Surgery Done by a Bull in the China Shop

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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Today is the beginning of the spring quarter and the new fiscal year in Japan. Last night, most of Asia rallied and the Nikkei was up smartly (the Nikkei never hit a new low in the market sell off this spring by the way). A bailout plan in Taiwan for semiconductor manufacturers was bullish for tech stocks throughout the region. A Chinese manufacturing report was dismal, although off the low established last November (when the prices of many commodities also bottomed). European bourses are down this morning and the U.S. market indices gapped down after gapping up yesterday. The market is worried about the G20 Meeting tomorrow and the Jobs Report on Friday. The U.S. government possibly forcing GM into bankruptcy has also reared its ugly head again as well.

The government's current handling of GM is incredibly destructive economically. News has been leaked that Obama thinks a 'surgical bankruptcy' is the best option. If so, that surgery is being conducted by a bull in a China shop. A recapitulation of what is going on:

1. The U.S. Economy has been losing its manufacturing base for the last 30 years and has moved increasingly to a FIRE (Finance, Insurance, Real Estate) economy and this has led to the current implosion of our financial system.
2. Instead of trying to revive manufacturing, the government is trying to drive a top manufacturer into bankruptcy - and somehow this is going to improve things.
3. Sales for automakers are down as much as 50% year over year because of the economy. The U.S. government then tells reluctant car purchasers that we are trying to drive GM out of business and make them worry that if they buy a GM car they will ever be able to get it fixed (this may not be realistic, but it is something that will give the consumer pause and hurt GM sales even more).
4. No one knows how many credit default swaps there are on GM bonds, but the number is probably substantial. A bankruptcy would put them in the money and require that they be paid off. Most of them would have been sold by insurance companies and brokers that are already getting government bailouts and this will require more bailout money (probably many times what it would cost to bailout GM) to make up for the losses.
5. The U.S government just spent $5 billion bailing out auto part suppliers and is undermining that bailout if it forces GM into bankruptcy.
6. There are a large number of current and former employees of the auto industry, its suppliers, its shippers, etc that will be negatively affected by this action.
7. The GM announcement stopped a nascent stock market recovery in its tracks, wiping out billions more from retirement portfolios. The Dow was up over 20% (technically a new bull market) and the government apparently couldn't wait to drive it right back into bear market territory. Treasury Secretary Geithner already caused a major market sell off previously with his handling of Citigroup. If the Obama administration's goal is to keep stock prices down, they are achieving outstanding success.

While I am not a fan of bailouts, I am even more opposed to incompetent business practices combined with unlimited government stupidity. As we have said in this blog before you can bailout no one or you can bail out everyone, but doing some bailouts and not others produces the worst results. What the Obama administration is doing with GM makes no sense on any level - and it does not bode well for the handling of economic matters going forward.

NEXT: The Bull Heard Around the World

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.

Next Few Trading Days Are Important

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.

Our Video Related to this Blog:

Money moves around at the beginning of a quarter. Look for shifts in the next few days. You want to observe whether money is flowing into the market overall or are people taking money out and selling. If the market goes up, the big money has become more confident and the rally is going to continue for awhile. It is even more important to note which sectors have money moving into them and which sectors are selling off. The three most bullish sectors of the recent rally have been financials, basic materials and technology. You would like to know if this is continuing or are other sectors getting more fund inflows.

The news backdrop may color the picture somewhat however. The G20 meeting is on Thursday and the possibility of fireworks exists. The Jobs Report is coming out Friday and the consensus is that it will be quite ugly. While this may seem like it will be negative for the market, it may not be. When people are expecting the worse, even something slightly better can be considered bullish and make stocks go up. And as we have stated many times in this blog, the U.S. government is not beyond manipulating its economic statistics to make them look better. The market, at least up to this point, takes these reports at face value no matter how absurd they might seem. The latest incarnation of this behavior has been in the seasonal adjustment figures which have recently been quite sizable and always in the direction of making things look better.

The market was filled with panic selling yesterday. I usually look at this behavior as an opportunity to buy and I did pick up some commodity stocks that had big sell offs. So far, yesterday looks like just another typical Wall Street shake down. Investors who got in at good prices are scared out of the market, those that haven't are frightened away. The big money buys the stocks the small money is selling. Take a look at the press coverage yesterday and you will see that it is overwhelmingly negative and one-sided. Many important facts are left out. This is not the coverage you typically see when the market is going to have a serious sell off. Media pundits tell you to get into the market to catch the next move up when the market is actually turning down. Wall Street is busy selling at that point - and they want you to buy.

The market is filled with bargains right now. If you concentrate on buying stocks in the commodity sector and beaten down stocks in industries that deal with the production or movement of tangible goods that are necessities or pervasive, you will make money. This is where you will get your biggest bang for the buck when inflation hits. And don't worry, expect the mainstream media to inform you in a year or two that this is what you should have been doing in early spring 2009.

NEXT: Surgery Done by a Bull in a China Shop

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.

Government Thinks It Knows Best, Market Disagrees

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.

Our Video Related to this Blog:

If the Obama administration is trying to crash the U.S. stock market they are doing an excellent job. If not, they should all take a class in PR 101. The U.S. government announced that it is displeased with the progress the automakers have made with their restructuring plans (like somehow the government knows how to run an auto company), got the CEO of GM to resign, and is threatening to withhold bailout money from them and force them into bankruptcy. This would be devastating to the economies of the politically important swing states of Michigan and Ohio and for this reason it is not likely to happen. Nevertheless, all investors are paying this morning for this political cat and mouse game, with both the Dow and Nasdaq selling off around 4% as I write this. A crash level drop of 5% is a real possibility at the moment.

When the automakers received their first bailout in the fall, this blog stated it was only a stopgap measure to tide them over until after the election and a new bailout would be needed then. This has indeed happened right on schedule. While we constantly say, there is no such thing as a single bailout for an insolvent financial institution, the same is obviously true in many other industries as well. There is also no question that the automakers have been some of the worse run companies in the U.S. for decades, at least until the banks and brokers took the lead in this respect in the 2000s. Bailouts almost always have long term negative consequences, but this has not stopped the U.S. from establishing a de facto 'too big to fail policy' and it now seems to be moving toward state directed corporate socialism. Government management is an oxymoron if ever there was one. This is out of the frying pan into the fire economics.

Also weighing on the market is the upcoming G20 summit. Other countries, being led by Germany, are not interested in printing an endless stream of new money for economic stimulus plans and the BRIC countries want an alternative reserve currency. A coordinated policy for global stimulus is not likely to result from the meeting later this week as was hoped for by the Obama administration. This leaves the U.S. and Britain, the big money printers, holding the bag. Consequently, both are likely to have to print more money in the future. The BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries want to establish a new reserve currency, at first consisting of a blend of dollars, euros, yen and pounds. No immediate policy shift will officially take place at the summit, but this likely represents a sea change in international currency policy. Both pieces of news are devastating for the U.S. dollar, which somehow ignored reality this morning and rallied strongly.

While it would be nice to do so, investors can't ignore politics. Deep down, there is really very little difference in a number of respects from the current administration and the last administration. Spending huge amounts of taxpayer money on bailouts was and is part of the agenda. If the spending can't fully be funded with taxpayer money (and this was a reality from the beginning), any amount of money necessary will be printed to cover the costs. The dollar will eventually lose a lot of its value because of this and there will be a lot of inflation. The Bush administration though was at least aware of the sensitivities of the stock market, while the Obama administration seems oblivious at best. The drop this morning, taking place during a nascent rally, is not the first time the current administration has stuck its foot in it and it probably won't be the last.

NEXT: Next Few Trading Days Are Important

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.

In the Eye of the Financial Hurricane

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.

Our Video Related to this Blog:

There is some effort to talk down the current rally by the media today (assume the shorts have planted the stories). This doesn't mean the rally is going to end at the moment however. The momentum is very strong and doesn't seem to be have been dissipated yet, so no need to rush out and sell anything. The rally will end however and be followed by a sharp drop, possibly to lower lows. The current rally is very much a Bear Market rally and these differ in a number of ways from the beginning of a new Bull Market.

The money has been very easy in this rally and that is a common marker of Bear Market rallies. Prices move up very fast and seemingly without restraint. In contrast, beginnings of new Bull Markets are usually a struggle. It took about 10 months to put in the base at the bottom in 2002 and 2003 (the current bottom has had about a 5 month base put in so far). The market did not just shoot straight up out of that base. The bulls and bears battled for control on almost a daily basis with the bulls being able to only gradually move the market up. That type of constant give and take allows rallies to last a long time - about 10 months in 2003/2004. The current move up is almost effortless and because of that it can burn itself out pretty quickly.

The current rally has also been led by the biggest losers of the downturn - the financials. This is typical of bear market rallies, which are mostly short covering affairs. Once enough of the shorts close out and prices rise a lot, new short positions are put on that drive prices back down. The only thing that has made the financials more valuable is that the government is willing to put more taxpayer money into their coffers. Their value is no longer determined by economic forces, but corporate welfare payments. Not exactly an enticing long term economic model for investors.

There are three things for the current rally that need to be watched closely - resistance, earnings season, and April 15th. All the major indices are about to enter a strong band of resistance. For the Nasdaq, this starts at 1600 and goes to around 1650. The Dow has strong resistance at 8300, with with more resistance around 9000. For the S&P 500, there is resistance between 870 to 940. These are levels where the rally is likely to run out of steam. Another limiting factor to the rally is that first quarter earnings season starts around April 7th. Rallies into earnings usually mean a sell off after - and sometimes even during. As for April 15th, people frequently sell investments to pay their taxes and the market tends to dip then for that reason (although the dip can be temporary). So in figuring out when to sell, watch resistance and watch the calendar.

NEXT:

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.

No Longer Gilt Edged - the Inflation Implications

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.

Our Video Related to this Blog:

Yesterday, a regular government bond auction in Britain failed for the first time since 1995. There were more 45-year gilts for sale than buyers willing to purchase them. The British government is only printing money to buy its bonds in the 5 to 25 year range and it is now obvious the printing presses are going to have to be reved up to expand this program if Britain wants to fund its various bailout and stimulus packages. Meanwhile the U.S. bond auction yesterday was a 'success', although in order to insure that success the Fed had to purchase a higher amount of bonds than was previously thought necessary. The inflation implications of more money printing did not escape the market's attention with almost every commodity rallying strongly this morning.

The commodity rally took place even though the economic news was gloomy across the board. U.S. fourth quarter 2008 GDP was revised further downward to a drop of 6.3%. Businesses and consumers are both cutting spending and unemployment roles are swelling weekly. The mainstream press has continually told investors that commodity prices can't pick up until demand increases and this will require the economy to start picking up. They have been continually wrong. Commodities are all inflation hedges and the big money is well aware of this. Even the most cursory examination of the charts indicates many commodities bottomed last fall and their prices have been moving up since then. You should ask yourself why doesn't the press just report this simple factual information?

This blog has covered the mainstream media's misreporting of the oil market in detail many times. Headlines for the weekly supply picture from Cushing, Oklahoma were uniformly bearish yesterday. Oil in storage increased 3.3 million barrels, instead of the 1+ million increase that had been predicted and was more than 15% higher from the same time last year. As usual the press quoted 'experts' indicating demand has to pick up or the current rally will falter (as opposed to the previous reporting that stated that demand has to pick up or there wouldn't be a rally). Oil indeed sold off on this bearish news. What the press didn't report or buried at the bottom of its coverage was that demand for gasoline has actually risen for the last four weeks (even though the press will tell you this is not possible during a recession - the facts sometimes get in the way of the story the media wants to tell you). Gasoline in storage is actually more than 5% below year ago levels and the beginning of the heavy usage summer driving season is only two months away.

Investors should all keep in mind that commodities are inflation hedges and the U.S. and Britain are admitting they are printing new money. This doesn't mean that they just started printing additional money, but that the money printing is so out of control that it can't be hidden any more. There is no time in history where the money supply hasn't been expanded beyond the economic growth rate and inflation hasn't resulted. The inflation this time is going to be considerable. If you haven't done so already, you should be adjusting your portfolio accordingly. By the time the mainstream media tells you to do so (they are currently telling you the deflation is your big worry), it will already be too late.

NEXT: In the Eye of the Financial Hurricane

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.

'Good' News Drives Market Higher

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.

Our Video Related to this Blog:

The market rally continues today and is likely to do so for awhile because the momentum is on the upside. The mainstream media is doing its best to help continue the rally with the usual bullish hype. Today's bullish stories include a 3.4% rise in durable goods, the first after a six month record decline. U.S. mortgage applications are also up on the lowest mortgage rates since records have been kept. Such 'minor' bad news as Japan's exports falling 49%, with the biggest drops in exports to the U.S., and China calling for a new reserve currency to replace the dollar have been mostly ignored by the market.

The durable goods report is being interpreted as indicating the economy is improving. You can only believe this as long as you don't look beyond the headline number (most traders don't by the way, they just react immediately without getting the details). The big rise in durable goods was led by military aircraft and parts which were up 32.4% - this is 100% the result of government demand and not likely to be repeated. Heavy machinery was the next big gainer and was up 13.5% - not exactly a consumer item. Computers were up 10.1% and this would partially be accounted for by consumer purchases, although businesses are the major buyers of computers. Fabricated metal products were the only other item with a significant gain being up 1.5%. Autos and auto parts are still in heavy decline, but there was a little noticed $5 billion government bailout of the auto parts industry a few days ago that will act to prop up the industry.

The Japanese trade numbers for February gainsay any rosy interpretation for the U.S. economy that could be garnered from the Durable Goods report. While Japanese exports overall declined 49%, the biggest drop was exports to the U.S., with exports dropping 58%. Next biggest was the EU countries where exports dropped 55%. The drop in exports to China was less than 40%. While these numbers indicate a collapsing global economy, the collapse is by no means even. The U.S. is doing the worst and Europe is a close second, but Asia is holding up somewhat better.

The Chinese released a proposal a couple of days ago to replace the U.S. dollar as the world reserve currency with a Special Drawing Rights (SDR) linked currency system. Russia supports the idea. The U.S. dollar losing its reserve currency status would be devastating to the U.S. Reserve currency status keeps the value of the dollar much higher than it would be otherwise. The impact would be extremely inflationary since we would have to pay higher prices for all imports. Nevertheless, Treasury Secretary Geithner remarked this morning that the U.S. was "quite open" to the Chinese proposal. The dollar dropped like a rock for a short time thereafter. In case you have yet to realize that Geithner isn't exactly the most brilliant Treasury Secretary that the U.S. has ever had, this should remove all doubt. Someone should also tell China that a globally neutral currency has already existed for the last 5000 years - it's called gold.

The final piece of 'good' news today was U.S. mortgage applications were up 32%. Unfortunately, 79% of those application were refinancings for already existing mortgages. New purchases were only a small part of this number. Average mortgage rates fell to a record low of 4.63% last week. U.S. policy is doing its best to try to get housing prices back up to economically absurd and unsustainable levels (doing so the first time only led to the current Credit Crisis that has threatened the stability of the world financial system). The only way this can be accomplished is to create enough inflation so nominal house prices stay the same or go up. This will cause even bigger economic problems, so you should assume that this is one area where government policy will be 'successful'.

NEXT: No Longer Gilt Edged - the Inflation Implications

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.

Print Enough Money, Everything Goes Up

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.

Our Video Related to this Blog:

The stock market continued its Bear Market rally yesterday with a massive up day. The rally was impressive by almost any measure except volume, which was below average most of the day and just hit average at the close. Breadth (stocks going up versus those going down), was 41 to 1 and this was possibly a record. Small caps led the way with the Russell 2000 up 8.4%. The S&P 500 was next with a rise of 7.1% followed by the Nasdaq which gained 6.8%. The Dow was up 6.4%. If anything, yesterday's market action could be described as a crash on the upside. Panic buying was very clearly taking place in the last half hour.

If you read this blog regularly you will remember that we warned of a spectacular bear market rally more than once within the last several weeks. While yesterday was extreme even for a bear market rally, it was quite predictable. The market was severely oversold, possibly the most in history. At some point everyone who wants to sell has done so and then the only direction to go is up because there are no more sellers left. You need to close out any shorts once you see the market turn and ride the rally up. Don't stay at the party too long however. Once you have made nice profits, you need to book them.

While the media has been hyping this as the beginning of a new Bull Market, there is no reason to believe that it is. Financials have led the market up and they are just as worthless today and they were last month. Short covering is driving their rally, not long-term position taking. New Bull Markets are not led by the most beaten down group from the previous Bull Market, but Bear Market rallies are. You would also like to see a move like yesterday's right off the bottom (not after two weeks of rally) on very high volume. The picture is just not quite right.

Stocks will be going up in the long term however. If the central banks print enough money (and they are busy doing this at a breakneck pace), the price of everything goes up. The most important determinant of stock prices is liquidity (you can think of this as excessive money creation) and this trumps everything else including bad economic numbers, lower earnings, and a bleak outlook for this that and the other thing. As an example, the biggest stock market rally globally in 2006 was in Zimbabwe even though the economy there was collapsing (they were the top money printers in the world however). If you stay focused on what really matters, you can make a lot of money in this environment. Just don't expect to hear about what you should be doing from the mainstream media. They will invariably steer you in the wrong direction.

NEXT: Good News Drives Market Higher

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.