Succinct Summation of Week’s Events (4.8.11)
Succinct summation of week’s events:
Positives:
1) Retail sales in March were solid
2) 4 week avg in Initial Claims falls back to 390k
3) Nikkei closes at highest level since initial selloff after earthquake
4) ECB and PBOC both raise rates to fight rising commodity prices and normalize rates
5) German factory orders in Feb surprise to upside
Negatives:
1) Gasoline prices rise another .10 according to AAA to $3.74
2) Implied inflation rates in both the 5 yr and 10 yr TIPS rise to the highest in 5 years
3) ECB and PBOC both raise rates, can economic growth handle it?
4) Portugal goes hat in hand to the EU/IMF and chooses to pile more debt onto too much debt
5) US ISM services index falls 2.4 pts from Feb, Japanese supply disruptions and higher commodity prices are cited
6) II says “scary levels” as Bulls rise to 57.3 from 51.6 and Bears plummet to 15.7 from 23.1 with the spread between the two at the most since Oct ’07.
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April 8th, 2011 at 3:08 pm
Gold hits all time highs. AUD at all time highs since flotation.
Silver cracks $40.
Does this reflect doubts regarding U.S. monetary policy or the U.S. government’s ability to do anything at all……?
April 8th, 2011 at 3:29 pm
Demand for silver tops 20-year high
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=139661
April 8th, 2011 at 3:29 pm
How about “Fed to shutdown” as an additional item?
April 8th, 2011 at 3:46 pm
Japan: Economy in “severe” condition after crisis
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Japan+Economy+severe+condition+after+crisis/4582220/story.html
Tsunami debris heading for West Coast causes chaos in the Pacific
TOKYO – Floating islands almost 70 miles long of bodies and debris after the Japanese tsunami are causing chaos in Pacific shipping lanes.
Cars, tractors, boats and entire houses have been seen floating towards Canada and the U.S. after the March 11 earthquake.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Tsunami+debris+heading+West+Coast+causes+chaos+Pacific/4584062/story.html
April 8th, 2011 at 6:12 pm
House Votes to Overturn ‘Net Neutrality’ Rules
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hnzBEB5kp9wAbTL0AaGi37uyOZIw?docId=CNG.089cd5d5dc7c45baf62971692489ae8d.6b1
Symbolic nonsense … that darn “neutral net” was really awful in the Middle East these last few months, wasn’t it? Besides, the pro-science party that controls the Senate and the pro-science President will never sign, this and the GOP knows it. What’s the point?
And why don’ these asshats work to keep government up and running instead of this time-wasting, symbolic drivel? Oh that’s, it’s just “optics” for the Tea Party nuts.
Voting for those home-schooled Tea Partiers and their anti-science agenda has consequences.
April 8th, 2011 at 6:36 pm
Boehner Says Republicans Are Serious About Spending Cuts
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2011/04/08/boehner-says-republicans-are-serious-about-spending-cuts
If they’re serious about spending cuts, why aren’t they repealing their ill-designed Prescription Drug Benefit, that they passed while they had total controls of the House and Senate?
At just a few years old, it can’t possibly be something essential to government operations. Right? So why don’t they show an act of good faith if they really are “serious?”
April 8th, 2011 at 7:16 pm
RE: “6) II says “scary levels” as Bulls rise to 57.3 from 51.6 and Bears plummet to 15.7 from 23.1 with the spread between the two at the most since Oct ’07.”
Excessive sentiment readings, of various types, have been prevalent. IMHO, although I think the stock market will yet go higher, it is certainly a cautionary sign. In fact, I think prolonged excessively positive sentiment is a sign (one of many) that the stock market is an asset bubble.
For those interested, a blog post I wrote concerning other signs supporting the idea the stock market is a bubble:
http://economicgreenfield.blogspot.com/2011/03/stock-market-bubble-various-aspects.html
April 8th, 2011 at 7:41 pm
Thanks for the invitation to say ignorant thinsg here. So here I go:
Of course German factory orders are up. China is buying their expensive precision engineered products for efficient, cost effective, mass manufacturing and energy production. What about the implications of that? Will, among other results, China copy the technology after it has a sufficient number of workers and managers, trained by Germany, to handle these modern plants? This is a small sign of something big in the works.
Thanks! I love making ignorant comments. After all, it’s my right as an American.
April 8th, 2011 at 9:11 pm
was the Chart of the Day a neg or pos? I would say neg
April 8th, 2011 at 10:49 pm
In my opinion, the government shutdown is a positive. When they inevitably come to an agreement, the stock market will probably rally. Will a one or two week shut down hurt profits in any meaningful way?
April 9th, 2011 at 1:59 am
The Dawkins Delusion
“Does Richard Dawkins exist? Many people would say yes. Terry Tommyrot thinks otherwise. In a revealing interview on “The Big Questions”, Dr. Tommyrot explains how belief in Richard Dawkins is, in fact, a harmful delusion, and how it can be explained scientifically.”
Very funny parody and jab at Dawkins
http://lifeinthekeyofc.waterforlife.ws/archives/714
April 9th, 2011 at 9:22 am
Anybody know how to stop the pop up and scrolling ads that are proliferating?
Evidon.I got a pop up with a link to opt out via Evidon which was in turn linked to scores if not hundreds of other ad services, for most it was a one step process but others required two or three steps with some double negatives which are intended to have you opt in not out and some are opt out cookies so if you clear your cookies you are opting in again. There were 7 multiple step opt outs in the “As” alone
I use Chome most of the time and run ASC and AVG frequently, I check ASC frequently to see all the programs taht run at start up to sell me stuff. I recently switched to FIOS and the volume of ads and distractions seems to have ramped up.
April 9th, 2011 at 9:40 am
@rktbrkr,
firefox with noscript
April 9th, 2011 at 10:33 am
OK I’ll try it, I was FF before Chrome but they were sending me thru a redirect for my searches (forget the name) and I really didn’t like that!
April 9th, 2011 at 8:54 pm
consider the cycles:
http://www.readtheticker.com/Pages/Blog1.aspx?65tf=180_cycle-review-dont-tell-the-retail-investor-but-2011-04