By Jason Simpkins
Associate Editor
Gold surged nearly 4% yesterday (Wednesday), as the U.S. Federal Reserve appears hesitant to raise lending rates despite signs of severely escalating inflation.

The price of gold jumped $30.30 to trade at $915 an ounce as of 11:45 a.m. EDT, its highest level since May.

“The Fed said that inflation is a major concern, but they’re not going to do anything about it, which made gold go ballistic,” Leonard Kaplan, the president of Prospector Asset Management, told Bloomberg News. “The dollar is going to get slammed again.”

After meeting yesterday, the Federal Open Market Committee acknowledged inflation as a growing problem, but also expressed its belief that an economic downturn would eventually blunt demand for goods and drive down prices.

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Since topping out in October 2007, global stock markets have been characterized by two distinct phases: a decline through January/March this year, and then a rebound until mid-May. The predominantly weak undertone of the past few weeks has naturally again raised the question of whether the strength from January/March until three weeks ago has simply been a bear market rally, or whether it in fact was a longer-term upturn in stock markets’ fortunes.

I went on record last year calling a primary bear trend for the US (and most other developed) stock markets, and more recently described the most likely medium-term scenario as a “muddle-through” type of pattern. I briefly want to review a few graphs in this post to ascertain whether this view still makes sense, and then next

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Pulse 87 FM, WNYZ-LP recently announced the signing of an annual advertising agreement with Major World Automotive, a New York automotive dealership. The terms of the contract are strictly dependent upon ratings, but present annual value is $192,000. However, with an increase in ratings the potential maximum one year value of the contract could exceed $420,000. The ratings are monitored by the Arbitron PPM ratings system, and tracked on a weekly basis as stated in the agreement.

Chris Orsaris, the GM of Major World Automotive, commented on the deal and the company’s standing with Pulse 87 by saying, “Thru the last few Months we have advertised with Pulse and have seen results that have given us value and added exposure. Pulse has been very responsive to our brands needs. We look forward to a long relationship.” The dealership has over 2,000 vehicles to choose from, and only requires

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In a tough tape on Friday Coal related stocks performed above average and look to continue to run with profitable expectations growing. Massey Energy (MEE), Alpha Natural Resources (ANR) and Arch Coal (ACI) all have rising earnings expectations and are at 52 week highs. Just this past Monday, a broker, David Khani from FBR Capital Markets raised his price guidance for coal for next couple of years. Massey Energy had a 1.48% increase on Friday when the S&P 500 fell 3%. This heavily covered producer of coal has had their current year earnings estimates increased for the current quarter from 0.50 to 0.76 in the past 90 days. The 13 analysts that cover the stock have also raised the yearly earnings estimates. The yearly earnings estimates have risen from 1.96 to 2.97 in the same 90 day period. Revenue is expected ...

With recent interest rate decisions I had closer look into 2 emerging markets in Central Europe. Hungary and Poland. Hungarian central bank again by 25bp (to 8,5%) to tighten monetary policy. Currently highest interest rates since January 2005. Bank acted mainly because of upward inflation. Its outlook has been raised from 3,6% to 4,2%.Economic picture doesn't look very well. Retail sales down by -4% or construction down by -11%. Industrial output remains positive but with sharp decline to 4%. Numbers are year on year basis. GDP growth stays already one year below 1%. And with current high interest rates it's hard to see soon any revival.Polish central bank left rates unchanged on 5,75%. The decision mainly taken by better than expected inflation reading (4%). Unemployment shows very positive trend and latest number is 7,7%. Retail sales ...

are in control of the short term trend. The Qs are at a potential support level but buying doesn't make sense until there are better signs of stabilization. The breakdown in the financials will likely keep pressure on the markets.

The point of showing my order book yesterday was to emphasize how my number one focus is always risk management. At the time I entered many of the stocks, I expected them to continue to trend for most of the day. Even with expectations for continued movement higher, I sold partial positions into strength early on. I tend to go in aggressively as momentum builds and then scale out into continued strength. It is never my thought that I am selling at the top, instead, I am trying to reduce risk by realizing some profits and reducing my exposure. There are many times that a stock will continue to go higher without me and I am comfortable with that because, as we saw yesterday, the market can reverse quickly and erase all profits if you do not aggressively manage open positions. Some people say ...

In yesterday’s video I mentioned that we wanted to see a pullback to prior resistance near 124 and then to buy the stock once the buyers re-established short term control of the stock. We got the pullback, but it kept pulling back, so the stock should not have been purchased. We never know if a prior level of resistance will act as support, they are only POTENTIAL levels where we want to study price action further for evidence which backs our theory. Right now, I would avoid RIMM until it can show signs that the buyers have take back control of the short term trends.