Money Talk

This is what many S&P analysts have been calling for. Nothing has fructified yet as a true rally. But it is important to note that the Dow and S&P are at its -best showing since the 2008 sell-off. I like the gains because I feel they are going to stick. Growth is gradual and usually gradual growth is stable growth. Rally would not hurt and seems imminent in the year end as there are reports that consumers opened their wallets better than all the past 2 years. Signs of confidence. Many fund managers are promoting this momentum to get our psyche off the negatives to the positives. There are other developments I am beginning to like. Back door maneuvering at the Financial Heads level of governments is bound to kick start the American economy and that I do believe is going to happen and will be the new way to kick start a stalled economy. It will be interesting to watch when history is written about how we got out of this economic failure in this country's history books.

I read Gold is being sucked up not by the wealthy countries or its people, but by the rapidly growing middle-class in India and China who clamour for the yellow metal as a ticket to the upper echelons of their respetive societies. I am sure there are other currents in play for its rise. But if you see the prices for the last few weeks, it has actually stayed flat or fallen a bit. While national debts of so many developed countries are at their all-time high, you can only expect that investors will drive the prices of gold higher as a hedge against currency weaknesses. Strangely enough, this is not so. Some wall street commentators have suggested there is a possibility that Gold could be peaking and they have linked it to the recent Tax cuts (read: Stimulus) in US (still looks iffy) which may drive down unemployment to below 8.5%. I don't know about you, I am buying this argument and I really hope to see Gold prices find its way down by 2011 end to less than $1200 per ounce, less

I found this in Street.com written by Nancy Zambell of Investor Place a couple of days ago..... Consider the ticker symbol HOOK, a brewer in west coast, today it pulled back by 15% from its all time high but a great growth story at below $10 a share. Another pick is BTN, the name in 3D conversion technology, the recent hit movie Avatar is an example of the kind of movie technology that can be projected using the product-line they produce and this company is the leader and pioneer in this technology. Getting coverage now from the big investors. For more details on each of these and 4 more picks check out this link: http://www.thestreet.com/story/10853596/5/5-cheap-stocks-to-own-now.html

Double-dip chances were nearly 50% till a week ago.....but now a few commentators have said this double-dip is unlikely, based on the increase in bond yield which has seen a stable looking increase in the last week. Man....these experts can be as unpredictable as the weather in Central Ohio. Going with the gut feeling -(which in most cases is an abstract sense of a set of tangible confidence building variables in the market that culminate into a sentiment) - I feel, the bounce I talked about in my earlier blog, may be  already underway! Remember if consumer confidence is psychological....gut feeling is a cousin to psychological feeling. Pretty closely related. Everything ultimately lies in consumer spending which comes from consumer confidence....this can keep rising steadily even if jobs doesn't show up as quickly as you want to see. So the fine print is .... the bounce is on, my friends! Grab a piece of action now,wait for a pull back to get into the action at the basement so t

I think this month will be interesting to see. We have had a early Septemeber in August which was a commentary I saw in TechTicker. So....are we going to see a bounce....not really is my thinking although I want to hope otherwise. I will be sorry if it bounced back as I am holding back any new stock buys. Some equities are so hard to resist based on valuations and/or takeover speculations. Goldman Sachs (GS) , Metallico (MEA), JASO and AAPL are some examples. Annaly Capital (NLY) is the greatest dividend player I have just dug up and trying to follow. Gold is not my cup of metal now! Because I think it works okay as an inflation hedge but not quite as a deflation hedge. My gut says we are in for a deflationary trendline for atleast till 2nd quarter of 2011. Home inventories are a big drag in the US which is because of high unemployment. There is no recovery yet in this front. Till we see a quarter of positive employment, equities are risky except for value or dividend stocks not to for

Fascinated by the phenomenal returns that one can get, if lucky, gets a person hooked to stock picking pretty easily. I have found that with the first 10 stocks I picked, I was lucky in at least 3 that it generated more than 3 times the money I invested in all the stocks combined. Remember I used the word "lucky". That is important because it was a chance game 50:50. The story is more stoic with my next 10 stocks I picked. All of them lost as much as 80%, thanks to the Great Recession of 2008-9. More than half of my stock worth is still in the negative 70% territory inspite of the big uptick in the market. Why? I don't know really. My conclusion is that these were essentially high return stocks and had a high risk built in, not inherently but rather systemically. What I mean by that is, should any systemic risk arise (which happens once in 70 years, mind you!!) the unexpected could unravel and it sure did in my case, to my misfortune. I got all these experiences in about

If I become rich, I would buy a mansion that would be 50 stories high. I would also give money to the poor. I would also want my own school to learn in. I would even have my own backyard which is 20 stories wide, so I could play football. I also would want a life-time supply of Legos to keep me company. I would also have a Limo to ride in. But there would be a big problem for everything. Bills! Still I can have fun because I am rich. My favorite thing would be to be rich forever. But a house would do as good. Even with just a van or car!! This is an essay written by Joel David in the Spring of 2010.

Seems to be the #1 question in my head everyday when the day begins literally. What are going to be today's surprises to Wall Street and in return how the pundits are going to respond to them, etc. Well that's an everyday thing, but really, where is the economy heading currently. In a nutshell, these are the sound and sense bytes I gather...check it out. #1 US Stock market is overheated and overbought and is ready for a correction from here at Dow 11100 by 5-10% if not more. #2 Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is very cautious and there are indications that some think that he is anticipating some very troubling problems ahead....(what can those be? I wonder) #3 Job market is modestly improving or you can say shows signs of stabilizing. #4 Industrial production is struggling but is marginally ticking up. #5 Housing - no sure indication yet as to this has started to get better. The worst is behind for now. #6 Banking sector - they seem to be HOT for a comeback.....after all the near-col

Where there were hardly any cars, now they are so common. Where the consumer used to think twice about spending, he spends with almost reckless abandon for the things that puts him in the elite group. This is the new India. Government employees are paid 10 times their pay compared to just 5 years ago and 100 times 20 years ago. This is phenomenal and unbelievable. Not a place I could see any one looking for a job or business that he cannot work or engage in. If you had the will to work, you will get one and a very good paying one at that, in most cases. A Volkswagen Jetta in India costs as much as 2 times what it sells in USA. More than 3 times for an Audi A6. Real Estate prices were soaring but have taken a breather from the flight but are not falling to say the least. Food prices have tripled and quadrapuled too. The list goes on. Welcome to the world where recession is felt in West while India has not even showed a sign of it from the consumer's point of view. Recession ? Yes !