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Finally, we had a very decent rally, with a 41.42-point (1.98%) gain for Nasdaq. Unfortunately, a significant portion of the buying was probably short-covering by speculators who in recent trading sessions had thought that the market "looked" like it had established a "top" and was about to roll over and decline. What happens in these situations is that sharp, "true" professional speculators notice that far too many amateur or merely mediocre speculators are leaning the wrong way and simply bet against them, forcing a classic "short squeeze" cascade of buying. And once the momentum builds, additional speculators jump on that bandwagon, further accelerating the cascade.
There was probably at least a modest level of real buying that kept the rally going through the day. Otherwise, buying would have petered out and traders would have then reversed and bet on a decline.
People credited a fall in crude oil prices and positive economic reports for the rally, but I don't buy it. Sure, people chattered about that stuff, but the market had rallied significantly (half its gains for the day) before the oil inventory report even came out at 10:30 a.m. Besides, the inventory report, although decent, wasn't that good. The economic reports were actually mixed and not spectacular. The "Microsoft dividend" was also credited, but that chatter (about a one-time event) can be discounted as well.
Nasdaq is back solidly above the psychological 2,100 level, but we'll need to see some follow-through buying before taking too much comfort in that fact.
The good news is that Nasdaq has now successfully closed above all the near-term intra-day peaks. That's a very good sign. All that remains are a few peaks from January and then we will be at both a 2004 high and a high for the entire advance since October 2002.
Big caution: A one-day move, no matter how impressive, is not an indication of a longer-term trend.
Nasdaq trading volume was very heavy (2.31 billion shares), and breadth was strongly positive. This was a very solid rally. Too bad a fair amount of it was simply short covering.
The ISM Report on Business for Manufacturing for November registered a modest rise in the PMI (erasing a little more than half of the October decline), and continues to indicate moderate growth. This was a positive report. New orders grew at a faster pace and employment is growing at a faster pace. Production continues to grow, but at a modestly slower pace. Unfortunately the backlog of unfilled orders contracted, and at a modestly faster pace. The report noted that "the average PMI for January through November (60.7 percent) corresponds to a 6.5 percent increase in real gross domestic product (GDP). In addition, if the PMI for November (57.8 percent) is annualized, this corresponds to a 5.5 percent increase in GDP." That's good news.
The Personal Income and Outlays report for October registered a moderate rise (+0.6% vs. +0.2% last month) in personal income, moderate rise (+0.7% vs. +0.6% last month) in personal consumption expenditures, a moderate rise (+0.6% vs. +0.1% last month) in disposable income, a modest rise (+0.2% vs. less than +0.1% last month) in real disposable income, and a modest rise (+0.3% vs. +0.5% last month) in real personal consumption expenditures. This was a positive report.
The Construction Spending report for October registered essentially no change in the value of construction put in place, but there was a sharp rise (+1.2% vs. +0.3% last month) in public construction, while there was a modest decline (-0.3% vs. -0.1% last month) in private construction. This was a mixed, relatively neutral report. There was a 5% rise in construction spending for communications.
The CIO Magazine Tech Poll for November indicated that CIO's, on average, plan to increase spending by 8.4% (vs. 8.7% reported last month), over the next 12 months. This was a positive report. There had been a slight dip in September, but then a sharp rise in October. The report notes that "As the overall economic and tech spending forecasts brighten, a sole dark cloud looms on the horizon. CIO's, particularly those at the very largest firms, are reporting it is getting harder and harder to find and keep IT talent. This could delay the purchase and implementation of new systems and software. IT spending continues to grow at a steady pace according to our poll. ... spending growth could be surprisingly strong in 2005 as business steps up efforts to boost productivity using technology to do so. Limited new PC applications and a slowing down in the rate of processor performance improvement seem to be impacting corporate rates of hardware upgrades. Despite the aging of the Y2K upgrade park, the November poll shows that the weighted average PC upgrade schedule is 3.4 years, up from 3.0 years four years ago."
The Fed Beige Book for the period from October to November indicated that reports from the twelve Fed regional banks “generally paint a picture of continued economic growth.” This was a reasonably positive report. The report noted that "Eleven Districts reported expanding economic activity, with New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Dallas noting a pickup in the pace of expansion since their last reports. Minneapolis indicated that the expansion in that District was broad-based, and San Francisco described the region's activity as solid. The Richmond, Chicago, and Kansas City Districts saw moderate gains in economic activity while St. Louis viewed the gains there as modest. Only the Cleveland District reported little change in economic activity." My summary: We’re making good progress, but there is still a fair amount of lingering tentativeness.
The weekly Mortgage Applications report registered a sharp decline (-5.8% vs. -5.7% last week) for the week ended November 26. This was a negative report, but there does tend to be a lot of volatility and demand remains quite strong. Refinancing applications were down very sharply (-12.3% vs. -8.3% last week), and applications to purchase were down modestly (-0.6% vs. -3.5 last week).
The AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report registered a moderate rise of +0.5 cents since Monday (from 1.932 to 1.937). Retailers are probably struggling to find an optimal price level after the heavy Thanksgiving weekend. Regular unleaded gasoline is now 9.3 cents below the level of a month ago, and 11.7 cents below its May peak. Please note that gasoline prices will lag changes in crude prices, possibly by as much as several weeks.
So many commentators are chattering about the "Microsoft dividend". Sure, $32 billion is a lot of money, but it's just a one-time adjustment. A month from now it will be completely forgotten. My advice to true investors: ignore all the chatter.
Although Nasdaq has not yet set a new 2004 high, the Nasdaq-100 Index Tracking Stock (QQQQ -- yes, it's four Q's since it trades on Nasdaq now) has been setting 2004 highs for a number of recent trading sessions.
Yet another day has passed without ANY significant evidence of the much-discussed "dollar crisis" taking root. I would have expected the dollar to have fallen to 1.35 euros by now, simply as a result of normal speculation, so clearly the sky is not falling, despite the intense chatter.
[11/13/04] Crude Oil futures continue to be whipsawed by speculators. Traders and speculators are pausing to regroup and figure out if the next big move is up or down. Crude futures may once again be poised to resume their run at $60, but this could once again be a ruse to attract naive long positions that the shorts will then be poised to clobber. Crude oil will be susceptible to sharp moves in either direction, for the next couple of months, until the Fed raises interest rates enough to dampen the attraction of hedge fund speculation in commodities.
[11/13/04] The Dollar appears to be poised to continue declining, but that could also be a ruse to attract naive long positions that the shorts will then be prepared to clobber. Although there may be longer-term pressure for the dollar to cheapen, excessive volatility will remain the norm until the Fed raises interest rates enough to dampen the appeal of foreign exchange speculation. It's normal for there to be a fair amount of profit-taking as the dollar approaches a major support level such as 1.30 to the euro. The dollar will probably soon fall through the 1.30 level and then quickly run down to the 1.35 level, but is unlikely to run down as far as 1.40. On the other hand, a little bit of good economic data (or commentary by the Fed) could cause the dollar-shorts to cover their short positions and once again send the dollar bouncing towards the other edge of its trading range
[11/30/04] Gold futures continue to remain above their prior trading range, but the durability of this new move remains to be proven. Speculators have managed to push above the $450 level, but profit-taking may ensue before long.
As a result of some comments from a Fed official to the effect that the Fed could "pause" the rate-hike campaign, there was a moderate decline in the odds of Fed rate hikes from January through July.
[11/25/04] The fed funds futures market suggests a quarter-point hike (to 2.25%) at the December 14 FOMC meeting, a quarter-point hike (to 2.50%) at the February 1/2 FOMC meeting, no hike at the March 22 FOMC meeting, a quarter-point hike (to 2.75%) at the May 3 FOMC meeting, and a quarter-point hike (to 3.00%) at the June 29/30 FOMC meeting. Fed funds futures are at best accurate no more than six weeks out, so those longer-term moves are purely speculative, at best.
[11/2/04] Personally, I think that the Fed is likely to go ahead with another quarter-point hike (to 2.25%) at the December 14 FOMC meeting unless the economic data at that point is quite "soggy". There would be very little benefit for the Fed to pause at that point in time and the pause would force everybody to second guess the Fed and actually conclude that the Fed paused because they were worried that the economy was deteriorating. My current thinking is that the Fed will maintain quarter-point hikes at each FOMC meeting until they get somewhere in the 2.50% to 3.00% range and then pause until unemployment starts to fall off more significantly, and then resume hikes until a neutral rate is reached.
[11/25/04] The Fed is not likely to quickly raise interest rates all the way to a so-called ‘neutral’ stance (somewhere in the 3-4.5% range) over the coming year, primarily because the recovery is not yet complete (e.g., look at the lingering level of unemployment and the state of the airline, telecom, and manufacturing sectors). Rather, the Fed will simply remove the ‘excess’ stimulus (call it the ‘deflation hedge’) so that only a moderate level of ‘accommodation’ remains. In other words, despite the relatively rapid pace of expected hikes over the coming year, the initial ‘campaign’ will likely end at a target fed funds rate of 2.50% to 3.25% with the remaining rise to the fully ‘neutral’ stance coming only very gradually over the next two to three years as the remaining weakness in the economy gradually dissipates. Also, expect interest rates to be below the full ‘neutral’ level until the lingering geopolitical uncertainty related to the war on terrorism and the situation in Iraq and anxiety over the potential for oil supply disruptions dissipates. And finally, since high energy prices act as a ‘tax’, the Fed may feel pressured to keep interest rates a little lower than otherwise expected to compensate for the drag of that tax if it persists for more than a few months.
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[10/21/04] I attended the VentureOne Exchange venture capital conference up in Boston on Tuesday, October 19 and Wednesday, October 20. Click here for my write-up of last year's conference.
[10/21/04] I'll have a write-up on the conference soon, but the simple summary is that venture investment is making a painfully slow comeback. It is coming back, but at a very slow pace. Even worse, companies are raising less money and hence hiring less (or hiring offshore) and spending less. The net effect is that current venture investment is only a very modest boost for the economy, and a much smaller boost than it could be.
[10/11/04] For some background information on venture capital, click here.
[11/3/04] My next dollar-cost averaged investment will occur on Tuesday, December 7.
[6/29/04] As an experiment, I have set up a new account with ShareBuilder and will be making a modest dollar-cost averaging investment each month. At a cost of $4 per month I will be buying a fixed dollar amount of the S&P 500 Tech Sector ‘Spider’ (XLK). The money for the investment will be automatically taken from my bank checking account. My purchases will be made on the first Tuesday of each month, beginning on July 6, 2004.
A moderate amount of profit-taking would not be a big surprise due to the out-size gain on Wednesday, but we could also see another spike if speculators jump the gun again and place too many bets on a pullback and end up causing a continuation of the short squeeze.
Optimism in anticipation of Friday's employment report could also fuel another spike, but we could just as well see a fair amount of profit-taking as well.
Although the market has been rather erratic on a near-term technical basis due to being overbought (on a technical basis), the unresolved question that will really determine the market trend is how money flows for mutual funds will trend in the coming months. Recently, money flows have been erratic, but basically maintaining an upward trend.
[11/30/04] Although Nasdaq is still looking overbought on a short-term technical basis, and hence susceptible to a decline, short-sellers continue to make bad premature bets on a decline and are then forced to cover.
[11/30/04] There are a fair number of economic reports due out this week, including a revision to Q3 GDP and the November employment report, but knee-jerk reactions to these reports could reverse as quickly as they appear and are unlikely to persist more than a couple of days.
[11/26/04] The market could react to all the mindless chatter about an imagined "dollar crisis", or it may dip and then bounce, or maybe the market will ignore the mindless chatter of forex speculators and continue the recent advance. In any case, true investors should ignore all the chatter about the so-called "dollar crisis".
[11/26/04] Rumors about preliminary post-Thanksgiving retail sales could also filter into the market.
[11/8/04] The market is very clearly heavily overbought on a near-term technical basis, which means that it is quite susceptible to significant profit-taking. The good news is that there are plenty of people who seem committed to the thesis that November through February is the most profitable period to own stocks. The other good news is that any significant correction at this stage would simply be treated as a buying opportunity and lead to further gains in the months ahead.
[12/2/04] Nasdaq managed to close above both the 2,112.18 and 2,117.89 intra-day peaks, so we're making some decent progress.
[12/2/04] Nasdaq set a new near-term intra-day peak of 2,138.32 on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 and closed only 9 cents below that level. This is a positive sign and blows away all the recent yellow flags.
[12/2/04] Nasdaq set a new near-term closing peak of 2,138.23 on Wednesday, December 1, 2004. This is a positive sign.
[12/2/04] Nasdaq has successfully navigated more than two-thirds of the way through the veritable minefield that runs from the psychological 2,100 level all the way up to the January 26, 2004 intra-day and closing peak of 2,153.83. This is great progress, but Nasdaq really does need to clear that entire range (on a closing basis) to definitively prove that it has completely broken its 2004 trend of "lower highs", and that needs to happen within the next few weeks or else speculators will lose patience and reverse and attempt to push the market down.
[12/2/04] Short-term (1-day): Strongly bullish.
[12/2//04] Short-term (2-day): Strongly bullish.
[12/2/04] Short-term (5-day): Moderately strongly bullish.
[12/2/04] Short-term (10-day): Somewhat volatile, but moderately bullish.
[11/24/04] Short-term (1-month): Somewhat volatile, but moderately bullish.
[11/6/04] Short-term (2-months): Somewhat volatile, but moderately strongly bullish.
[11/24/04] Medium-term (3-months): Somewhat volatile, but moderately strongly bullish.
[11/6/04] Medium-term (6-months): Very Volatile, but modestly bullish.
[11/24/04] Medium-term (9-months): Very Volatile, but very modestly bullish.
[11/19/04] Year-to-Date: Very Volatile, but modestly bullish.
[11/6/04] Longer-term (1-year): Very Volatile, but modestly bullish.
[10/15/04] Longer-term (2-years): Moderately strongly bullish.
[10/15/04] Longer-term (3-years): Very volatile, but modestly bullish.
[10/15/04] Longer-term (4-years): Very volatile, but moderately bearish.
[10/15/04] Longer-term (5-years): Very volatile, but modestly bearish.
[10/15/04] Longer-term (6-years): Very volatile, trading range.
[10/15/04] Longer-term (7-years): Very volatile, but slightly bullish.
[10/15/04] Longer-term (8-years): Very volatile, but modestly bullish.
[10/15/04] Longer-term (9-years): Very volatile, but modestly bullish.
[10/15/04] Longer-term (10-years): Very volatile, but modestly bullish.
[10/15/04] Overall outlook: confused and volatile, but with a modest upwards trend. The economy is neither "booming" nor "busting", but making modestly positive progress at restructuring problematic industries.
[8/23/04] Clearly the elevated price of crude oil has to have some negative impact on the economy, but the big question is how much impact. Overall, the economy is less sensitive to the price of oil and “oil shocks” than in past decades, but some sectors (such as airlines and chemical companies) are significantly more sensitive, whereas most sectors are only modestly sensitive. The current price escalation in fact has not been caused by any supply shortage or any excess demand by end users, but is merely due to a dramatic level of speculation in crude futures. The bad news is that we don’t know how much longer that speculative ‘bubble’ will continue to grow. The good news is that oil at these prices is not as attractive an ‘investment’, so the speculation will be increasingly susceptible to profit-taking and renewed interest in short-selling. Besides, if oil really were expected to rise dramatically from here, we’d see it in the price of futures in coming years, and we don’t. In fact, futures ‘predict’ that the price of crude will decline in coming years. In any case, elevated oil prices will be a moderate drag on the economy, but not so much as to spur accelerating inflation or to trigger a recession. Maybe it will trim a quarter to half-point off GDP, but that’s about it. Besides, people and businesses will adjust their lives and operations to further reduce their dependence on expensive oil. And finally, high-efficiency hybrid-electric vehicles are beginning to debut and anxiety over the price of gasoline will simply accelerate the development and introduction of such innovative products, which will dramatically moderate the demand for oil a few years from now.
[8/7/04] The latest economic data continues to support the thesis that the U.S. economy is solidly into a gradual, zigzag, underappreciated, stealth recovery. It will be another two years before the economy is fully back on track. Unemployment will decline only gradually. The bankruptcy rate will decline off recent highs, but remain at a fairly high level for another two years. There are still quite a number of businesses (and entire sectors) that will need to be restructured over the next two years as well.
[7/3/04] A major uncertainty is the state of the economy in Q4 and the first half of 2005. We currently have enough momentum to do well in the current quarter (Q3), but nobody really has even a halfway decent handle on how that momentum will play out towards the end of the year and into next year. We have the looming specter of rising interest rates, but the Fed would certainly back off if the economy started to sputter. The bottom line is that the economy is likely to be doing “okay”, but probably not a lot better than “okay”, in Q4 and early 2005.
[7/6/04] Some people are protesting that company profits could suffer as companies run out of costs that they can cut. That’s complete nonsense. First, companies will never run out of costs to cut. But more importantly, one of the factors that has been holding back growth of business revenues (and profits) over the past three years is the fact that companies have been dramatically cutting costs and the cutting of a cost for one company is the cutting of the revenue of one or more other companies. That cost-cutting binge was exerting a distinct headwind on businesses, but that headwind will in fact fall off as the cost-cutting moderates. And as revenues begin to grow more strongly, companies will begin to reverse the process and both spend more and hire more workers. Continued technological advances will spur further cost-cutting, but on a more moderate basis.
[12/29/03] The two key factors driving the pace of the recovery will continue to be the ongoing process of shutting down or restructuring ‘problem’ businesses and the pace of the formation of new businesses which will create new jobs.
[12/29/03] A big wildcard in 2004 will be the possibility of a new wave of corporate cost-cutting as companies burn through the easy part of revenue growth and are forced to revert to cost-cutting to keep up earnings growth. The problem is that one company’s cost is another company’s revenue or an employee’s income, so more cost-cutting can boost earnings in the near-term but risk putting intense downwards pressure on business spending and employment. This cost-cutting process will moderate once companies begin to build up a deep enough backlog of unfilled orders so that they can keep revenue growth at a consistently strong pace to keep earnings growth up. The economy will survive this process, but the zigging and zagging of the pace of the recovery will continue.
[9/1/03] Our Tech Stock ‘Safe’ Signal is still stuck at 0.00 (no safety) since none of the big tech companies are even hinting that they are seeing any significant improvement in demand. There does seem to be some sense of stabilization and a modest hint of improvement, but no clear and decisive indication of a dependable ramp up in revenues and earnings.
[5/25/02] DISCLAIMER: I cannot and do not offer any recommendations of stocks to buy or sell. I may on occasion discuss companies that I am considering or myself have bought or sold, but the reader must do their own research before making their own purchase or sale decision. It is never a good idea to buy a stock just because someone else tells you to or even merely mentions a company in a favorable light.
Jack Krupansky -- The Unrepentant Optimist (Click here for Jack's Bio)
Updated: December 02, 2004 12:50:31 AM -0500
Copyright © 2004 John W. Krupansky d/b/a Base Technology