Jobs Report Stronger Than Expected
The market is rallying again in early trading after a much better jobs report than the consensus was looking for. Nonfarm payrolls for August fell 54,000 but that was far less than the 120,000 that was expected. Moreover, private payrolls rose 67,000, which was considerably stronger than the 44,000 expected gain.

Category: General Market Tags:
Guesstimates on September 3, 2010
September S&P E-mini Futures: Today's range estimate is 1092-1108. The ES is headed for 1140 and higher
QQQQ: Headed for 47.50.

Category: General Market Tags:
Frugality and Accumulation
The other night, I watched a couple episodes of the A&E documentary series Hoarders. For those of you who haven’t seen it, Hoarders is a documentary series that focuses on the struggles of people who suffer from compulsive hoarding.

Category: Personal Finance Tags:
54,000 US Jobs Lost Last Month
The US Labor Report brought more discouraging employment news today as for the third month in a row, jobs continued to evaporate. In August, 54,000 jobs were lost, lifting overall unemployment to 9.6 percent from 9.5 percent.
The one bright note was the private sector created more jobs than expected during the month with 67,000 new positions filled. The net result however, was still negative adding further to worries that increasing unemployment could derail any recovery.
Source: Reuters
How Election Outcomes Could Affect AUD and JPY
If you have read the international papers, you may know that there are two political developments that is worth paying attention to.
Very Good Non-Farm Payrolls Report
I published this report on FX360.com this morning (if you haven’t read it already)
Not Horrible - Is Good. Assets Are Rotating Out of Bonds and Into Stocks.
Yesterday, the market chopped around for most of the day after a huge run-up Wednesday. That was an encouraging sign for bulls. By late afternoon, the market rallied and it closed on its highs. Earlier in the day, initial jobless claims came in slightly better-than-expected and optimism ahead of the Unemployment Report surfaced. Even though 472,000 jobless claims were filed, traders were relieved that new claims have stopped rising. In recent weeks, initial jobless claims have spiked higher and that trend has stalled.
SPX 1100-1103, exit time for me,

Category: Technical Analysis Tags:
Oil Dips Below $75 a Barrel
Oil prices were off slightly as investors digested the latest US Employment Report, falling by 35 cents at $74.67 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Thursday, oil gained $1.11 to $75.02 a barrel.
Oil prices have traded between $70 and $80 for most of the past year as the global economy recovered from last year’s recession, but developed countries struggled to regain strong growth. U.S. crude and fuel inventories have remained high, suggesting the demand for fuel remains sluggish.
Jan Brewer: rethinking English only?
The worst political debate performance ever:
Made worse after the debate:

Category: General Market Tags:
Bookkeeping: Some Sales
I said I'd be looking to add some long exposure but that does not mean I am not going to sell some as well; what I want to do is sell some of the overextended names and buy some things that are not so overbought. This way I can keep a decent long bias, but just change the mix of names & exposures.
Here are some sales (I've included Relative Strength index in the chart to show one signal of 'overbought')
I'm selling half of remaining Acme Packet (APKT) near $36 and will look to buy back on a pullback.

Category: Fundamental Analysis Tags:
Bookkeeping: Covering Symantec (SYMC) Short
This morning's gap up triggered my stop loss in Symantec (SYMC). This name actually remained quite weak considering the huge move Wednesday and follow through day yesterday but finally it triggered a 3% threshold and I was out at $14.12.
With that I am mostly out of the short book other than some piddling index exposure.
No position

Category: Fundamental Analysis Tags:
Pre-Market Open News and Links for Friday
Chart of The Day: "Except for a brief counter-trend rally in July, the stock market has struggled since peaking in late April. Investors are concerned. For some perspective, today's chart presents the Dow's average performance for each calendar month since 1950. As today's chart illustrates, it is not unusual for the stock market to underperform during the May to October time frame with a brief counter-trend rally occurring in July.

Category: General Market Tags:
Guide to attending earnings conference calls
At the end of each quarter, corporations listed on US stock exchanges file their earnings usually prior to trading opening or more often after the close. I try to listen in on these conference calls for the companies that I follow as much as possible. Here is a quick guide:
What?
Conference calls where company executives present the financial and operating activities, comment on future expectations and also answer questions from selected financial analysts

Category: Fundamental Analysis Tags:
ISM Services Far Below Consensus - Market Ignores It
It has been a very telling day as I said this morning it would be. ISM Services just came in at 51.5 versus expectation of 53 and previous month's 54.3. Again, ISM Manufacturing gets all the press as if we still live in the economy of 40 years ago, but ISM Services is the much more representative report. The S&P 500 sold off an entire 1.5 points on the knee jerk reaction. Two weeks ago ...heck earlier this week, this would of caused a 2% swoon.

Category: Fundamental Analysis Tags:
Story Stocks: Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), AIG (NYSE:AIG), Citigroup (NYSE:C), Take-Two Interactive Software (NASDAQ:TTWO), Campbell
Shares of Take-Two Interactive Software (NASDAQ:TTWO) rallied more than 14% in pre-market trading after the company reported a surprise profit for the July quarter late Thursday and boosted its forecast for the remainder of the fiscal year. The company is now predicting an annual profit, which will be the first time it has done so without a new release from its “Grand Theft Auto” franchise. In other news, Campbell Soup (NYSE:CPB) said fourth-quarter net income rose to $113 million, or 33 cents a share, from $69 million, or 20 cents a share, in the year-ago period.

Category: Fundamental Analysis Tags:
Google and Apple are Creating Nightmares for These Stocks
Executives at Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC), Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) and privately-held Cox Communications have taken their customers for granted for far too long.
Even as consumer income has barely kept up with inflation in recent years, cable bills soar ever higher. Here in upstate New York, Time Warner gets $130 from me every month so I can get high-speed Internet access, a DVR and far more channels than I ever bother to watch. I have long vowed to cut the cord, as soon as it was practical.
That day is finally here. Technologies are rolling out that will expand consumer's choices.

Category: Fundamental Analysis Tags:
Gap Up to S&P 1100 Locked and Loaded as Employment Picture Weakens Less than Expected
I won't go into too many of the particulars because this is such a convoluted report but private sector payrolls in August gained 67,000 versus expectations of around 40,000. (the broader number is skewed by losses in census workers so not worth mentioning) This is higher than ADP's -10K but of course ADP does not have the benefit of "creating" tens of thousands of birth death model jobs.

Category: Fundamental Analysis Tags:
U.K. Pound Still Has Struggles in Forex Trading
Sterling in currency trading
The U.K. pound is still struggling overall in forex trading on the currency market. Earlier today, sterling saw a sell off in currency trading.
However, for now, the U.K. pound appears to be doing better. The better than expected payrolls data out of the U.S. appears to be helping high beta currencies as risk appetite returns.
Mapping Out Our Financial Life
The other night I spent some time streamlining our banking system. I’ve more or less settled on three core online savings accounts: ING Direct, Ally Bank, and Discover Bank to go along with our local bank accounts.
Navigation
Tag Cloud
Popular Today
- 6The Current Hottest Stocks
- 6Cooking Up An Inverse Head and Shoulder Reversal
- 6Trading In Emerging/Exotic Currencies Increases
- 6Very Good Non-Farm Payrolls Report
- 6Guesstimates on September 3, 2010
- 5Think Small When Going International
- 5Mosseri and Loud: Hedge Your Bets
- 5Daily Market Commentary: Low Volume Gains
- 5Link Roundup: Transmission Trouble Edition
- 5Star Money Articles and Carnivals for the Week of Aug 30



