2011 Archive: Diamonds and Dogs
June 30, 2011
Slippery Oil, Slippery Politicians
As the days wind down to the end of QE2, or the governments’ desperate attempt to stabilize the economy by keeping rates low, a new easing tactic may have been born. Last week the US and other developed nations agreed to release 60 million barrels from the... Read More
June 20, 2011
Noted economist Lawrence Lindsey recently opined in the Weekly Standard that the Fed had painted itself into a corner. In a nutshell, Mr. Lindsay suggested that the borrowing cost for the US government is now at 2.5% as the Fed keeps interest rates negative to spur growth and save... Read More
June 8, 2011
The stock market continues to falter as we head into summer. The markets have been down for 5 consecutive weeks and the first two days of this week. The bearish drop has not been dramatic, as the drop from the highs is still about 5%. It feels... Read More
May 31, 2011
We have gotten through May without too much damage. Similar to last year, May has been a rough month for investors as stocks fell for the past four weeks and will close negative for the 31 days. For the year, stocks are still strongly in the plus column as... Read More
April 25, 2011
Ying and the Yang
As stock prices continue to rise, currently the Dow is up over 8% year to date, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq up over 6% respectively, the US dollar continues to fall. Stocks are trading higher than they were in June of 2008 while at the same... Read More
April 4, 2011
CHEATERS NEVER WIN
What a week for cheaters. We begin the week with the continuing saga and trial of billionaire hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam of Galleon Group. In this instance they were cheating for an “edge”. Later on, we were surprised to learn of... Read More
March 26, 2011
This is What a Bull Market Feels Like
The headline news could be seen as tremendously bearish. Rip Van Winkle would awaken to see the combination of a 9.0 earthquake triggering a deadly tsunami and nuclear meltdown, the credit rating of Portugal being downgraded, no-confidence in Canada, and war with... Read More
February 17, 2011
Chicken Wing Surplus
Over the recent Super Bowl weekend, over 1.5 Billion chicken wings were eaten. Good for stocks like Sanderson Farms (SAFM) but bad for your cholesterol. As the government debates spending cuts and freezes this week, keep this in mind. If there are 300 million... Read More
February 16, 2011
America is for Sale
It’s one thing to have the Belgium’s buy the king of beers, Budweiser, right from under our throats. Today, US capitalism took a hit, long expected, as the venerable New York Stock Exchange was sold to the Germans. Who would have imagined that the bastion... Read More
February 4, 2011
Stocks see their Shadow
It is undeniable, we are going to have an early spring as Phil the ground hog saw his shadow on Wednesday, which only happens 20% of the time, guaranteeing the nice weather. It is also undeniable that the market is on a tear. January was... Read More
January 30, 2011
Blame it on Cairo
Stocks gave up all the early week gains on Friday as the tensions in Egypt took center stage for traders. Earnings this month have so far been quite solid with no major surprises and stocks have been mostly steady until Friday’s drop. This week Washington... Read More
Diamonds and Dogs market commentary is a journal of daily observations on anything that happens to be of interest to our author. Obviously, our primary focus is the stock market and world economic events, but for this page we have no defined topics. We want this page to be dedicated to the interests, concerns, and possibly to the financial gain of our clients and friends. All comments contained herein are for informational purposes only, and should not be considered as a solicitation to buy or sell any security. The firm does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information or make any warranties regarding results from it's usage.