Tuesday, October 21, 2008

AAPL Tries to Inspire the Market

Top Line: After hours AAPL announced their earnings and gave the market a weak forecast. That didn't stop the market from enjoying the news and the NASDAQ 100 futures are up this evening. This sets up another up morning on Wednesday.

[As we end our post, the futures have now dropped as the Asian markets have suddenly weakened with Japan and Hong Kong both down. Japan is down nearly 6%. And, European markets are called opening lower as well, as the recession word is finally slipping out of more mouths. We'll have to see what happens in the real trading session.]

The stock market's volatility continues at a high level but does seem to be coming down somewhat. Today's Dow moves were in the 250 range, down 250 points to start and then up 250 points and then down 250 going into the close.

There are several crosscurrents going on in the markets today and the Update has a weak post this evening. Maybe we see something important in the next few days.

The Fed created some new lending facilities as they seem to have a never ending supply of money to accomplish these endeavors.

Anyway, the NASDAQ 100 was extremely weak on Tuesday with the components of the Wednesday's FSI . The last hour fell apart and it could easily be that the larger mutual fund companies trying to add to their liquidity because of or in case of fund redemptions and to beef up their cash fund.

Just a quick review: The VXO was up slightly today and the TLT was up. These are not the directions that are supportive to stocks. We continue to think that the market will rally into the Fed's meeting next week which leads to month end strength and the election in two weeks.

Sign off tonight but we should have some additional info on Wednesday. What are your thoughts???

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Politically, the government seems to be in a panic state of mind. They are jumping all over the place throwing billions of dollars at every problem that pops up. I wish American voters would take back control of the government by voting against every incumbent up for election. Republicans, Democrats, and Independents are all responsible for the mess we are in today. How powerful a message would turnover send to the newly elected?

Economically, I believe time is the only salve to sooth the problems that face our economy. Too many expect instant fixes. There are none. Instant photo's, 1 hour dry cleaning, fast food, and instant credit approvals have conditioned all of us to expect all remedies to all problems to be instananeous. We are setting ourselves up for disappointment. I agree with Anne Swartz in that the real problem is confidence. The only way to restore it its to let the weakest businesses fail. Those strong enough to survive or to replace the bankrupt companies will have instant confidence of consumers. Likewise, assets, equity, and liabilities going to zero effectively puts the correct price on all the toxicity in our financial system. Zero.

Back to political...Take a close look at what our esteeemed representatives are doing. Preservation and CYA...blatant CYA.

How about Al Franken for president?

Erick