’re buying stocks we like.

Robert C. Doll, CFA, Chief Equity Strategist and Senior Portfolio Manager at Nuveen Asset Management reported in his weekly newsletter:

• Real GDP for the second quarter was relatively weak.
• Jobs numbers disappointed.
• July ISM Manufacturing survey reported the biggest one month increase since 1996.
• Case-Shiller home index is up nearly 15% from its low.

Markets Tumbled Tuesday. Equities fell on Fed Fears, according to Tuesday’s WSJ. Two Federal Reserve officials indicated that the central bank could begin reducing its easy-money buying as soon as September. Again this is nothing new but somehow traders don’t want to hear this. IBM was downgraded earlier in the day and weighed heavily on the Dow. Shares fell to $190.46. Mark Newton, chief equity strategist at Greywolf Executive Partners, told the Journal, we could see a real downside acceleration, with the downgrade. He also added that most of the selling involved commodity related, materials and industrials.

  Long Term Happy Faces and Exuberance!

‘It’s the Rodney Dangerfield of bull markets,’ LPL Financial Chief Market Strategist Jeff Kleinton said Tuesday August 6th, on CNBC. Fav stocks for him have been consumer discretionary. He went on to gush that this was the most powerful bull market since WW 2.

MarketWatch.com offered up 6 Countries where Bank yields are 10% +!

• Argentina
• Serbia
• Vietnam
• Bangladesh
• Mongolia
• Ukraine (17% 1 Year CD!)

Offering A Free Dinner and Information About Money Matters is Still The Way Some People Prospect.  I cannot for the life of me understand how someone thinks they’re getting something of financial value from a free meal while listening to a sales talk. The raw land sales guys used the same gimmick to sell dirt and swamp back in the 1950s! From my side its unprofessional and demeaning. People who buy into the free and cheap end up wondering why it eventually blows up.  

Gold still under $1300- Closed Wednesday at $1290.

 HOMEBUILDERS FALLEN 25% SINCE MAY

WHILE HOME SALES HAVE GONE FROM A RECESSION ZERO TO 470,000 ANNUALLY IN THE SECOND QUARTER OF 2013 THIS IS STILL FAR UNDER 1972 NUMBERS, ACCORDING TO THE WSJ, THURSDAY, AUGUST 8TH, WHEN THE POPULATION WAS 1/2 OF WHAT IT IS NOW AND THE AVERAGE SALES PER YEAR WERE 546,000. TOUGHER LENDING RESTRICTIONS AND HIGHER INTEREST RATES MAY STILL PROPEL PEOPLE TOWARD RENTING. HOWEVER THE THOMAS REUTERS/UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SURVEY OF CONSUMERS SAID IT WAS A GOOD TIME TO BUY A HOUSE. Major Listed homebuilders are likely to get the business since many of the independent home builders were lost in the depression of 08.

Thursday Markets Up Across All Indices. after 3 down days…

Market Headwind Warning…says Morningstar.

Markets ended down Friday making it 4 our of 5.

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