Range bound, unless some news hits.S&P at 790; keep an eye on 740. Should we close below then all hell breaks loose. Gold has modestly recovered and is now up on the day. Miners, however, are subject to profit taking.
Someday I’m going to get my bond trades correct. Long or short, which way?
Next week the Treasury will conduct an auction of two, five and seven year maturities. The likely total amount is said to be in the range of $97 billion. Japan and China still show up for these auctions and a lot of investors have been burnt by shorting the auctions, anticipating these two bond hogs won’t bid aggressively. Recent auctions have been successful. But, am wondering, is now about the time for the treasury bubble to burst?
Will keep my eye on TBT the inverse bond ETF. I eked out a penny or two last month with TBT. But one must be able to see “entire board” to be successful with bonds. One has to know how currencies are trading, how economies are doing, auction successes or failures, etc.
As Michael Santoli said in Barron’s, babies will continue to drink formula. Even in the face of a growing breast feeding trend. The world of infant formula is pretty much split between Mead-Johnson Nutrition’s Enfamil (MJN) and Abbott Labs (ABT) Similac. Last week MJN went public in the first IPO in months. Shares were offered at $24, the top of the expected range. Today, they broke through $28 and I bought a little more. I also own ABT so I’ve got the baby market covered. But MJN remains the only infant pure play. Addendum: forgot to mention that MJN is not eligible for research coverage until twenty-five days after the offering. I expect wide coverage and positive recommendations.
I am continuing with my plan to pare down positions to two-four. I got excited during the last week in December as the market turned up and added too many names. Am going back to 85% cash and aggressively trade the balance. To protect my remaining longs I added TWM, the ultra-short Russell 2000 ETF. If the market falls TWM falls twice as hard.
