Comments on: What To Expect in Stock Markets for February

By: mike

mike — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:38:33 +0000

I agree with Miranda regarding gold… it’s become the domain of doomsday profits. Besides, if they’re right then the only things that will have tangible value are guns and ammo. ;-)

But seriously, another thing that drives me crazy is talk of a US recovery and the bull market in the stock market. I just don’t see a compelling reason to suspect a strong recovery. The US GDP numbers are largely the result of inventory scale-back and increase efficiency, and the earnings figures only look good compared to a year or two ago, not much real growth. So, I think your call on a sideways market is a good one.

By: MoneyEnergy

MoneyEnergy — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:44:48 +0000

@Daddy – yes, I wonder if that is going to be the final correction or if we’ll slide below 10,000 on the DOW again (like we did on Friday the 5th) and hang out there again for a while. All depends on where traders have their stops in place and if any news from the EU on Greece spooks anyone on Monday.

By: Daddy Paul

Daddy Paul — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 02:22:48 +0000

The market took it on the chin today closing at the lowest levels this year. I have to believe we are going to go up from here.

By: MoneyEnergy

MoneyEnergy — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:31:30 +0000

@Monevator – Interesting to compare the Kraft purchase with the weakened pound. The Canadian dollar is up somewhat against the USD but still not at parity. It’s taken me a while to be able to understand why the investment community values the loonie as it does. It has less to do with intrinsic fundamentals (eg., sound banking sys, lower debt levels) than with the sheer amount of currency in circulation. Less means less investors can buy it up, and it’s more volatile when it happens.

@Miranda yes, the bubble theorists were right:) Gold quickly fell off its $1217 highs. It’s interesting to hear discussion of peak gold – it’s considered so for different reasons than peak oil. I guess gold is tangible relative to other assets, though – I understand one can’t eat it or put it in the gas tank, but compared to paper money one sees what the attraction is. I still don’t own any gold, actually.

By: Miranda

Miranda — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:15:20 +0000

Thanks for this interesting look at what February could bring. I was especially glad to see a little less hype about gold. I live in an area where everyone talks about the “tangible” value of gold. Like everything else, perception plays a role in the value of gold, and it’s value is no more “tangible” than if we decided as a society that we thought apples were valuable…

By: Monevator

Monevator — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:21:48 +0000

I think you’ll be surprised by the bounceback in the UK economy this year, as I just wrote on my blog, although I accept this is a minority view. When you see how many estimates go into the GDP calculations – and the huge revisions upward that have happened at the tail end of previous recessions – it’s not such far-fetched view.

I’d say the big problem of investing in Europe for your Canadian readers is the strong Euro, though I’m not sure whether the strong Canadian dollar is punching at the same weight.

The UK pound is still on its back, making UK stocks a bargain for overseas buyers in my view. (Look at Kraft buying Cadbury in the past few weeks, for a sign the big beasts are coming around to the same view!)