A Review of the Impact of the Reform Bill
Much is hazy about the Dodd-Frank bill, even though it has passed. But, there is also much to like (so far…) On July 15, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act passed 60-39 in the Senate. Next week, President Obama is expected to sign it into law. The primary goal of Dodd-Frank is to protect against systemic financial risks. In brief, the bill gives federal regulators broad power to ward off possible bank collapses and intervene in financial transactions. Regulators will now be able to make too-big-to-fail determinations, set bank capital ratios, regulate lending terms, create ceilings on financial industry ...
Market Week: July 19, 2010
The Markets After inching forward most of the week, domestic equities were felled Friday by a combination of options expirations, a surprisingly negative consumer sentiment report, and lackluster economic data. As earnings season gets underway, companies are reporting weak top line growth disappointing investors’ expectations. Earnings forecasts for the remainder of the year are foggy at best adding to already elevated levels of uncertainty. The overall market remains in a downtrend and we believe persistent caution is warranted. We favor the consumer goods and technology sectors, specifically Sara Lee (SLE), Broadcom (BRCM) and Qwest (Q). In addition, precious metals (Gold and Silver) ...
Market Week: June 28, 2010
The Markets Domestic equities saw their second straight week of starting strong and then trailing downward by week's end, depressed in part by weak housing statistics. The decline left the indexes (with the exception of the small-cap Russell 2000) back in the red for the year and investors seeking reassurance from bonds, which helped push down Treasury yields. Markets remain weak as fears over a European debt crisis and weakening growth in China take center stage. Consumer confidence weakened this morning as Americans become more distressed over the outlook for jobs. We continue to favor safe havens in equities, specifically General Mills ...
Market Week: June 21, 2010
The Markets A strong start to the week enabled domestic equities to regain a foothold in positive territory for the year, though traders began to doze off by the end of the week. As anxiety about Europe eased, the Global Dow outpaced the four domestic indexes for the week. The broad equity market remains below its 50 and 100 day moving averages with uncertainty and lackluster economic news keeping a lid on prices. We remain cautious and defensive until the market demonstrates renewed strength. In the meantime, we continue to believe precious metals are attractive particularly Silver and Gold. In addition, Consumer ...
Market Week: June 7, 2010
The Markets Slip-sliding away: From the oil disaster in the Gulf to disappointing unemployment numbers to Korean tensions to Hungary's talk of sovereign default--it all combined to blow a hole out of the bottom of the stock market on Friday. After a short but hardly sweet week of vacillation, the U.S. equities indexes lost more than 3% in a single day (5% for the Russell 2000, which barely hung on to a small gain for the year). Oil prices also plummeted as a result of the economic jitters, and the euro continued its slide against the dollar. Short term we remain cautious ...
Simple Steps to Profit from the Chaos: Mortgage Refinancing
The stock market's decline has helped push down mortgage rates. Rates on fixed mortgages are under 5%. The 2010 European debt crisis has been bad for the euro and bad for stocks, but there is a positive consequence emerging here in the U.S. – conventional mortgage rates are back below 5% again. On June 3, Freddie Mac's Weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey found average rates on 30-year home loans at 4.79%. That's .3% lower than in the January 7 survey. Now let's look at the 15-year FRM. In Freddie Mac's estimate, average interest rates on those home loans decreased from 4.50% to ...
Market Commentary: June 4, 2010
The stock market experienced a substantial correction today: The S&P 500 dropped 3.44%, the Nasdaq dropped by 3.64%. Today’s declines were driven by a disappointing jobs report from the Department of Labor, which showed that there was very little non-government hiring in May. Earlier this week, several Wall Street firms’ research departments, and the President in a press conference on Wednesday, predicted that today’s jobs numbers would show significant private sector employment growth. The persistence of unemployment, lackluster economic growth and the European financial crisis have all played a major role in a nearly 13% decline in most stock indexes since they ...
Market Week: May 24, 2010
The Markets If it's not one thing it's another: Between worries about Eurozone problems and an increase in weekly initial jobless claims here, investors were not in a happy mood last week. Volatility reigned as the Dow and S&P 500 joined the Nasdaq in correction territory on Thursday, when they fell to within shouting distance of their lowest levels on May 6 before recuperating a bit on Friday. The Nasdaq is now down almost 12% from its late April high, while the Dow and S&P were down roughly 9% and 11% respectively. The small-cap Russell also took a hit, but its ...
Recent Posts
A Review of the Impact of the Reform Bill
Much is hazy about the Dodd-Frank bill, even though it has passed. But, there is also much to like (so far…) On July 15, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform...
Market Week: July 19, 2010
The Markets After inching forward most of the week, domestic equities were felled Friday by a combination of options expirations, a surprisingly negative...
Market Week: June 28, 2010
The Markets Domestic equities saw their second straight week of starting strong and then trailing downward by week’s end, depressed in part by weak...
Market Week: June 21, 2010
The Markets A strong start to the week enabled domestic equities to regain a foothold in positive territory for the year, though traders began to doze...
Media and Presentations
Insights on the Madoff Scandal
The Wall Street Journal has posted an excellent documentary on the Madoff scandal and the private clients hurt by the scamster. It provides a good insight into how Madoff exploited popular misconceptions about money management and client’s desire for elite status to operate his scheme for several decades.
