- The stock market fell today. Reason du jour? The Fed hinted that they may take away the punch bowl – no more stimulus! It sucks when mom and dad take the credit cards away...
- And a poorly received bond auction in Spain... “Investors contemplate a world without monetary stimulus” from Reuters.
- Dow down 124.80 to 13,074. SP500 down 14 to 1398.96. Nasdaq down 45.48 to 3068.
- The private sector also added fewer jobs than was expected.
- Baseball opening day tomorrow! I'm ignoring the A's vs Mariners in Japan last week. That doesn't count.
- I took the Dodgers at 30-1 to WIN THE WORLD SERIES. "A fool and his money..."
- Oil down 1.35 to 102.06. Supply numbers came in today four-times higher than expected. Gee, the day after T Boone Pickens said oil was going to $148 a barrel. Was that a contrarian indicator? The siren call to get out of oil? Chevron down 1.4%, BP down 2.4$ and Exxon down 1%.
- 10 year bond at 2.24%.
- Gold down $51 to 1619. Over a 3% decline in gold today. The dollar was surging with the Fed’s hawkish comments. Gold companies also fell. Barrick Gold was down 4.5%. Newmont Mining down 5%. Goldcorp down 6%.
- No change in overall allocation, I remain with a lot of cash and low beta holdings.
- President Obama signs the STOCK act, which restricts congress insider trading. I wonder when the government does this sort of thing, if the end result is 180-degrees opposite. Like somewhere in the fine print, the act excludes members of Congress or something.
- In California, a survey of 1000 likely voters says….that 3 out of 5 voters approve of a special fee on soft drinks to fight childhood obesity. Maybe kids should be weighed at school, and if they're fat, send a bill home to mom and dad. Wouldn't that have more of an impact? I'm not serious, but I don't think giving more money to the government is going to make people skinny.
