WASHINGTON, September 5, 2012 – Well, it’s way past morning at this point. But the problem is lately that our morning posts have a way of being overwhelmed by the news the moment we post them. Things looked reasonably nice this morning at the open, deteriorated rapidly, resurrected themselves, then started to tank again.
Reason why today is that the algos and HFTs are backing and filling in anticipation of tomorrow and Friday. No, the big news isn’t the anointing of Barack Obama by the Dems for his run at Obamanation Term No. 2. That’s a foregone conclusion, although you did have to laugh at all the pro-small business lies blather we heard on the Charlotte convention floor last night. As if.
Michelle also got stellar ratings from the MSM last night, another foregone conclusion in that permanent nest of socialists. Barack himself, apparently riffing on Michelle’s usual nutritional advice, is switching to a “medium-sized” venue for his acceptance speech Thursday rather than preach to an empty choir loft in Bank of America stadium. It’s allegedly because of the weather, of course. But going to a smaller venue also creates more impressive photo ops for the true believers who want The One to appear as if he’s preaching to a packed house. Whatever.
In any event, the market seems about as interested in these proceedings as it was in last week’s RNC which peaked, it seems, not at Mitt’s speech (which was surprisingly good), but at the moment Clint Eastwood gestured to that empty, teleprompted chair. Eastwood’s remarks have gone viral, and we’ll have more to say about that in another column.
Meanwhile, what the markets are really waiting for, this week anyway, are this week’s jobless numbers and the final, definitive—no, really really definitive—announcement from the European Union as to how many garbage bonds that entity was prepared to buy en route to creative inflation.
The market wants to violate the usual September act—wherein the averages waterfall off the cliff and terrify everybody who purports to be an investor—and rally instead. For this, though, it needs loads of QE (quantitative easing) from both the Fed and the Eurocrats. And to get that, it needs horrible news on both the international debt and employment fronts.
So, paradoxically, the more horrible the facts on the ground tomorrow and Friday, the more likely we’ll all get more QE, which then, theoretically at least, will juice the markets.
In other words, this market has gotten a little bit like Major Major Major Major in that somewhat forgotten literary classic, Catch-22. Major never wanted to talk to anybody, so his aides adopted a policy: when he’s in, he’s out; and when he’s out, he’s in.
So, too, this market. When the news is bad, the market’s good. When the news is good, the market is bad.
Makes about as much sense as this week’s duplicitous batch of speeches in Charlotte.
Anyhow, let’s lift a glass to hope and change for the rest of this week, at least as far as our battered portfolios are concerned. We continue to accumulate shares of gold and silver ETFs. Hope we’re right, or we’ll get hosed right soon.
Stay tuned. To us, that is, not CNN. We’ll at least attempt to tell it to you straight.
Disclaimer: The author of this column maintains several active trading and investment portfolios and owns residential and investment real estate.
Positions mentioned above describe this author’s own investment decisions and should not be construed as either buy or sell recommendations. The current market is highly treacherous and all investors travel at their own risk, so caution should be exercised at all times.
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Read more of Terry’s news and reviews at Curtain Up! in the Entertain Us neighborhood of the Washington Times Communities. For Terry’s investing and political insights, visit his Communities columns, The Prudent Man and Morning Market Maven, in Business.
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