Crucified January 25, 2012

And Ben will keep pounding the nails until we’re all dead, dead, dead. The banks and gov’ts (indistinguishable at this point) will be all that’s left.

“Gold, Silver, $HUI React to Bernanke Pledge to Hold Rates near Zero “At Least” through Late 2014; Hello Stephanie, Ben Promises More of the Same”

Bernanke’s policy now boils down to “if it doesn’t work, we’ll keep doing it until it does”. Those on fixed incomes have been crucified by the Fed’s policies and will continue to be crucified by the Fed’s policies until low interest rates work.

—

Treasuries rallied as banks and brokers font-ran the trade.

This is all well and good for the 1% and for the banks that front-ran the bond trade, but it sure is not doing anything good for those on fixed income or most of the 99%.

As Scott Bleier said on Twitter: ‘We will soon say, “I remember when $50k bought a really nice car”…’

Market Wrap January 25, 2012

Dow Industrials 12758.85 +83.10 +0.66% S&P 500 1326.06 +11.41 +0.87% Nasdaq Comp. 2818.31 +31.67 +1.14% Russell 2000 795.57 +7.30 +0.93%

NYSE Comp. 7914.80 +74.15 +0.95% Nasdaq 100 2465.66 +31.70 +1.30% Dow Transports 5282.00 +76.46 +1.47% Dow Utilities 453.49 +7.22 +1.62%

View Major Index charts

Internals were positive, volume was better. Advances/declines were 3 to 1 on the NYSE and 2 to 1 on the Nasdaq, with up/down volume 7 to 2 on the NYSE and 14 to 5 on the Nasdaq. New highs/lows were 147/9 on the NYSE and 97/10 on the Nasdaq.

Leaders — Gold/Silver (+6.10%), Biotechs (+5.05%), Metals (+3.69%), Airlines (+2.99%), Natural Gas (+2.72%), Homebuilders (+2.33%), Commodities (+2.05%), Oil Services (+1.66%)
Laggards — Paper (-2.22%), Network (-1.35%), Broker Dealers (-0.61%), HMOs (-0.53%), Banks (+0.14%), Drugs (+0.19%), Defense (+0.25%), Insurance (+0.42%)

An extensive visual representation of the day’s winners and losers can be found at Finviz.com.

Treasury Yields — 6-Month : 0.06 %,  2-Year : 0.22 %,  5-Year : 0.80 %,  10-Year : 2.00 %,  30-Year : 3.14 %

Energy Prices — Crude oil: $99.81/barrel,  Gasoline: $2.85/gallon,  Natural Gas: $2.75/mmBTU

US Dollar Index — 79.419

Precious Metals — Gold: $1710.40/ounce,  Silver: $33.31/ounce,  Platinum: $1579.00/ounce

BMB Note:  
Not much for comments today. Proof that overbought can become more overbought. And I’d say mean, nasty, ugly, evil things about Bernanke and the Fed, but then I’d have black SUVs pulling up in front of my house.

On the Fed news, the PMs jumped, and bond yields took a dive, especially the five-year.

Then again, maybe it’s not so bad. By now, we should all be getting pretty comfortable with the whole “bubble, crash, bubble, crash, bubble, crash” routine.

Scott Bleier on Twitter:

Gotta get with the program: If the FED adds another half trillion and the ECB does the same, the DOW is going to 14k within six months. $$

It is insane nonetheless.

Why don’t then just get it over with and do a trillion each. Just print enough to retire ALL DEBT? 15 trillion for U.S.? why not

Fed Day January 25, 2012

Those of us trying to save our money are eternally screwed.

ZH says: “No QE3. ZIRP extended thru 2014. Lacker objects.”

Joe Saluzzi says: “The largest theft in history from the savers of this country continues unabated.”

Savers now — the taxpayers are next to the guillotine.

Here’s the statement.

Twilight Zone January 25, 2012

From Instapundit:

Only in the twilight zone that is Washington could a President who has bailed out and stimulated our economy to death stand in the Capitol and declare there should be ‘no bailouts, no handouts, and no cop-outs’. Can anyone spell GM or TARP or Solyndra?

The President said we deserve a government that plays by the same rules as millions of hard-working Americans. Perhaps that should begin with the government not borrowing and printing 43 cents of every dollar it spends – something hard-working Americans can’t and don’t do.

At Mish’s site: “Obama Proposes Mortgage Bailouts, Handouts, Copouts Exactly One Paragraph After Stating “Top to Bottom: No Bailouts, No Handouts, and No Copouts”; How the Taxpayer Ripoff Works”

“Let’s never forget: Millions of Americans who work hard and play by the rules every day” will be royally screwed by Obama’s proposition in the form of higher taxes down the road.

Keeping The Spirit January 25, 2012

Michael Kahn on technical analysis:

Our view is that we need to respect the spirit of any pattern and not worry too much about the letter of the law, so to speak. Opens and closes on doji candles need not be exactly the same. Island gaps reversals (abandoned babies) need not have actual gaps. Why? Because 24-hour trading, decimalization, derivatives, etc… have changed the landscape and what constitutes an open and a close is now a very fuzzy proposition.

The financial markets are radically different than they were last century, last decade and even last year. The spirit of the tools still works because humans do the same old dumb (and occasionally) smart things over and over. It is the actual rules of the analysis that are questionable so keep it simple and you should be fine.