Wall Street mulls the next move!

These days the Wall Street is in an introspective phase as it mulls the 'mood' of the market. The question on every one's mind is as to whether the market has bottomed out or is there more to come. With most of the analysts predicting that the market has not yet bottomed out and that it will require a huge catalyst, a miracle for most, in order to change the mood of the market, it may be quite some time before the market recovers.

But of late, the market seems to have lost the downward momentum causing many to ponder if the bearish mood of the market has come to an end. There have been some good news on the housing market and hopes are high that the bull will soon run amok at Wall Street. But that may not happen for some time to come on account of the surge in Oil prices, increasing by as much as 30% in the last three months. The pressure of the Oil prices reflect on most of the other financial markets with investors being a bit wary. So the anticipated change in the momentum of the Wall Street may well occur after the Oil rates come down a bit. But if they do not, then with increased inflationary pressures, one can only bite ones nails and hope that OPEC sees reason soon and increases the supply to counter the demand on Oil.

Retail boosts up Wall Street!

The unexpected retail sales data has given a welcome boost to Wall Street which has managed to rally quite well until now. If the momentum continues, then this may well have a cascading effect on all the other markets, all over the world. But such boosts are only short lived and if this market is to take on this momentum then it may need more good news than the ones of the other kind!

Wall Street floating on high expectations!

After the Friday losses, a badly shaken Wall Street is keeping its hopes up in anticipation of another slash in the rates by the Fed. It seems that these days the market seems to follow a philosophy of 'one day at a time'. The recent dismal showing by the housing market is still setting waves in the industry with more and more banks introducing more and more stringent rules regarding loans. Let us just say that the lending part by the banks is going to become less and less for the near future.
With such a poor showing and a fall by more than 26% in the sales of new homes, the markets reacted with a 'knee jerk' reaction. That is only to be expected.

But would the Fed slash rates this soon and if they do so, what would be the impact on an already weak Dollar? Wouldn't there be a free fall? As it is the Dollar has lost so much of its value against a host of major currencies and today it holds supreme only over those currencies whose rates are still stringently controlled by their central banks. My two bits is that the Fed would slash the rates but it may not come as early as the wall street thinks. It would probably happen around the end of the fiscal year, thereby giving the new Financial year a boost as well. But then again, it may happen soon, either way, it is time for a martini, dry, shaken but not stirred!

The home sales data shatters the myth!

This image is old and does NOT reflect current data!

Even as Paulson urges the senate to consider the stimulus package, the myth that was being spread by all the king's men and courtiers was that 'all was fine with the American economy' and that it was business as usual. And then the idea of a tax rebate came about and it sounded some good cheer all across the U.S.A.
But sadly though, it was all a myth and the recent data regarding the housing market clearly underlines that more than ever.

According to the data, the sale of new homes fell by more than 26.4% last year and that is by a whopping 700,000 and more. It is the lowest level that the sale of new homes has reached in almost two decades. Recently the Fed slashed rates and Wall Street reacted late and started to come slowly out of the red into the green.

I am sure that most of you who are reading this would have seen the cheerful faces of many a trader on the news that day. But that was , sadly, a knee jerk reaction and momentum not withstanding, it soon ran into troubled waters on the back of 'Hedge funds affair'.
Now with the latest installment from the commerce department, one can only wonder why is it that we are all so ready to believe in the Myth?

Hedge funds all set to rock wall street!

With rumors flying thick and fast, the investors are running for cover, just as the animals that know an earthquake is about to hit, make it for the hills. The rumor mills are obviously working overtime and just when we all thought that the worst has come and gone and that it is all uphill from now on, bang! Hedge fund problems start running the markets to the ground and even lower.

The day that we let rumors of the Hedge fund affect the market is the day that we have lost all reason and are grappling with straws. One such straw may be the Microsoft profits but that seems to apply only to the Tech sector. As it is the profits and leads that the Wall street may have made are disappearing into thin air. It is high time that we all take stick of the situation and take some measures to see to it that Hedge funds and the likes of it does not affect the market in the future!

Wall street in a flutter as the Fed slashes rates!

Under normal circumstances, the news of the Fed slashing interest rates by as much as 75 basis points would have bought the bull out on a rampage in the markets. But these days it seems that the bull has gone into hiding and is just not interested in coming out.

The economy is fast heading for a tailspin, so the Fed slashed rates as a way of preventing recession from taking hold. All that the Fed have managed to do is to make the Dollar even weaker and this slashing of the rates by as much as 75 basis points has not bought any cheer to the markets. The markets see it as an indication that the recession is not all that far away and that it is time to batten down the hatches.

The Wall Street seems to have been in two minds, with momentum swinging from the red to the green and all the way back to the red. This move by the Fed many have dumped about $50 billion into the financial markets but it seems that this latest move has no takers and could well rush the Dollar into some rather stormy waters.

Wall Street sheds some 360 points!

Thursday saw the Wall Street shed some 360 points and head downtown as the manufacturing index fell. These days it seems that even the lightest jitter in the financial markets sends the investors scurrying about. As things stood, the newspapers came out the day before, talking about how the Stock markets are doing well and how there seems to be a new momentum in the market.
I had mentioned then itself that most of the news agencies had gotten it wrong and I was proved right today as the Wall street shed some 360 points and headed downtown. It is not that I wanted to be proved right but rather that all the indications are that the Wall street is in the grip of the bear and it is going to take more than the beige book to shake it off!

The Wall street mirage!

It seems that the Wall street seems to have gained as a result of the Beige book,the report by the Fed indicating that the economy may have slowed down a little but that is a natural process and that the recession has not yet come to haunt the Wall street. Most of the newspapers and the periodicals seem to go about saying that the Wall street rebounded sharply, but that was not the case.
The Wall street did rebound but not as sharply as one would have liked it to. There is some momentum in the market but that is only to be expected and it is the Fed report that is giving this market some buoyancy and not the market itself. What is more, this momentum may be nothing more of a mirage and that the dark days may come sooner than later.
I probably sound like a doomsday prophet, but the fact of the matter is that the sub prime crisis and the mortgage issues have not yet disappeared and that the unemployment rate is bound to sharply increase in the coming months. So to actually say that the Wall street is not going to be affected is kind of behaving like an Ostrich burying its head in the sand.

Stocks head downtown as Housing goes bust!

The housing market seems to be dragging down Wall street into new depths of recession as the home sales fell by as much as 2.6%. The fall in the sale of homes is not something that is totally unexpected but what is worrying many is the exposure of Countrywide financial corp as it seems that the company in question may soon have to face a fresh round of loan defaults.
The smell of recession seems to be blowing high and low in Wall street for the moment and it is going to take some really adept moves by the FED's to counter this.

With the Lehman Brothers seeing a rapid decline in the earnings power of Countrywide, that news saw the stocks decline by as much as 15%. At the rate it is going, pretty soon, Countrywide would have lost all the gains it had made in the last 3 years. And coupled with this , the news of the 'not so great' quarterly results from KB Home, has put all of Wall street on notice!

Wall street in jitters over Iran issue!

Today saw the Wall street take a loss as the jitters over the administration tough posture over the Iranian issue became all too evident. With the losses in Job being reported, the Wall street was already a bit 'shaken' but now with the Iran issue it has become all too 'Stirred' and the investors are not having much of it.
Normally a strong and resurgent Wall street would not get all that much affected by the idea of fresh tensions in the Middle East, but then again these are not normal times and they are anything but normal. With the United states already having made its feelings very clear as far as Iran is concerned, it is time for the investors to realise that reacting like this to every bit of news that comes out in the global arena is not gong to let the Wall street recover anytime soon!

Stocks go flat on the new homes sales data!

With the wall street lurching from one bad report to another,this is certainly turning out to be one bad year for investment banking. With more and more companies coming out with their damage reports regarding their exposure to the Mortgage crisis, it is no wonder that the markets have all gone flat on the commerce departments report that the new homes sales data has fallen by more than 9%.
With the recent news that the comsumer confidence shown as being up, the hard core data belies that one totally, if the consumer confidence is indeed up and totally upbeat about the state of the economy, then shouldn't the number of new homes being bought go up?

Wall street - Shaken but not stirred yet!

There did not seem to be much momentum in the markets today as the investors did not know how to react to the good news and the bad news. To say that the financial news was mixed would be an understatement of sorts, and naturally this threw the dealers and the investors into a loop. Although the markets had a nice momentum yesterday but that seems to be a flash in the pan now.
With big brokerage houses like E*TRADE being hauled over the coals for shoddy business practises, the financial market is being shaken from all sides. As to the future momentum, it all remains to be seen. There are rumors doing the rounds that the retail and the real estate markets are going to improve drastically but I would much rather take such rumors with a heavy dose of salt as these are the same people who told us that the credit crisis is nothing much to worry about!