Market Hiccup, CPI Numbers to Come

The market took a little hiccup at the end of day, although throughout most of the day, it was in the black on good inflation news. More inflation news is expected tomorrow with the release of CPI numbers. Tame inflation will be good for the market, as inflation fears have been one of the primary reasons the Fed refused rate cuts in their last meeting. The next meeting is scheduled Dec 10, and many are looking for another rate cut to get the economy and the market back on track.

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Hell has frozen over: Walmart reigns supreme

What an unbelievable day on the street!

Dow up 319. Nasdaq up 89, and S&P up 41!

Just insane. And what caused all of this?

Well, it all started with Walmart. That's right. Today, Wall Street cared completely about what was happening on Main Street, and on Main Street, Walmart had made a better than expected profit off of what many considered a dismal quarter for retailers.

Why did I mention hell freezing over? Because never in a million years did I think that one day I would say to myself "Thank God for Walmart", but I did. And now let's put it behind us and never speak of it again.

The rest of the day was a parade of major banking institutions' CEOs giving their view of the credit markets, led by Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, who announced that Goldman going to have an significant write-down of its assets.

My outlook is that this new found exuberance will last until at least Thursday. Friday will be a tough day as options will be expiring, and there always tends to be a downward trend on expiration days.

For the next few weeks, volatility is still high, but if oil continues to fall and the dollar continues to strengthen, I predict we can see a resurgence of the Dow getting close to the 14000 mark again by year end.

I certainly have money riding on that.

And because I haven't done this in a while, please note my disclaimer, which is also on the bottom of every page on my blog:

Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any financial and/or personal situations that arise from information in any of my blog posts. Financial advice is given to the best of my knowledge, which may or may not be accurate. Stock picks and stock market analysis should be considered 100% bias, as I will obviously talk about good/bad picks that I personally may or may not be considering/holding.

Super Busy + Market Fears = Losing Money

The past week, I just could not find time to blog, nor really stay abreast of the market, other than watching my portfolio drop in value.

I hope to remedy both of these situations this week.

Last week, the markets crashed on continued subprime mortgage fears from the major banking institutions (how much more loss are they hiding?) on top of rising oil prices (nearing $100/barrel), and the related issue of the falling dollar.

I would love to say that I believe we've reached the bottom, and certainly my options would love it if the market was ready to go up, but there is a good chance that early this week, we'll still see market jitters, with the market smoothing out, and maybe rocketing higher by the end of the week.

One important piece of economic news will be released this week that will have a major impact on the market: retail sales figures due on the 14th.