This week should promise to be full of excitement as the FOMC meets Tuesday and Wednesday to decide the fate of the U.S. economy. Well perhaps not the fate, but they will decide on new interest rate policy. At this point, any further rate cuts will probably signal financial suicide, so expect the FOMC not to cut rates. However, some analysts in the financial world are figuring a rate increase from the Fed this week in order to battle inflation and to make an attempt in strengthening the dollar against the rest of the world. Futures this week are showing rates will remain stable at 2.00%. A rate increase at this point would be more symbolic than helpful as it would signal that the inflationary pressures the U.S. has been experiencing are indeed real and a priority. As most of you know, it’s gotten a bit expensive to eat and drive into work. Expect a stronger inflationary statement from the FOMC this week.
On Tuesday, we have consumer confidence at 10:00 am EST. Wednesday brings Durable Goods (8:30 EST), New Home Sales (10:00 EST), and the FOMC announcement (02:15 EST). Thursday’s a fairly important economic day with last quarter’s GDP and Jobless Claims (08:30 am EST), as well as Existing Home Sales (10:00 am EST). And rounding out the week on Friday is Consumer Sentiment at 10:00 am EST. Details can be found here.
Futures were up over 50 points last night but are currently up about 10 points. I’m looking for some sort of a dead cat bounce, but at this rate, I don’t know if it’ll happen. We’ll see!
For those interested, Carl Icahn’s blog, The Icahn Report, is now live. Enjoy!
P.S. I think I have the most contrarian portfolio imaginable.
And will begin trading penny stocks! Well not entirely. This weekend, I took up a homework assignment by Timothy Sykes, of the penny stocking Sykes. His contest was a giveaway of his book, An American Hedge Fund, to the person with the most in-depth research on a penny stock, NT Holding (NTHH). After spending a couple of hours searching the internet, I posted a couple of responses as to what’s next with NTHH. You can find those comments here and a follow-up here. As a result, I won an autographed copy of his book wee! Thanks to Tim for his contest. Let’s see if NTHH really does follow a typical pump and dump scheme (which I think it will).
But no, I won’t give up my beloved options and futures. But who’s to say I can’t experiment with penny stocks in the future. It’s clear that they’re easily manipulated so why not capitalize off that?
In market news, futures are slightly up this morning. More than likely it’s going to be another snooze fest.
Futures are looking a bit lower this morning. Sometime last night futures spiked down about 20-30 points for some reason. My guess is the Asian markets had opened up and were hedging against potential downside this morning but it’s anyone’s guess.
Visa’s looking weak this morning with pre-market action taking it below $82. I will most likely take a nibble at $81 which appears to be a good support base with two failed breakdown attempts over the past week at that level. If $81 does break down, $77 appears to be the next logical support base. I still don’t think well see Visa under $80, but one never knows.
Option Addict has released his latest watchlist this morning. If you’re in need of ideas, just starting out, or need to see how JK works, head on over and check it out.