This market just won’t quit! The S&P500 hasn’t had a one percent correction since November 23rd and those waiting for a better entry just keep waiting and waiting and waiting. France’s CAC was the best weekly performer of the major equity markets we monitor. Our indicator species for global risk appetite, the Hang Seng, was up 2.5 percent as was the Russell 2000, followed by the Nasdaq. India’s Sensex had another rough week, now down 8 percent for the year. The Shanghai Composite, the Mexican Bolsa, and the Nikkei were all down for week. The Hang Seng is now the top performing market, year to date, followed by the CAC and the Nasdaq. The S&P500 is 2.83 percent.
The Euro rose 3.60 percent against the dollar as the ECB President put the big hurt on the shorts. The Dollar index gave up its gains from the prior week and is now flat for year. Crude oil rose 3.83 percent and the CRB foodstuffs sub-index spiked 4.84 percent. The sharp rise in food price is sparking riots across North Africa. The sharp rise in food prices will improve the U.S. terms of trade and should bolster the dollar, in our opinion.
Next week will be earnings 24/7. Given the few majors that have reported – Alcoa, Intel, and JP Morgan — the markets seems to be in a “sell the news” mode. Take a look at our analysis of how Apple reacts after earnings. We found that if the stock has large run-up before the release, the company needs to beat big for the rally to continue. Apple is up 8.04 percent for the year.
We suspect the Shanghai will break its 200-day moving average next week as Asia gets serious about inflation. If the Apple news is sold, this may be the catalyst for the overall market to correct. This was exactly the case last quarter as Apple ran up big into earnings, beat estimates, then sold off and took the S&P500 down 1.6 percent the next day. Volatility so cheap we couldn’t help but load on some out of the money SPY puts at close to protect our long positions, which are much lighter going into next week.
We’re trying to find a way to play natural gas without making our spouses widows and still don’t like commodities and emerging equities, in general, because of our “nontransparent” view of China. We’re patiently waiting for the 200-day for reentry into gold at around $1,275, but not sure it will get there.
We believe the U.S. economy is in the early innings of a very messy and painful structural transition to one based on disruptive and transformative technology. The “American Dream” of our children will not be the McMansion economy of the baby boomers.
Our sense is the bears are “beating a dead horse” and missing the metamorphosis, which is taking place before our very eyes and easy to overlook given the very noisy and ugly macro picture. Nevertheless, this is very powerful and is reflected and anticipated in the stock market rally, in our opinion. We were once blind, but now we see; as we saw the amazing growth of Apple during the depression of the past two years. They are the leaders of this “new economy.”
We are absolutely cognizant of the mine field of risks that could blow-up the transition beginning with our propensity to address structural problems with cyclical and short-term solutions. The markets are clearly signaling that gig is now up. A painful and very loud complete restructuring of the public sector is coming. We just don’t think Steve Jobs will stop innovating and engineers stop creating if Ireland and Greece restructure their debt. Stay tuned.
The Middle East’s largest online auction and buying site has decided auctions are so last decade.
From the beginning of 2011 sellers won’t get the option to sell their products in an auction. It’s fixed price, or none at all.
The decision comes as a shock to many as Souq.com, which opened its doors to the public in 2005 and has since launched in 5 countries in the region, has always been portrayed as the eBay of the Middle East. At least in terms of online auctions, not anymore.
“We (and most of our sellers) want to offer the best online shopping experience to users in the region, and this is one step along the way to support this goal.” said CEO and Founder of Souq.com Ronaldo Mouchawar in an email about the recent shift.
This change, as most in life, will have its supporters and detractors. The good thing is, it looks like a only slim minority might end up annoyed.
To illustrate the above, lets say you’re a painter and you work from home during your spare time. I’m one of those who believe art has no price, but since it’s good to have paint to create priceless masterpieces, putting the occasional price tag on your work isn’t entirely evil. The only problem with that is how do you put a price tag on art in the first place? Van Gough considered giving money for art is as important as being an artist yourself. That’s where auctions come in strong.
By putting up a painting to sell through an auction, the seller allows the highest bidder to give her as much it takes to win the auction, or otherwise ask to ‘Buy Now’ according to a price the seller sets. Will this shift be good for those who realistically don’t know how much their work is worth? I would say no.
On the flip-side regional retail stores tend to invest large amounts of money to put their products online on their own, and usually fail miserably. Many factors come into play, but the most obvious are a large user base and an easy to use website to buy from.
This encouraged Souq.com to build a platform for merchants and retail stores to offer their products on Souq through fixed prices (almost all the time), and through Souq Stores which are customizable online outlets for retailers such as UAE’s
Source:http://removeripoffreports.net/
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