Monkey See… February 15, 2012

“The Lesson of ‘Half-Hearted’ QE”:

So what did QE achieve in Japan? “The program aided weaker Japanese banks and generally encouraged greater risk-tolerance in the Japanese financial system,” concluded a Federal Reserve study in 2006…just before the West caught up with Japan and embarked on its own credit-bust and depression.

“Quantitative easing may have [therefore] had the undesired impact of delaying structural reform,” said the Fed – a structural reform that zero-rate money printing in the UK and US hasn’t yet allowed either. Our zombie banks continue to avoid collapse, thanks to the huge volume of money thrown at their balance-sheets. Keeping them on life support, as the Japanese experience shows, will mean extending and expanding QE indefinitely.

Monkey do.

Market Wrap February 15, 2012

Dow Industrials 12780.95 -97.33 -0.76% S&P 500 1343.23 -7.27 -0.54% Nasdaq Comp. 2915.83 -16.00 -0.55% Russell 2000 813.98 -6.67 -0.81%

NYSE Comp. 7998.64 -30.98 -0.39% Nasdaq 100 2556.01 -19.23 -0.75% Dow Transports 5178.15 -105.97 -2.01% Dow Utilities 447.91 -2.41 -0.54%

View Major Index charts

Internals were negative, with volume up slightly. Advances/declines were 8 to 11 on the NYSE and 7 to 12 on the Nasdaq, with up/down volume 1 to 2 on the NYSE and 2 to 3 on the Nasdaq. New highs/lows were 159/2 on the NYSE and 105/22 on the Nasdaq.

Leaders — Network (+1.20%), HMOs (+1.16%), Natural Gas (+0.84%), Disk Drives (+0.49%), Semis (+0.48%), Broker Dealers (+0.34%), Biotechs (+0.31%), Telecoms (+0.31%)
Laggards — Transport (-2.08%), Homebuilders (-1.44%), Airlines (-1.11%), Oil Services (-1.05%), Retailers (-0.98%), Comp. Tech (-0.79%), Defense (-0.71%), Utilities (-0.63%)

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

Treasury Yields — 6-Month : 0.13 %,  2-Year : 0.27 %,  5-Year : 0.79 %,  10-Year : 1.93 %,  30-Year : 3.10 %

Energy Prices — Crude oil: $102.02/barrel,  Gasoline: $3.01/gallon,  Natural Gas: $2.44/mmBTU

US Dollar Index — 79.606

Precious Metals — Gold: $1728.20/ounce,  Silver: $33.41/ounce,  Platinum: $1633.00/ounce

BMB Note:  
The market seemed to change character a bit this morning, with the recently-parabolic Apple reversing hard off morning highs along with the indices. Maybe we’ll actually see a pullback get started. And remember it’s expiration week.

Choosing The Future February 15, 2012

Larry Doyle at Sense On Cents, “Paul Ryan (R-WI): A Choice of Two Futures”:

Ryan has put forth The Roadmap Plan for America. At the very least America needs the adult discussion that goes along with Ryan’s roadmap.

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I am not blindly promoting Ryan’s plan nor a Republican agenda. As a registered Independent, I am merely stating that we had better wake up and accept the fact that we need to have an adult dialogue on these issues.

There is not a lot of sand left in the hourglass.