Tag Archives: QQQ

Weighing The Week Ahead: A Tipping Point For Stocks?

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By Jeff Miller:

Each week I consider the upcoming calendar and the current market, predicting the main theme we should expect. This step is an important part of my trading preparation and planning. It takes more hours than you can imagine. My record is pretty good, with recent topics including Fedspeak, increased volatility, and a focus on interest rates – all very accurate.

Sometimes there is no clear theme, and I try to be honest about that. In the past I have described it as a “lull before the storm” and as “waiting for evidence.” This week I see an absence of major new data. At the same time the markets are at a crucial point for both technicians and traders. That is the main reason for the recent volatility. I see the following key questions?

  • Is this a potential tipping point for markets – both bonds and stocks?
  • What is the real


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Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

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Wall Street Breakfast Editors submit:

Top Stories
NSA tracks data from swath of tech firms. Revelations over government electronic surveillance have widened to include several of the country’s largest technology companies under a program called PRISM. A National Security Agency document reportedly shows that it has “direct access” to the servers of Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo (YHOO), Google (GOOG), Facebook (FB), Paltalk, AOL (AOL), Skype, YouTube and Apple (AAPL). While the NSA document says PRISM has the consent of these firms, those contacted denied any knowledge of the program. The question is whether the disclosures will cause a drop in user activity.

Samsung plunges on analyst pessimism. Samsung’s (SSNLF.PK) shares plummeted 6.2% in Seoul and wiped $12B off the company’s market value, although it’s still worth $188B. The plunge followed bearish analyst reports after the company met with investors to temper Galaxy S4 expectations. JP Morgan wrote that Q3 shipments will probably disappoint


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Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

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Wall Street Breakfast Editors submit:

Top Stories
NSA demands consumer records from Verizon. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has ordered Verizon (VZ) to provide the National Security Agency with records of all calls made within the U.S. or originating in the U.S. for a three-month period ending on July 19. Verizon, which has tens of millions of customers, has to hand over the numbers of the parties on a call, location data, call duration and unique identifiers. However, the contents of the conversation are not covered.

Microsoft, FBI take on massive cybercrime ring. Working in partnership with the FBI and authorities in over 80 countries, Microsoft’s (MSFT) Digital Crimes Unit has launched a successful attack on one of the world’s biggest cyber-crime rings. Microsoft forced the closure of at least 1,000 out of an estimated 1,400 malicious networks known as Citadel Botnets, which are believed to have stolen over $500M from accounts


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Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

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Wall Street Breakfast Editors submit:

Top Stories
Ballmer plans Microsoft reorganization. Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer is reportedly planning to reorganize the company as he looks to foster better co-operation between product teams. Under one possible plan, Microsoft would put more focus on devices and services, and cut the number of divisions from eight to four. The groupings would be enterprise business, hardware, applications and services, and operating-systems. The speculation follows news that CIO Tony Scott has left the company.

AIG, Prudential, GE Cap to be labeled systemically important. As expected, the Financial Stability Oversight Council has proposed to designate AIG (AIG), Prudential Financial (PRU) and GE Capital (GE) as systemically important. Prudential is evaluating whether to appeal the proposed determination, although AIG won’t. The Fed has yet to finalize its requirements for systemically important non-bank financial companies, but they’re expected to include stress tests and higher capital holdings.

Top Stock News
Nikkei,


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Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

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Wall Street Breakfast Editors submit:

Top Stories
Sunbelt apartment firms to merge in $8.6B deal. Colonial Properties Trust (CLP) and Mid America Apartment Communities (MAA) have agreed to merge in a deal that will create a Sunbelt-focused apartment REIT with a combined market cap of about $8.6B. Under the terms of the agreement, each CPT share will be converted into 0.36 of a newly issued MAA share.

Eurozone PMI improves markedly but recession still on. Eurozone manufacturing PMI rose to a 15-month high of 48.3 in May from 46.7 in April, with the downturn easing across the bloc, although price deflationary pressures remained. Of particular note was Spain, whose PMI jumped to its best level in two years with an increase to 48.1 from 44.7. However, the overall eurozone data “still suggest that GDP is likely to have fallen 0.2%” in Q2, says Markit, extending the eurozone’s recession into a seventh quarter.

Drug


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Should You Have Sold In May?

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By Cam Hui:

All it took was someone to whisper “Fed tapering” and volatility has returned with a vengeance to the markets. I explored this topic in late April (see Sell in May?) and outlined various criteria for getting bearish. For now, most of them haven’t been met, which means that I am still inclined to give the bull case the benefit of the doubt.

Surveying the Big Three global economies (U.S., Europe and China), I see signs of healing – which suggest that markets are likely to continue to grind higher, albeit in a volatile fashion. Let’s take the regions one by one.

U.S.: Muddling through
As I mentioned, I outlined a number of bearish tripwires in my previous post Sell in May?

  • Earnings getting revised downwards, or more misses in earnings reports;

  • More misses in the high frequency economic releases;

  • Major averages to decline below their 50 DMA; and


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Market Outlook – Have The Bears Finally Taken A Foothold?

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By Price Headley:

Well, the bulls may have started the month of May in charge, and even retained control for the better part of last month. There’s little doubt as to who was in charge at the end of the May, though – it was the bears, hitting the S&P 500 (SPX) (SPY) with a 1.43% selloff on Friday. The close of 1630.74 brings the index to 3.34% below the peak from May 22nd.

Of course, the question everyone has on their mind now is whether or not last week was just a stumble, or the beginning of a bigger (and overdue) corrective move. We’ll discuss the question in a moment, right after our usual look at the economy’s major data points unveiled last week.

Economic Calendar

It wasn’t an overly-eventful week last week on the economic front, but we did get a few items of interest.

For starters, consumer confidence came in


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Deflation, A Symptom Of Economic Illness

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mkaminisBy Markos Kaminis (Wall St. Greek):

Deflation is not a good thing folks, but it is readily evident these days in economic and pricing data. Despite what Fed forecasters have last indicated, it could be followed by new economic illness here at home. The latest evidence of deflation came in Friday’s published Personal Income & Outlays Report for April.

Personal outlays (a.k.a. consumer spending) declined by 0.2% in April, short of economists’ expectations for no change. The decline had a lot to do with the 0.3% drop in the PCE Price Index. In other words, prices fell, so that unit sales counted for less. This means that spending may not have declined outside of price impact, but without lower prices, perhaps less spending would have occurred. Indeed, when we remove price change, Real PCE increased by 0.1% in April.

When prices decline, that’s called deflation friends, and it does not generally happen under healthy economic


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