Where has the resources boom gone? I don’t mean the one driven by iron ore or coal, nor oil, but by surging demand from China, India and the rest of the emerging world? Warning bells are sounding in metals markets and there is every indication that even in China, there are some rough times ahead. The shares prices of some Australian producers are reflecting the emerging weakness. last week we reported on Fox Resources, a small Australian miner deferring work on copper and nickel prospects and mine. Power shortages and a looming oversupply of some metals and weakening prices make for interesting decision making for some companies, especially if they are in China. And when a weakening market price happens to emerge as this power crunch happens, China seems to act as one to try and modify the market weakness and correct the imbalance in power demand. Take ...

Short Washington Mutual Inc. (WM) on Market Weakness Today was a very weak day for financials as Lehman led a number of Financials and the S&P 500 down in early afternoon trading. The biggest new ...

With the continuation yesterday of Friday’s market weakness, the last of our April 3 calendar-spread bonus trades hit its minimum profit target. Here’s a summary of the three positions: EEM May/June 140 - Reached 20% profit on April 15, less than two weeks into the trade. XLE May/June 77 - Even if entered at the less-than-optimal price of $1.20, this position achieved our 20% minimum profit target on the sell-off in energy that occurred May 1, which was within 4 weeks of entering. IYR May/June 69 - The iShares real-estate ETF proved stronger than we expected, but a week ago the spread was trading near a 20% gain. It would’ve been hard to get an order filled at the target price of $1.50 last week, but today the mid price rose as high as $1.575, ...

There are many Wall Street adages. Some seem to have predictive power, including the idea that one should "sell in May and go away." Such slogans have extra influence because of the catchy, alliterative qualities. When Indicators Conflict There are a number of conflicting adages at the moment. There is the Presidential Election Cycle. We have not been big fans of this because the causal model is elusive. This year, however, we have both the Fed eases and the stimulus package. If ever the theory were to work, this might be the time. We also note that the popular bearish commentators embraced the theory when it suggested market weakness, but have fallen silent during the period when it suggested strength. This should be interesting to contrarian investors. There are technical considerations. Can the market break through apparent resistance? That is the current battleground for traders. There ...