CNBC "Stocks Unloved," Is it Time to Buy?

When the mass media gets overly optimistic or pessimistic about the stock market, its usually a good contrarian sign that things will turnaround soon.  Traders have even coined the phrase “Magazine Cover Indicator” about the phenomenon.  The most famous case was the 1979 BusinessWeek magazine with the cover title of “The Death of Equities.”  The timing of the article was just as US stocks hit their lows and went on to rally for the next 20 years.

QE3 To Be Or Not To Be

The question for traders around the world is just how serious Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke was with his hints that the Fed was going to apply new stimulus to spur faster jobs growth.  After the initial spike in equity and commodity prices on Monday, follow through momentum failed to hold on Tuesday.  As a result, traders are now looking ahead to Wednesday’s Durable Goods Orders report for clues towards the US’s economy.  As a leading indicator of economic activity, a worse than expected Durable Goods figure may “seal the deal” for the Fed and lead to imminent easing actions.  Overall, trading in currencies, commodities, and sticks coukld be range bound over the short term until further clarity towards QE3 emerges.

Deutsche Bank Loves Risk

Just because every financial institution prints a risk disclaimer on the footer of every web page, email, brochure etc, about risk,  it doesn’t stop them from heeding their own advice.  This was obviously a problem for the likes of Lehman Bros, AIG, and Bear Stearns to name a few.  But now, a new member of the “financial gambling” party has emerged.  According to a recent report from Bloomberg, Deutsche Bank has recently surpassed BNP Paribas for the biggest bank in Europe in terms of balance sheet.  The companies assets have now hit $2.88 trillion; that’s nearly the size of all of Germany’s GDP.

Art Cashin Talking Oil, US Equities, and Chinese Bond Selling

Anyone who watches even a little bit of CNBC is familiar with Art Cashin.  Art Cashin is the Director of Floor Operations for UBS Financial Services and a regular markets commentator on CNBC.  In a recent interview with King World News, Mr Cashin shares his views on the US equity market, Oil, Bonds, and pretty much everything in between. These are some of his main statements during the interview.

Analysts Get Bullish On US Stocks

Yahoo Finance’s Breakout staff met with Paul Hickey, from Bespoke Investment Group on whether bullish comments from Equity analysts is a sign of a market top.  As Mr. Hickey points out, analysts are only now starting to issue upside revisions as a whole, and have missed the entire second half of 2011 US economic growth rally.  So are analysts simply chasing a market that they missed out of, or are the good times for US stocks still ready to roll.

Apple Paying a Dividend?

Dividend or no dividend, that is the question for Apple today.  Investors are expecting that Apple CEO Tim Cook will announce a dividend as Apple’s cash hoard approaches $100 billion (that’s Doctor Evil territory).  Various estimates of how big a dividend will be announced have been put forward.  Second to plans on new products, how Apple will use its massive cash holdings is the big question for Apple.  Overall, signs are that the tech giant is maturing as even talk about a dividend, contrasts to Apple’s style from previous years.  For traders, a dividend, even if it is only symbolic in nature, could lead to increased demand for Apple shares as many portfolio managers are prohibited from buying non-dividend paying stocks in their fund charters.

Shares of Apple Hit $600 Share Ahead of IPad Release

Do you have an IPhone, IPad, IPod, or Mac? Chances are you do and so do hundreds of millions of others which has led shares of Apple to keep heading higher as sales continue to exceed expectations. Today, shares hit an all time high as they briefly passed $600 a share this morning.  The continued momentum in Apple has smothered worries that the company would suffer following the death of Steve Jobs.  On the contrary, shares have gained over 50% since his passing.