Stocks Look for Bottom, Oil Rallies

The 'Helicopter Economics Investing Guide' is meant to help educate people on how to make profitable investing choices in the current economic environment. In addition to the term helicopter economics, we have also coined the term, helicopternomics, to describe the current monetary and fiscal policies of the U.S. government and to update the old-fashioned term wheelbarrow economics.

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The market is going up and down like a yo-yo today, alternating between negative and positive. Stocks are trying to find a bottom and will probably do so soon. No matter how negative the outlook is for the economy and earnings, stocks can only go so low before having a rebound because the selling gets exhausted. At this point media reports have gotten about as gloomy as they can get, with each person making a more negative price low projection than the last (Everyone is always about as bullish as they can get at a top also). While stocks grope for a bottom, oil looks like it found one last month.

On Friday the Dow hit a new low of 6443 and the S&P500 hit a new low of 667. Nasdaq broke its November low of 1295 (the last index to do so) and traded down to 1269 at one point. The close wasn't as bad because heavy buying came in at the end of a day. Professionals tend to trade at the close and their willingness to load up on stocks on a Friday is a bullish sign that indicates they think the risk of an upside surprise is becoming bigger than the risk of a downside one.

Oil is behaving particularly bullish. The near term futures were up 4.4% on Friday despite the horrendous jobs reports. For months the media pundits have been telling you that oil can't go up until the economy shows signs of recovery. The New York Investing meetup has maintained this is not the case, but you should focus on the supply picture instead. Supply has been dropping and the economic news has only gotten worse. In the last few weeks, oil has rallied from the $33 a barrel range to over $48 this morning. New York Investing recommended DXO (200% long NYMEX light sweet crude) at one of its classes on the evening of Feb 17th. You could have picked it up the next day at the bottom (and some people did). The position has been profitable ever since (almost 50% at its best) despite the horrendous market sell off.

The stock indices are sitting above important support levels. The Dow has a band of support between 5600 and 6200. The S&P 500 has a band of support between 600 and 630 or so. Nasdaq has support at 1240. The Russell 2000 at 325 and 300. Even the upper end of these prices might be enough for a bottom at the moment since the market is itching to rally. At the very least you might want to start picking up some of the many bargain stocks out there when the indices fall to these levels.

NEXT: Stocks - the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Daryl Montgomery
Organizer,New York Investing meetup
http://investing.meetup.com/21

This posting is editorial opinion. Like all other postings for this blog, there is no intention to endorse the purchase or sale of any security.