First, a historical note…US equities have just come off their best July since 1989. Overall, the market is up over 8% for the year. But if we look backward (after all, hindsight is 20/20), March 1989 also saw a huge run up. It was followed by an even stronger rally in July, during which volume dried up. It appears the same is happening now. What came next in 1989 was a big sell-off in September, followed by an even greater one in October.

Don’t look now, but history tends to repeat itself.

Also, consider the fundamental picture. We have rallied 48% from the March lows on the back of what? Good earnings? Good employment figures? Good spending figures? Expanding GDP? No.

We have rallied based on one of the largest and most concerted propaganda campaigns ever waged, supported by government stimulus. But no government can stimulate forever. The bottom line is this, if

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Intuit, Inc. (INTU) has a significant opportunity to increase its market share in the personal finance market with Microsoft (MSFT) recently announcing plans to exit its personal finance program. MSFT has been one of the prime competitors in recent times for INTU, which creates small business accounting, personal finance and tax preparation software for accountants, small businesses and consumers.

Microsoft’s exit should significantly help Intuit's small business arena. The company earlier announced the acquisition in June 2009 of online payroll services provider PayCycle Inc for about $170 million. PayCycle specializes in serving small businesses, accountants and financial institutions and has more than 85,000 small-business users.

PayCycle will be integrated into Intuit's small business group. We believe the acquisition makes sense as it expands the company’s footprint -- extending access to PayCycle's portfolio of financial-institutional and small-business clients, among which are Capital One (COF) and PNC Bank (PNC). The

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Warning: Megabanks Could Fail Despite Federal Aid

by Martin D. Weiss, Ph.D.   01-26-09

The time has come to issue one of my sternest warnings to date: Bank of America and Citigroup could fail despite the most radical government rescues of all time.

Right now, after recent close calls with instant death, these two megabanks are on life support, receiving massive transfusions of government capital. But they’re still hemorrhaging, and no one in Washington has found a cure.

Already, they have received capital injections of $90 billion ($45 billion each).

Already, this bailout is larger than the total combined capital of PNC Bank, Suntrust Bank and State Street Bank — all among

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The time has come to issue one of my sternest warnings to date: Bank of America and Citigroup could fail despite the most radical government rescues of all time.

Right now, after recent close calls with instant death, these two megabanks are on life support, receiving massive transfusions of government capital. But they’re still hemorrhaging, and no one in Washington has found a cure.

Already, they have received capital injections of $90 billion ($45 billion each).

Already, this bailout is larger than the total combined capital of PNC Bank, Suntrust Bank and State Street Bank — all among America’s ten largest.

Yet, ironically, that $90 billion is still a drop in the ocean compared to their massive exposure to risky assets.

The shocking facts revealed in the banks’ own balance …

On a day like this, sometimes its best to just clear the portfolio and take a breather.  With Auto Sales set to report next Tuesday along with a bunch of other crap that could bring the market to its knees, why risk it? Despite the Debbie Downer U.S. economy, the Bullish dollar, aka. PowerShares DB U.S. Dollar Index Bullish (AMEX:UUP) looks good. Part of the reason is if you played it when we recommended back on August 5th, you'd be up 5% so leaving some on the table is worth the risk. The exchange trader fund called UUP, powershares U.S. dollar, bullish fund of the ...