Markets Archives - Page 5 of 6 - Crackerjack Finance

wolf

The ECRI has come out and caused a stir from continually touting their “unavoidable recession” forecast. In addition, ECRI co-founder, Lakshman Achuthan has been continually highlighting their 3/3 track record without forecasting a false positive. While this track record is impressive, Crackerjack Finance would like to highlight a term from our disclaimer; “past performance is…

faucet dripping

Positive data and developments on the real economy front are being ignored while increases in financial stress are being focused on. The pervasive gloom in the financial markets is a result of growing fears of another financial crisis. If this were to unfold, the financial crisis would surely cause a global recession but I’m remaining…

merkel and papandreou

Greece will ultimately stay on board. There I’ve said it – and it is really what I think will happen. There were a number of “unity” headlines hitting over night which have led to a continuation of the rally in global risk assets. Emerging Markets which looked sufficiently panic sold to call out yesterday are…

The Fundamental View has done a great job profiting from the bull market in gold and has also called the correction over the past month spot on. Worth reading for all gold investors. Click here to read The Fundamental View’s recent analysis of the gold market. The above link will take you right to The…

BRIC leaders

Developed market equities are attempting to stabilize based on additional talks from Eurozone leaders who are meeting with the IMF and reported to be discussing items such as expanding the size of the EFSF, creating a TARP-EU, and recapitalizing more of the European financials. Developed market investors are attempting to look ahead during scary times.…

dam

What an 18 hours, as a conflux of negatives weigh on the market. In wrenching fashion, the US markets are down 6% since yesterday at 2:00pm. Most international markets around the world are down significantly more. Many emerging markets are off over 10% over two days. The Fed implemented Operation Twist yesterday, and the size…

one euro

The European sovereign debt crisis has dominated financial news and been the primary driver of markets for the past month. I would argue that we are in an actual crisis in Europe and this is no longer about fears of a crisis. When banks can’t finance independently through the market and when large countries can’t…

merkel and sarkozy2

Yesterday, German Chancellor Merkel and French President Sarkozy proclaimed they are convinced that Greece will remain in the Eurozone. While the announcement was short on details, the spirit of it was enough to lift markets. Why news such as this can have an impact is because the markets have started to invest with “crisis” as…

roller coaster

The market is in the midst of a crisis. The US sovereign credit rating has been downgraded. Developed market economies are demonstrating an inability to create jobs. Greece is about to default on its sovereign debt which will lead to contagion through the financial system in Europe. French and other European financials will be downgraded…

George Soros recently made an excellent point in an interview with Spiegel that the origin of the euro crisis was when Angela Merkel stated bailout support would be granted from each EU member state individually, and not by the European Union. He goes on to highlight that this approach shattered a vision of an EU that…

obama

The S&P 500 futures were about unchanged heading into his speech and at last glance they were down 3 points – but this may be due to the 9/11 anniversary terror threat announcement more so than anything said in the speech. I come away moderately encouraged by Obama’s speech tonight. He stated at the outset…

eurozone map

Yesterday, I reviewed the reasons why the Eurozone as a monetary union is a flawed construct and why the implications for a breakup are disastrous. I believe this is so much the case, that the odds of a Eurozone unwind are actually quite low. The breakup option is really the self-immolation option as all parties…

macy

It was particularly impressive that sales in August were not only strong for retailers that sell lots of food and consumer products (which benefited from the buying panic pre-Irene) but that they were broadly strong. While the food and broadline retailers should have benefited from some buying “pull-forward” before the storm, other retailers such as…

greece

The Greek stock market is having a melt-up this morning, with the largest gains in 20-years. The index as a whole is up 14%, which isn’t bad for those who managed to get long Greek equities on Friday. And for more adventurous and daring sorts, the Cypriot stock market is up 18.5% this morning; Cyprus is leveraged…

Shortly after 10:00am, everything started to clear up in NYC. I went for another run, like I did yesterday right before the storm hit. It looks like there will be virtually no major damage save for areas very close to NY Harbor downtown. I would be shocked if the New York Stock Exchange doesn’t open…

Ok – I know these lyrics are for “Eileen” and not “Irene” but the names sound similar and many confuse the name of the one hit wonder from Dexy’s Midnight Runners anyhow. This morning I woke up in downtown Manhattan and things were very much normal, the calm before the storm i suppose. From an…

From 3:45pm, in today’s darkest hour (for the market) when the S&P was bang on the lows, we saw a glimmer of hope with a fast 135 point DOW rally in literally 8 minutes. Calling a spade a spade, the market was soundly clobbered today. But this is not a “financial crisis” or a market…