THE FINAL NUMBERS

NEWS: After a mostly negative day, the major indices moved into positive territory for a brief time in the afternoon hours. When the closing bell rang the Dow was down 39 points or 0.3%. The S&P 500 was off 5 points or 0.4% and the NASDAQ held onto a small gain of 1 point. Gold and oil both took beatings today as investors continued exiting commodities.

THE BOTTOMLINE: Today the trading range remained narrow as investors await the Fed’s decision on interest rates tomorrow afternoon. The consensus is looking for a 25 basis point rate cut down to 2.0% on the Fed Funds rate. Any number other than .25% will be a major surprise to the market. The other surprise could be in the comments that are released with the rate decision. The Fed will likely comment on its strategy for future meetings and analysts will read into every wor ... Read More »

THE FINAL NUMBERS

NEWS: The indices closed mixed with the Dow closing down 24 points or 0.2%. The S&P 500 lost 2 points or 0.2%. The NASDAQ held onto a gain of 5 points or 0.2%. Crude closed at a new all-time high and gold gained $2.40 to close at $917.60/ounce.

THE BOTTOMLINE: The Dow held above the breakout level of 12,750 with a close of 12,825. What really impressed me was the pullback to 12,751 intraday before the index rallied to close 75 points off the low. If the action for the remainder of the week continues you can expect the S&P 500 to be the next index to breakout and confirm our next uptrend. BUT, if the Dow fails to hold 12,750 and the S&P cannot break above 1400 the tables will be turned in favor of the bears. If I had to make an educated guess I would go with the bulls in the next few weeks, but in reality I ... Read More »

BULLS & BEARS THIS WEEK!

Catch Matt McCall this weekend on Fox New Channel’s “Bulls & Bears”. Matt joins the regular crew to discuss the stock market and individual stocks. This week the show will air at 2pm ET due to the Pope’s visit. Make sure to set you DVR’s for one of the most watched shows on cable news.

THE FINAL NUMBERS

NEWS: More solid earnings news from the likes of Google (symbol: GOOG), Caterpillar (symbol: CAT), Schlumberger (symbol: SLB), and Citigroup (symbol: C). The Dow finished higher by 230 points or 1.8%. The S&P 500 also gained 1.8% or 25 points. The NASDAQ surged with a gain of 61 points or 2.6%.

THE BOTTOMLINE: The big news is that earnings continue to roll out bette ... Read More »

THE FINAL NUMBERS

NEWS: Market closed out the session mixed and not far from yesterday’s end of day prices. The Dow gained 1 point, the S&P 500 added less than 1 point, and the NASDAQ lost 8 points or 0.4%. Oil hit a new intraday high before pulling back to close the session down 7 cents at $114.93. Gold also gave back early gains to close down $5.40 at $942.90/ounce. Both were hurt by a rise in the US Dollar versus foreign currencies.

THE BOTTOMLINE: After a big up day it is promising to see the market hold steady and not give back any of the gains. The market internals continue to improve the longer the indices hold above the March lows and the bears are disappearing daily. The dagger to the bears will be a breakout above resistance for the major indices. The number to watch on the Dow is 12,750 and 1400 on the S&P 500. Until the ... Read More »

Oil is hitting new highs on a constant basis.  Hovering around $105 a barrel for about a week now, the large oil companies must be jumping up and down...

But is the joyful jumping justified? 

To be perfectly honest - I dont thinks so.  If you look at the balance sheets of the big time oil giants you will see that they are flooded with cash.  And we have all heard that cash is king and the more cash the better.

Well tons of cash could be good and it could be bad.  It all depends on the length of time that the cash has been on the books.  If the cash if coming in quicker than these companies can invest it, then it is a good thing.

However, if the cash has been sitting on the books for months, one has to wonder if these companies are having problems finding areas to invest in and if management really knows what to do.

They shou ... Read More »