Birinyi Associates | Stock Market News & Stocks to Watch from StraightStocks

Video-o-rama: Risky assets – optimism waxing, pessimism waning

Prieur du Plessis (June 12th, 2009) Writes:

Despite rising Treasury Note yields, US stock markets yesterday closed at their highest level for 2009. Also, commodities were driven higher by reports indicating that the recession is abating, but the US dollar retreated on concerns of the huge issuance of government bonds.

Elsewhere, Chrysler completed its deal with Fiat, the US Treasury Department announced that ten banks would repay TARP funds, and the Obama administration is dropping its plan to cap salaries at firms receiving bailout funds and has backed away from a large-scale reduction in the number of agencies overseeing financial markets.

Coverage of these events on camera this week included discussions with John Hussman, Chris Whalen, Peter Peterson, Paul Krugman, Mohamed El-Erian, Laszlo Birinyi, Jim Rogers, Jim Grant and Francisco Blanch.

The selection kicks off with the highly regarded John Hussman sharing his wisdom and concludes with an interesting snippet on Africa as an investment destination.

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Posted in Bonds, Market Commentary | No Comments »

Words from the (investment) wise for the week that was (April 13 – 19, 2009)

Prieur du Plessis (April 19th, 2009) Writes:

Spring is in the air – at least in the Northern Hemisphere and on global bourses. Last week marked the sixth consecutive up-week for stock markets as investors’ risk appetite returned amid signs of global economies and the financial sector embarking on the road to recovery.

Source: Tom Toles, The Washington Post.

Speculation that the unprecedented stimulus measures are starting to take root saw the safety appeal of government bonds diminishing, despite the buying support from central banks’ buying programs. Similarly, gold bullion struggled to find traction as investors continued to unwind positions. Silver and oil also languished in the red, but copper, other industrial metals and soya beans surged ahead.

The performance of the major asset classes is summarized by the chart below, courtesy of StockCharts.com. A picture tells a thousand words …

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Posted in Bonds, Commodities, Market Commentary | 1 Comment »

US Stock Market – Muddling Through the Fundamentals

Prieur du Plessis (June 18th, 2008) Writes:

“Most of the time common stocks are subject to irrational and excessive price fluctuations in both directions as the consequence of the ingrained tendency of most people to speculate or gamble … to give way to hope, fear and greed,” said Benjamin Graham (co-author with David Dodd of Security Analysis, 1934 – considered by many to be the bible of value investing).

But how does one gauge whether stocks, or in this case the US stock market as a whole, are over- or undervalued? In a post (Stock Markets: Up, Down, Sideways?) last week I attempted to analyse the situation by means of a few price charts and contrarian indicators. This is a follow-up, focusing more on some fundamental

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