Little doubt remains that China's export numbers are at best unreliable but more likely simply fudged.
The definition of hypocrisy given by the Merriam-Webster online dictionary is, “a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not; especially: the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion.”
Global central banks around the world continue to push monetary easing like never before. The Fed and Bank of Japan currently combine for almost $180bn of monthly quantitative easing, an historic experiment in monetary inflation.
Although past performance is no guarantee of future performance, it strikes me that previous instances of tighter monetary policy did not trigger immediate widespread declines in equities...
The market is perhaps in the best shape it has been in over a year when looking at its trend and momentum. Perhaps the biggest development in recent weeks is the clear rotation away from defensive sectors and into cyclical sectors. This development is likely to propel the market even higher given 70% of the S&P 500 is made up of cyclical sectors. There is no erosion in either the market’s trend or momentum, and until we see erosion in the markets breadth and momentum the path of least resistance is clearly higher.
In this recent hard-hitting interview with Financial Sense Newshour, successful entrepreneur and twice presidential candidate Steve Forbes likens Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke to a blind astronomer, says quantitative easings, or “QE’s”, should be called “Titanics,” while also warning listeners of impending wealth taxes now used in France and elsewhere.
The S&P 500 closed higher by 0.43% and the Dow inched higher by 0.24%. The averages wavered between flat and slightly lower for much of the day before a rally in the final few hours of trading. The NASDAQ outperformed today on strength of biotech stocks.
Apple (AAPL) has been rallying since it hit a 52-week low in April, a fact that has benefited the broad market in general and the technology sector in particular.
Long secular bull markets in any asset class tend to fool us into believing their prices only go up. Tulip bulbs, Beanie Babies, baseball cards, Florida real estate, internet stocks. And they do only go up and it’s exciting – until their bubbles implode.
I have been arguing for several years that once China begins the adjustment process, which I expect to characterize the ten-year period of the current administration, growth rates must slow significantly. My expectation for long-term growth is that it shouldn’t average much above 3-4% annually.
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