RF's Financial News
RF's Financial News
This Week in Barrons – 07_12_09: Thoughts:The FED is a private institution that is above the law and accountable to no one (not even the President of the U.S. can see their books). Ron Paul recently introduced a bill where Congress could finally audit the FED. Well this has the FED freaking out. BUT surprising the bill did get by the House and now goes to the Senate. Now with Obama's popularity is falling like a stone, some senators are wondering if they should be connected so closely to Obama and the FED. What’s interesting is that the FED Vice President Donald Kohn – on Thursday – warned that if this bill goes through - the economy would suffer massively. Now you have to ask yourself – Why? Mr. Kohn goes on to say: “this bill could cast a chill on monetary policy deliberations by making officials nervous as ideas they throw around behind closed doors could become public. Any substantial erosion of the Federal Reserve's monetary independence likely would lead to higher long-term interest rates as investors begin to fear future inflation.” Now, why would Mr. Kohn fear inflation simply by us viewing their books? Well, because the FED is printing money like it’s going out of style! If we were to actually see the true amount of their printing, the true destinations of all that money, inflation would be pegged at 14%+ at least and send the world into a very dismal place. Does the FED equal Goldman Sachs? Potentially some of you have read the article in Rolling Stone magazine about Goldman Sachs (GS) and how they've raped the America's taxpayer for the last 120 years. Now, let’s look at some Goldman Alumni: Jim Cramer, Timothy Geithner, Henry Paulson, Zoellick (president of the World bank), countless White house Chief of staff's, Jon S. Corzine (who has bankrupted NJ) – many more. Now, could it be possible that they used any of their influence to obtain inside information? But what about the matter of last week of the FBI arresting Sergey Aleynikov, a former VP at Goldman Sachs. Aleynikov uploaded secret algorithms used by Goldman Sachs that run automated stock and commodities trading. The data was uploaded to a server in Europe. Shortly after the deed was done, Aleynikov resigned from his $400,000 per year job at Goldman. Now, I bet that this is much more than your garden-variety techno theft – so let’s connect a few dots. Two weeks ago I reported to you that Goldman was set to pay out the highest bonuses in their 140 year history. This at a time when the economy is in the pits, Wall Street has laid off a zillion people, the average returns are negative, and the banking industry was pleading for bail outs or the world would end. So how did they amass these bonuses? Well it's because they are such tremendous traders that there were many days they were making 100,000,000 a day. Yes you got that right, one hundred million in a day. Now this is the same outfit that didn't see any troubles in the mortgage market, CDO's, Swaps, or derivatives, yet they were making more money than any time in their history. Then Aleynikov hit the press which read: "The bank has raised the possibility that there is a danger that somebody who knew how to use this program could use it to manipulate markets in unfair ways," stated U.S. Attorney Joseph Facciponti. Well – since Goldman built it – we must assume that they have that ability – yes? At the same time the market published a report about program trading – with Goldman leading the category each week doing 400% more program trades than their next rival. The next report (the very next report) Goldman wasn’t even listed. They went from being the top dog leader to not even being listed. Then the market came out and announced they weren't even going to post the list any more, it wasn't "valuable" any longer! Finally - last week, the NYSE had to keep the market open for an extra 15 minutes after the official close to "work out" some irregularities. OK, so Goldman is making billions in the worst recession since the 30's. They top the charts for program trading. Their program is stolen. The Attorney General says it has the ability to manipulate markets. Goldman suddenly disappears from the program trading charts, and then the charts are instantly discontinued. Then the market stays open longer to fix a glitch. Now what if because of Goldman’s particular situation of being a special liquidity supplier to the NYSE, and their inclusion in the Presidents working group on financial markets, their new hot software could "sniff" out stock orders milliseconds before the order is executed, and then their black boxes fire off just ahead of it? In effect they would be able to sneak in just ahead of a legitimate order, and scoop profits and be gone all in the space of a single second. Isn’t that what Aleynikov stole – and then they had to shut down the reporting and ‘disconnect’ the software from the exchange so that Alynikov’s buddies couldn’t muscle in on the Goldman Gold-Mine! The Markets:America is bankrupt. "According to the CBO, over the next SEVENTY fiscal years, the federal government will NEVER have a surplus. Rather, the United States will continue to suffer massive, escalating, multi-hundred billion dollar losses (deficits) each and every year for the next SEVEN DECADES, which is when the budget projection stops.” So Goldman rapes and pillages us while The FED remains locked behind closed doors, and the U.S. is broke beyond repair, to the point where if taxes were 100% of personal income the books wouldn't balance. To make matters genuinely more abstract and absurd, Obama wants to push for universal healthcare, costing trillions we don't have. Yet despite all this, for the most part the American people aren't awake yet. But the point is simple – the economy will NOT get better. Sure there will be bumps and glimmers of hope, etc, but in the long run, we're on a headlong rush to the ultimate depression. As far as the stock market goes, here lies the great dichotomy. The market belongs at DOW 4000, but fights daily to move higher. You see the manipulations; you know about the PPT and Goldman, JPM suppressing silver/gold, and buying futures when it suits them. You see companies reporting that revenues are down 50%, but once again their earnings were "better than expected”. If you believe that the market’s current purpose is to punish the most people - then you’d love to see a really big fast sharp sell off that really scares people out – and that would signal your buying opportunity. The problem here is that Obama and the boys are pumping so much money into the system to give the appearance we're going to make it, each good attempt at the "big" sell off gets short circuited. That said however, I’m hearing more and more "bearish talk" on TV, and therefore we're probably getting closer to a short term bottom that reverses higher soon. We want to catch that next wave up for sure, but be patient and let it develop. Above all remain safe, use smaller positions and move "fast". We're coming into the strong part of earnings reporting season, and it will be interesting to see how it all gets "spun". This "ain't your daddy's market" any longer. TIPS:- we’re holding the GDX (a basket of gold mining stocks) with No Stop - we’re holding NGD (a gold miner) from $2.59 and will be doubling up on Monday with this - we’re holding MOO (agricultural business ETF) - we’re hold XLK (a technology (minus healthcare) ETF) - we’re holding IPI (a potash hold – again in the agricultural theme – we’re underwater here) o we’re underwater on a couple – just thinking that there’s an easier market move UP and Down at this point Remember the Blog http://rfcfinancialnews.blogspot.com/ Until next week – be safe. R.F. Culbertsonrfc@getabby.com http://rfcfinancialnews.blogspot.com/
This Week in Barrons – 07_05_09: Thoughts:Over the past 8 years of putting out these letters, we've talked about so many issues that have changed over the years that it's impossible to count them. But what is somewhat bothersome is that right now in 2009, each day is bringing us more laws, regulations, and policies that make most of the last 8 years worth of them look small in comparison. Healthcare reform, Cap and Trade, the Government's take over of the auto business, the bail outs, the stimulus packages, come to mind. But frankly it's the "little things" that continue to change on a day by day basis that often goes by without as much as a whimper that bothers me the most. There's an old question: "How do you boil a frog?" The answer is that you put the little guy in a pot and slowly bring the temperature up a little at a time. The frog doesn't jump out of the pot and "change" his environment, he just keeps adapting to the higher temps until one moment when the poor guy's "cooked". Then it's too late. This is what's happening to all of us – “a little here and a little there”. No one seems to notice, until one day, when they look around and discover that they've been cooked. As we speak, people all around are waking up to being "economically cooked". Americans are starting to ask questions: - “What do you mean the Federal Reserve isn't Federal? Isn't it a part of our Government?" No. - "What do you mean our Constitution says only the Treasury should be in charge of our money, does it really?" Yes. - "Are you telling me that a small group of PRIVATE bankers actually run our money and policy??" Yes. We celebrate "Independence Day" because incredible men took incredible chances and decided they needed to break away from the Bankers and Government of the old world. This small group – turned the tide on what was arguably the most powerful military on earth at that time. Now (after 233 years), 1 out of every 6 dollars of income in the U.S. is a Government handout. The Government owns 72% of General Motors. The Government owns banks and wants to own the Healthcare Industry. I hope that Americans will get very tired of Government running their lives, and of the words “me, me, me” and “it wasn’t my fault”, but rather adopt the stance and thinking of the original “Independence Day’ers” that fought against immeasurable odds – and won! The Market: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. bank regulators closed seven institutions on Thursday, including six banks in Illinois controlled by one family and a small bank in Dallas, bringing the total number of U.S. bank failures to 52 so far this year. But worse than failing banks, (however equally on the shoulders of the American taxpayer) comes the Cap and Trade Bill. Welcome to the new bubble – the “Green Bubble.” This bill REQUIRES the EPA to establish environmental standards for residences. To enforce this ‘code’ they are going to hire an army of people to go door to door and do energy audits. They have the right to demand you produce your energy bills. They have the right to demand access to your house and inspect your appliances, number of rooms, carpets, foundation, etc. You cannot refuse this. Then they will tell you what improvements will be made to bring you up to code. Oh, where does the money come from to make the changes to your homes and to those of commercial properties? O’bama hasn’t answered that question, it goes hand in hand with ‘fiscal responsibility’ and we’re clearly not in that chapter of the book yet! The bill instructs the EPA to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from mobile sources such as cars, trucks, buses, dirt bikes, snowmobiles, boats, planes, lawn equipment, etc. The secretary of energy is required to establish a large-scale vehicle electrification program and to provide "such sums as may be necessary" for the manufacture of plug-in electric-drive vehicles, including another $25 billion for "advanced technology vehicle" loans. The bill creates: a new United States Global Change Research Program, a National Climate Change Adaptation Program, a National Climate Service, Natural Resources Climate Change Adaptation Strategy office at the White House, and an International Climate Change Adaptation Program at the State Department. It’s estimated that our energy costs will rise between $1,200 and $2,000 dollars a year, and the costs for the set-up and infrastructure are unimaginable. The interesting issue now (as the bill goes to the Senate) is that Obama's popularity is falling like a stone, and a politician’s main job is to remain a politician (get re-elected). So if they feel that voting ‘for’ this bill would cost them their job, well it’s interesting to think about. Bottom Line: GREEN is the next bubble! Last week in the Market: We saw the TLT (which is a bond ETF (exchange traded fund)) rally from 89 to 95 as the investors that were scared to death of the market, sought the safety of bonds. The mechanics of how all this plays out is really quite interesting. We've just come through one of the most powerful bear market bounces in 70 years, taking us from 6,443 in March to 8,900 in June on the DOW. Now we've backfilled a bit. However, it’s undeniable that a large percentage of people are upset that they missed that massive 2,400-point jump. They are desperate to not miss any more upside, so they'll view pullbacks as a buying opportunity. In other words, despite the fact we “should” fall for another 1,000 points, the chances of that are pretty slim. In other words, any downdraft here should be cut shorter than it would have otherwise run. I still believe that "overall" we have a date with a higher market. The administration wants it, the Bankers want it and Wall Street wants it. But if the TLT bond fund busts up and over 95 and continues higher, it's showing me that in the near term there are enough people trying to hide that we could indeed take a hit to the downside that takes us under DOW 8K for a period of time. Then they’ll rush in to buy that "dip" and send us hurtling back to 9K+ in short order. So in the immediate term, we're in no mans land that could go either way. However, in the longer term, I think they'll manipulate, hype and stimulus us to where the market runs for a new high for the year. Use the boundaries of 8K and 8.5K on the DOW as an indicator. Right now we're smack in the middle at 8280. I wouldn’t get insanely long until 8500 is taken out, and I wouldn't get short until 8K really fails. TIPS:- we’re holding the GDX (a basket of gold mining stocks) with No Stop - we’re holding NGD (a gold miner) from $2.59 - we’re holding MOO (agricultural business ETF) – from $32- we’re hold XLK (a technology (minus healthcare) ETF) – from $17- we’re holding IPI (a potash hold – again in the agricultural theme – we’re underwater here) – from $32- we’re thinking about: ADTN – but this market is tough to commit to right now – so we’re just looking ☺ Remember the Blog http://rfcfinancialnews.blogspot.com/Until next week – be safe. R.F. Culbertsonrfc@getabby.comhttp://rfcfinancialnews.blogspot.com/
This Week in Barrons – 06_28_09: Thoughts:Does anything make sense anymore? Last week - credit card delinquencies another all time high. Now that logically isn’t good – if people are defaulting on their credit cards it must mean they are strapped for cash and desperate. You figure that stocks of "consumer discretionary" companies will take a hit because if consumers are so desperate to default on their credit cards, surely they aren't going out and buying up toys, and gadgets. So, if you shorted some discretionary stocks, you saw them soar on the day. So, what changed? Did the fundamental laws of business, supply and demand, cause and effect, simply vanish? The reason is really simple. As has happened with just about every developed government – ours has decided to spend more money than they takes in. Our government’s initial attempts were amateurish – the Savings & Loan debacle. Their strategies needed some fine-tuning – but they were well on their way. In the late 90’s the NASDAQ learned how to manipulate IPO's via laddering and "spinning". Then they learned how to manipulate media – and hype the ‘new economy’. Meanwhile Goldman made hundreds of billions presenting companies to the public that had no income, no revenue, often not much more than a business plan. And then made billions more – shorting those same companies that they had just ‘hyped’ and poor ‘Average Joe’ got crushed – losing his life savings. OK – somehow we needed to get money back into the ‘Average Joe’s’ pockets – so then came the housing bubble. Bankers would make trillions in profits by writing loans and paperwork fees. The government loved it because ‘Average Joe’ would feel rich and buy more – and would bring in more tax dollars. So everyone worked together to pull it off – Greenspan slashed rates to Emergency levels, Bankers jettisoned every known banking rule concerning risk, Corporations ramped up production ahead of the demand for everything from carpets to boats, campers, motorcycles, and cars. Even the ‘Average Joe’ got in on the scam, declaring income he didn't have on so called "liars loans". It was the perfect bubble and everyone was very happy. But, there's only so far you can take a great bubble, no matter how perfectly executed, and they had to plan for the next move. Pull the Plug on the housing bubble - toss any and all losses on the American taxpayer – and here’s the BEST: Staff at Goldman Sachs staff can look forward to the biggest bonus payouts in the firm's 140-year history after a spectacular first half of the year, sparking concern that the big investment banks which survived the credit crunch will derail financial regulation reforms. A lack of competition and a surge in revenues from trading foreign currency, bonds and fixed-income products have sent profits at Goldman Sachs soaring!In the middle of the single worst economic crisis in 80 years, Goldman's employees will get the biggest bonus payouts in their entire history. At the very moment that some 12.5 trillion dollars has been pledged to bail out banks, all being funded by the ‘Average Joe’ - Goldman is getting filthy rich. Now let me ask you: If these institutions are so amazingly smart that they can create record bonuses during the biggest meltdown of our lifetimes, don’t you think they knew that lending money to people with no way to pay it back was probably bad? Didn't it faze them that they really shouldn't have bundled toxic crap with good mortgages and sold it all over the world as AAA investments? Wasn't it a bit shady to insure all that garbage via AIG, putting them at all the risk, and THEN literally going short the very mortgages they sold to the world? Are you kidding me, it was yet another perfectly executed plan to make trillions.But what about those “Green Shoots”? On Thursday morning the initial jobless claims spiked higher along with continuing jobless claims. Ben Bernanke was getting grilled by Congress over allegations he "told' Ken Lewis of Bank of America to take their deal or he'd be ruined. In other words the FED was on trial for fraud and corruption. What did the market do – it was up 180 points. For those of you who don’t know about the PPT (Plunge Patrol Team) - Uncle Sam created a "team" just after the 1987 Black Monday crash called "the Presidents working group on Financial markets". This outfit was sold to the ‘Average Joe’ as a way to "really" look into the whole economic scene and make sure we could avoid any major and massive mistakes. Honestly – we don’t even know who’s on this panel except for: Ex Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Current Secretary Geithner, Fed chief Ben Bernanke, and the chairmen of the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (all with ties to Goldman Sachs – but that’s potentially just coincidental!) What they do is buy huge amounts of futures. Futures allow you leverage on that particular stock / sector – but what it mainly does is trigger stock buying of pre programmed baskets of stocks as the computers are trained to buy on specific rises in the futures market. So, buying tons of futures – causes the market to react higher. So, when the initial jobless claims spiked higher, continuing claims spiked higher and our Fed Head was being grilled on what amounts to fraud and you see the market soar for 180 points, do you think that was because millions of informed investors thought it was a good idea to buy stocks? Ah – but look at the futures buying at 11:41, 11:42 that day – and you’ll have your answer. Sorry, but that's the way it really works in 2009The single hottest piece of journalism sweeping the nation right now is "The Great American Bubble Machine" written by Matt Taibbi. This article is a well written piece about Goldman Sachs and how they have "caused" and profited from every bubble in the last 100 years, reaping trillions of dollars of profit at the expense of the "everyday American". Matt has done a remarkable job of cataloging exactly how Goldman has fleeced the sheep of America over the years. The Market: Now that you know how the market really works, it might be easier for you to understand how we arrive at some of our predictions. So, what happens now? There is one school of thought that says we're going to roll over and be weak all summer, and then run up into the fall. Our view is that because so many feel that way, it probably won't happen. The most unlikely scenario is that they make fools of all those who think that way and simply go higher. With so many people on the "sell in May and go away" train, watching the market move up into earnings season simply makes perfect sense. I don't think it will be smooth, and frankly if we did roll over and plunge it wouldn't surprise me. The only thing keeping it up right now is media BS about green shoots, and the "hidden hand" of the PPT. Yet with Obama's popularity decreasing daily, I'm pretty sure the word has gone out to his henchmen "keep this market up at all costs". Fraud and manipulation say "we need to make the ‘Average Joe’ believe the market is really behind us and the economy is mending." Fraud should win. With that in mind, we've been looking at some long side plays, since we sold most of our positions for profit during the past two weeks. The big sector rotation from materials into tech is still ongoing, we picked up a tech this week that's up 4% in a couple days and should go for more. But we are looking at more in the tech space, and I think you should too. TIPS:- we’re holding the GDX (a basket of gold mining stocks) with No Stop - we’re holding NGD (a gold miner) from $2.59 - we’re holding MOO (agricultural business ETF) – from $32- we’re hold XLK (a technology (minus healthcare) ETF) – from $17- we’re holding IPI (a potash hold – again in the agricultural theme – we’re underwater here) – from $32- we’re thinking about:o CSCO (Cisco) closing at 18.90, if they were to get up and over 19.20, I think they could have a buck or two in them. o VMW – needs to get over 30o STX over 10.35 would be interestingo QCOM – is looking interesting, after closing at the 46.00 level a few days in a row a while back, they are at 46.19. I wouldn't be against trying some QCOM at the 46.45 level.Remember the Blog http://rfcfinancialnews.blogspot.com/Until next week – be safe. R.F. Culbertsonrfc@getabby.comhttp://rfcfinancialnews.blogspot.com/
This Week in Barrons – 06_21_09: Thoughts:Does anything make sense anymore? Last week - credit card delinquencies another all time high. Now that logically isn’t good – if people are defaulting on their credit cards it must mean they are strapped for cash and desperate. You figure that stocks of "consumer discretionary" companies will take a hit because if consumers are so desperate to default on their credit cards, surely they aren't going out and buying up toys, and gadgets. So, if you shorted some discretionary stocks, you saw them soar on the day. So, what changed? Did the fundamental laws of business, supply and demand, cause and effect, simply vanish? The reason is really simple. As has happened with just about every developed government – ours has decided to spend more money than they takes in. Our government’s initial attempts were amateurish – the Savings & Loan debacle. Their strategies needed some fine-tuning – but they were well on their way. In the late 90’s the NASDAQ learned how to manipulate IPO's via laddering and "spinning". Then they learned how to manipulate media – and hype the ‘new economy’. Meanwhile Goldman made hundreds of billions presenting companies to the public that had no income, no revenue, often not much more than a business plan. And then made billions more – shorting those same companies that they had just ‘hyped’ and poor ‘Average Joe’ got crushed – losing his life savings. OK – somehow we needed to get money back into the ‘Average Joe’s’ pockets – so then came the housing bubble. Bankers would make trillions in profits by writing loans and paperwork fees. The government loved it because ‘Average Joe’ would feel rich and buy more – and would bring in more tax dollars. So everyone worked together to pull it off – Greenspan slashed rates to Emergency levels, Bankers jettisoned every known banking rule concerning risk, Corporations ramped up production ahead of the demand for everything from carpets to boats, campers, motorcycles, and cars. Even the ‘Average Joe’ got in on the scam, declaring income he didn't have on so called "liars loans". It was the perfect bubble and everyone was very happy. But, there's only so far you can take a great bubble, no matter how perfectly executed, and they had to plan for the next move. Pull the Plug on the housing bubble - toss any and all losses on the American taxpayer – and here’s the BEST: Staff at Goldman Sachs staff can look forward to the biggest bonus payouts in the firm's 140-year history after a spectacular first half of the year, sparking concern that the big investment banks which survived the credit crunch will derail financial regulation reforms. A lack of competition and a surge in revenues from trading foreign currency, bonds and fixed-income products have sent profits at Goldman Sachs soaring!In the middle of the single worst economic crisis in 80 years, Goldman's employees will get the biggest bonus payouts in their entire history. At the very moment that some 12.5 trillion dollars has been pledged to bail out banks, all being funded by the ‘Average Joe’ - Goldman is getting filthy rich. Now let me ask you: If these institutions are so amazingly smart that they can create record bonuses during the biggest meltdown of our lifetimes, don’t you think they knew that lending money to people with no way to pay it back was probably bad? Didn't it faze them that they really shouldn't have bundled toxic crap with good mortgages and sold it all over the world as AAA investments? Wasn't it a bit shady to insure all that garbage via AIG, putting them at all the risk, and THEN literally going short the very mortgages they sold to the world? Are you kidding me, it was yet another perfectly executed plan to make trillions.But what about those “Green Shoots”? On Thursday morning the initial jobless claims spiked higher along with continuing jobless claims. Ben Bernanke was getting grilled by Congress over allegations he "told' Ken Lewis of Bank of America to take their deal or he'd be ruined. In other words the FED was on trial for fraud and corruption. What did the market do – it was up 180 points. For those of you who don’t know about the PPT (Plunge Patrol Team) - Uncle Sam created a "team" just after the 1987 Black Monday crash called "the Presidents working group on Financial markets". This outfit was sold to the ‘Average Joe’ as a way to "really" look into the whole economic scene and make sure we could avoid any major and massive mistakes. Honestly – we don’t even know who’s on this panel except for: Ex Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Current Secretary Geithner, Fed chief Ben Bernanke, and the chairmen of the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (all with ties to Goldman Sachs – but that’s potentially just coincidental!) What they do is buy huge amounts of futures. Futures allow you leverage on that particular stock / sector – but what it mainly does is trigger stock buying of pre programmed baskets of stocks as the computers are trained to buy on specific rises in the futures market. So, buying tons of futures – causes the market to react higher. So, when the initial jobless claims spiked higher, continuing claims spiked higher and our Fed Head was being grilled on what amounts to fraud and you see the market soar for 180 points, do you think that was because millions of informed investors thought it was a good idea to buy stocks? Ah – but look at the futures buying at 11:41, 11:42 that day – and you’ll have your answer. Sorry, but that's the way it really works in 2009The single hottest piece of journalism sweeping the nation right now is "The Great American Bubble Machine" written by Matt Taibbi. This article is a well written piece about Goldman Sachs and how they have "caused" and profited from every bubble in the last 100 years, reaping trillions of dollars of profit at the expense of the "everyday American". Matt has done a remarkable job of cataloging exactly how Goldman has fleeced the sheep of America over the years. The Market: Now that you know how the market really works, it might be easier for you to understand how we arrive at some of our predictions. So, what happens now? There is one school of thought that says we're going to roll over and be weak all summer, and then run up into the fall. Our view is that because so many feel that way, it probably won't happen. The most unlikely scenario is that they make fools of all those who think that way and simply go higher. With so many people on the "sell in May and go away" train, watching the market move up into earnings season simply makes perfect sense. I don't think it will be smooth, and frankly if we did roll over and plunge it wouldn't surprise me. The only thing keeping it up right now is media BS about green shoots, and the "hidden hand" of the PPT. Yet with Obama's popularity decreasing daily, I'm pretty sure the word has gone out to his henchmen "keep this market up at all costs". Fraud and manipulation say "we need to make the ‘Average Joe’ believe the market is really behind us and the economy is mending." Fraud should win. With that in mind, we've been looking at some long side plays, since we sold most of our positions for profit during the past two weeks. The big sector rotation from materials into tech is still ongoing, we picked up a tech this week that's up 4% in a couple days and should go for more. But we are looking at more in the tech space, and I think you should too. TIPS:- we’re holding the GDX (a basket of gold mining stocks) with No Stop - we’re holding NGD (a gold miner) from $2.59 - we’re holding MOO (agricultural business ETF) – from $32- we’re hold XLK (a technology (minus healthcare) ETF) – from $17- we’re holding IPI (a potash hold – again in the agricultural theme – we’re underwater here) – from $32- we’re thinking about:o CSCO (Cisco) closing at 18.90, if they were to get up and over 19.20, I think they could have a buck or two in them. o VMW – needs to get over 30o STX over 10.35 would be interestingo QCOM – is looking interesting, after closing at the 46.00 level a few days in a row a while back, they are at 46.19. I wouldn't be against trying some QCOM at the 46.45 level.Remember the Blog http://rfcfinancialnews.blogspot.com/Until next week – be safe. R.F. Culbertsonrfc@getabby.comhttp://rfcfinancialnews.blogspot.com/
This Week in Barrons – 06_21_09: Thoughts:First – Happy Father’s Day to all the Dad’s out there!This week we got to listen to Tim Geithner tell Congress why new regulations were necessary concerning financial issues and the Federal Reserve will basically be the "Overseer" of the entire world’s financial system. Now if you really think that this has anything to do with ‘regulations’ – please don’t drink the Kool Aid – but rather has everything to do with Power! Lack of regulation didn't cause the current problems. There were more than enough regulations in place to keep the bankers from going berserk and partying like drunken sailors. But, some of the toughest regulations were thrown in the toilet by the very (bought and paid for) Congressional seat warmers that are now screaming for more regulations. Lack of regulation didn't cause the problem; however, removing and not enforcing the regulations that were on the books was a big part of it. Another big part is fraud, decent and manipulation. What about the unsustainable levels of economic activity that Alan Greenspan created? What about derivatives? Are we honestly to believe that letting loose over $600 trillion in derivatives around the world – none of it subject to anything more than a couple people sharing a handshake and a bourbon wasn't going to end badly? Yet the FED didn't stop it, they promoted it as "spreading risk" and creating a more stable financial situation. So we wish to give this same group MORE oversight and MORE power! The very FED that sits in charge of our monetary policy aided and abetted the single largest economic disaster we've seen in 75 years. The very crew that was in charge of sitting in leadership roles as they aligned the stars for a colossal economic meltdown, now say they are ready and willing to fix it all. They have the know-how. This has absolutely nothing to do with tougher regulations and getting back to basics, this is a power grab. And to appease the masses they have concocted a "sweeping plan to regulate the financial industry". To the Average Joe in the Street, that sounds pretty good, I'm sure he figures that this is what's necessary. But recently Ron Paul (that ‘other guy’ running for President of the U.S.) introduced a bill to audit the FED. It's HR1207 and now has 225 co sponsors. When the Government was created, it states that ONLY the Government would have the ability to "make money". The FED is a Private banking concern. In fact, so private we cannot audit their books, can't sit in on their meetings. Mr. Obama himself can not see their records. Yet these hand selected Genius's make our monetary policy, set our rates and basically "print money into existence" which instantly becomes a debt for you and me. So, Ron Paul says "lets take a look at the books. Let's see where their money goes. Let's see how much they really have on hand, and what their concepts are for regulating money supply. They've ruined the value of the dollar, and basically raped America for some 96 years now. It's time for the public to know who and what goes on here." This is monumental in scope and I suggest everyone call/write their representatives and senators (the Senate bill is S604) and ask how they stand on this bill – and why or why not! Many of you have written and ask whether we can sustain our current level of returns throughout the year (over 30%). Well Jessie Livermore is oft thought of as one of the greatest traders of the last generation. But trading is all about style and mental discipline. First: I'm a firm believer that you can't fight the tape. In other words, don't look for longs in a sinking market. We want to go long when the market is moving higher, and step off or go short when the overall market is moody and falling. Second: What we like to do is find a stock that has good potential (a real reason to move higher) and then align buying that stock when the overall market seems like it wants to romp higher. Third: Another thing we like to do is "selling halfs". Meaning say we purchase 2,000 shares of ABC @ $12 one day – and 2 days later to moves to $13.50 We sell ‘half’ – leaving only 1,000 shares in play and if it goes to 20 – great – we win – if it goes below our stop (which is potentially $12 or $13) – we still end with a overall profit. Fourth: We do NOT trade ‘everyday’! Finally: I’m more fond of ‘put’ options than shorting outright. The Market:Speaking of the market, what's going on in the here and now? Well, Monday and Tuesday the market sold off and Wednesday they tried for a reversal day but couldn't muster it. So, Thursday comes along and with it some economic news. 1) Continuing claims for unemployment fell by 148K, bringing the level off "record" highs to "just” 6.8 million. 2) The Philly Fed report wasn't as bad as expected. 3) The Leading indicators hit and it rose a bit – and by we were up by 80 points. Factually – the Philly FED ‘general business conditions report went from a MINUS 22.6 from a MINUS 24.4. And Factually – initial jobless claims actually ROSE on the week – while 148k came off the continuing claims report (do you think some of those 148k actually ‘ran out’ of benefits and that’s why they came ‘off’ the claims roles?). The Conference Board came out and said that ‘Seven of it’s Seven’ lagging economic indicators ALL FELL – none advanced. But again – let’s not let facts get in the way of good emotion. My feeling is that I don't think the current rally is over and that higher prices are coming later in the summer. But in the very near term, I'm concerned about a good-sized drop. I'm going to play very cautiously here this week and maybe into next. But there's a pretty good chance that not doing much in the near term will prove to be a decent idea. I could easily be proven wrong and we could continue higher, because the power of the PPT (Plunge Patrol Team) has been enormous lately. But we could roll over for a bit – and if we do – we’ll lock in some more gains and wait to buy back in. It's not time yet to short for any length of time. It's just our "guess" that they need to shake up a few more complacent people before we climb that wall of worry again. TIPS:- we’re holding the GDX (a basket of gold mining stocks) with No Stop - we’re about to go back into SLW (silver) - we’re holding NGD (a gold miner) from $2.59 - we’re holding MOO (agricultural business ETF) – from $32- we’re hold XLK (a technology (minus healthcare) ETF) – from $17- we’re holding IPI (a potash hold – again in the agricultural theme – we’re underwater here) – from $32- we’re thinking about:o SLW, NGD and GDXo All commodities GSG if over $32o AES (a utility stock) looks buyable over $10.80o CHINA was once interesting at $80 – for speculation money – it’s now at $1.66 – so CHINA >$1.80 may be interesting. Remember the Blog http://rfcfinancialnews.blogspot.com/ Until next week – be safe. R.F. Culbertsonrfc@getabby.com http://rfcfinancialnews.blogspot.com/
This Week in Barrons – 06_14_09: Thoughts:WASHINGTON (AP) - The No. 2 Republican in the House on Thursday compared President Barack Obama's plans for the auto industry to the policies of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, saying the White House has stripped credit holders of rights and given them to Democratic allies: "'Set aside the rule of law, let's strip secured creditors, bondholders, of their rights. Take them away outside of the bankruptcy process and give them to the political cronies and the auto workers' unions," Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It's almost like looking at Putin's Russia," added Canton, the GOP's House whip. "You want to reward your political friends at the expense of the certainty of law?" - According to the Center for Responsible Lending a new foreclosure starts every 13 seconds, equaling nearly 6,500 a day – the number of new foreclosure starts for the first five months of 2009 has reached one million- One in 9 Americans are using federal food stamps to help buy groceries as the country's deep recession continues- One out of every 6 dollars of American Income is some form of Government handout- And then there’s Jim Cramer – who’s explaining how all the bad news is really ‘good news in disguise.’ For example: last week we learned that for the very FIRST time, Prime Borrowers defaulted on their loans more than Subprime Borrowers. The foreclosure rate on houses that carried prime loans spiked off the charts. So in my mind, I figured that even people with good credit and a down payment are getting so squeezed (or unemployed) that they can't afford to keep their homes. But according to Jim Cramer, this is a good sign - because those people DID put down a "down payment", so the banks are eager to take those homes back because they have value. It shows that banks are becoming stronger, and well lead to more lending and a reawakening in spending. HUH?? Our elected officials, and our Central bank are doing everything in their power to get people to spend money they don't have on things they don't need. They know there's nothing that's going to stop the depression from enveloping the nation and most of the world. The best they can hope for is that it happens in slow motion, versus an all out economic crash that hits like a tsunami all at once. However, once we do hit bottom, we're going to come out of this stronger. We are in a depression. It's going to get worse, much worse. But as the retail sales number hit and it rose 0.5%. You could hear the cheers, the Kazoo's blowing on the exchange floor. The headlines went out over Reuters and Dow Jones news: “The consumer's not dead, he's getting ready to spend again!” Unfortunately, retail sales are not reported by units sold, but rather are reported by total dollars spent. So if you sold 10 widgets at $5 each one month ($50), and next month sold 5 widgets at $20 each ($100) – you would see a 100% increase in retail sales. Well the problem is that unless you live inside a refinery, gasoline has roared higher, gaining upwards of 50% in the last few months. And guess what - gasoline sales are included in the retail sales report. So it wasn't like we actually sold a lot more widgets last month, we just paid a lot more for the widgets we purchased – due to the huge increase in the cost of gasoline. It’s these absolute distortions of the truth, these mis-directions of the facts that bother me. Retail sales were not strong, they were boosted by a huge jump in gasoline prices, and despite what Cramer says, rising gasoline prices are NOT good for our economy. And then there are the ‘Bond’ sales this week. One morning Bond futures ‘soared’, and everyone asked why? CNBC came on saying that this is all “good news because foreigners were still willing to buy our treasuries.” Yet when you look over the report: To lure sovereign investors to buy our paper they had to jack interest rates up to 3.99% for the 10 year note, and 4.67% on the 30 year note. This was the biggest jump since May of 2007. Even then (if you connect the dots) it seems like our old buddies the FED came in and bought up about 18% of the auction. Think about that: the FED prints money out of thin air, then uses it to buy treasuries which is instantly a debt to the US, and requires we pay interest on it. Once again, only Jim Cramer could wrap "good news" around this. So, with interest rates cracking 4% on the ten year, inflation is roaring and rates will go higher, possibly MUCH higher. This is why there was an all out attack on Gold this week. Right now, Germany and Dubai want their gold, but delivery seems a bit ‘slow.’ In fact, physical delivery demand is soaring. This has got to come to a head at some point, but for now realize that the central banks have been waging war on gold trying to suppress it, while physical delivery demand has been soaring for many months. Huge dislocations are taking place, and pretty soon we're going to see that resolve itself. If just 30% of the longs decided that they wanted physical delivery – the price would jump to $1,250. We're on record saying gold will hit $1,500 soon. We still believe it. Lastly – since so many acres are delegated to producing an ethanol crop, the wheat, corn, bean crops were downsized. Now with the recent cooling of the heartlands, planting is behind schedule, and the yield is going to suffer. Well, for investment purposes keep an eye on agriculture where prices will rise as supply falls. The Market:Market? Well to be brutally honest, the market is really beginning to concern me. We see the plunge patrol team at work every single day saving the market from a roll over, and we have to ask, how long can they keep it up? My feeling is that I don't think the current rally is over and that higher prices are coming later in the summer. But in the very near term, I'm concerned about a good-sized drop out. I'm going to play very cautiously here this week and maybe into next. Yes we're long several stocks – and yes we’re up over 30% for the year. But there's a pretty good chance that not doing much in the near term will prove to be a decent idea. I could easily be proven wrong and we continue higher, the power of the PPT (Plunge Patrol Team) has been enormous lately. But if we do roll over for a bit, we'll lock in some more gains and wait to buy back in, because this is NOT the time to short the market for any length of time. TIPS:- we’re holding the GDX (a basket of gold mining stocks) with No Stop - we’ve held SLW (silver) since the 3’s – our Stop is set for $9.50- we’re holding NGD (a gold miner) from $2.59 - we’re holding MOO (agricultural business ETF) – from $32- we’re hold XLK (a technology (minus healthcare) ETF) – from $17- we’re holding IPI (a potash hold – again in the agricultural theme) – from $32- we’re thinking about:o DBA another agricultural name if > $28o MOO more of it if > $39o All commodities are doing well and another basket = GSG over $32 looks temptingo I see more money going into the safety of utilities and even drugs – so AES (a utility stock) looks buyable over $10.80o Finally – CHINA was once interesting at $80 – for speculation money – it’s now at $1.66 – so CHINA >$1.80 may be interesting. - Now realize if the market rolls over – these roll over with it. Remember the Blog http://rfcfinancialnews.blogspot.com/ Until next week – be safe. R.F. Culbertsonrfc@getabby.com http://rfcfinancialnews.blogspot.com/
This Week in Barrons – 06_07_09: This week’s letter will be slightly shorter – as my oldest son is graduating High School today – and I wouldn’t miss it for the world! Thoughts: "I wish to tell the U.S. government: Don't be complacent and think there isn't any alternative for China to buy your bills and bonds. The Euro is an alternative. And there are lots of raw materials we can still buy. Some people say the Euro is very weak. Okay, weak is good, we'll buy very cheap" - Yu Yongding (China's former Central Bank advisor) Look at the commodity space – coal is up – copper is up – iron ore up – lumber up – gold up – silver (really up) – oil is up – and the list continues – mostly up! China has one thing that we don’t – money. Crushing deficits are not affecting China – because they aren't running a $1.8 Trillion deficit. They aren't swimming in a national debt of $12.5 Trillion dollars. They don't have future liabilities of $99 Trillion as Richard Fisher of the Dallas FED recently just told us we have. And, as we continue to print more money – it lowers the value of the money already in circulation. With China sitting on a large pile of dollar denominated holdings (that are falling on a daily basis) – they first begin to yell at the Americans for letting things get out of control. And then, they begin to swap those depreciating dollars for "stuff" – hard stuff – stuff that you can make bridges and roads out of, burn in your power plants, and store in your vaults that won't lose value. The combination of dollar inflation from printing so many of them, and China's decision to decide to swap out of them in favor of hard goods has sent commodity prices soaring. Even the shipping industry (which had been left for dead) has put on a heck of a show recently as it takes lots of big ships to move hard good raw commodities from one area of the world to another. Can this continue – yes – just look at oil. All over the globe falling asset prices, coupled with rising unemployment and sour economic fundamentals, forced people to cut back on travel and energy use. The result is that right now we're swimming in black goo. We've got untold millions of barrels floating around the high seas with no port to dock in and unload it. Yet despite that, oil has gone from 40 to 68 dollars. Why – doesn’t supply and demand work any more? Sure it does – it just so happens that oil is priced on the world market in dollars – as the dollar falls, it simply takes more of them to buy the same amount of oil. The purpose of the stimulus and “printing money” is to devalue the dollar. That way you get to pay back your debts with devalued money. So with inflation being around for any foreseeable future - it's absolutely essential that you have the number one and number two inflation hedges, that being gold and silver. The point behind all this of course is that you should own some gold, and some silver. But while gold and silver are the king and queen of the value party (while the inflation is roaring) the other hard good commodities will stay in play. China is basically trying to get out of holding dollars, without plunging the value of them. The Market: Each and every day, anyone with a logical thinking mind wonders "When's the rug pull going to come?" Nothing about the market is ever easy, but we’ve been playing this game long enough to know how to follow the bigger trends. It's our guess that "overall" the market is destined to go higher. But along the way we should get at least one, if not two scary pull downs that keep people honest. Currently we’re up against the DOW’s 200 day moving average – a very important average – and I think we’ll remain a little flat – then run up to about 9K and then, yank the rug and send us down for several hundred points. At some point - we are going to take a smack down, and it could end up being in the 8 to 10% arena. If that indeed were to happen here in the next few weeks, it would be another buying opportunity because this market hasn't finished doing it's business – because I think the DOW 10k+ is in the cards before we roll over into another massive bear market later in the year and all through 2010. Bottom line - the "big" dips are still buyable. Last year our single biggest source of income was riding long term puts lower, some of them returning 400% and more for us. We feel another similar opportunity awaits us for next year. TIPS:Currently I like:- IPI for fertilizer and growing crops- MOO for commodities and growing crops- SLW / PAAS for silver (the metal)- NGD a gold mining company- FSYS an alternative fuel systems company - GDX the basket of gold miners- GLD the basket for gold (the metal)- XLK the basket of technology excluding health-care- Look @ TIE – Titanium Metal investment over $11 Remember the Blog http://rfcfinancialnews.blogspot.com/ Until next week – be safe. R.F. Culbertsonrfc@getabby.com http://rfcfinancialnews.blogspot.com/
