Daily Investment Interpretations

March 1, 2010

2010-3-1:  Today saw higher market indices across the board: Street starts March strong; ; Spending rises; and Manufacturing expanding. The NASDAQ Composite pole-vaulteded 35.31 points, (1.58%) to close at 2,273.57, the Dow improved 78.53 points (0.76%) to close at 10,403.79, and the S&P 500 swelled  11.22 points (1.02%) to close at 1,115.71. Oil closed at $78,75 a barrel. Gold was essentially unchanged, ending the day at $1,118. The VIX fell 0.24 to 19.26.
    My investment advisory service advised that if the markets closed up as high tonight as they were this morning, they stand a good chance of revisiting their January highs. That would amount to 1,150 for the S&P 500, 2,320 for the NASDAQ, and 10,700 for the Dow.
    The indices aren't awfully far away from there. The NASDAQ is about 2% below its January high, and the Dow and the S&P 500 are still off about 3%.
    As the title implies, the heavy February snowstorms that swept the nation were responsible for declines in days worked (as well as, no doubt, other productivity deficiencies): Data set to reveal a job market clouded by storms in February  
    Peter Brimelow and Edwin Rubenstein write: Parsing 200 years of gold trades  This article notes that gold, after 175 years of fluctuating between $0.75 and $1.50, is currently trading at 3.26 times its inflation adjusted 1801 price.... i. e., its odds of falling are much greater than its odds of rising.
    Market static signals (video)  "Once-clear leading economic indicators such as the Treasury yield curve are now widely disputed. But what growth trend is priced into stocks?"
    Stock market futures are neutral tonight.