On Break

11/16/2008

BMB On Break

It’s time again for a little BMB R&R, especially with the market behaving as bizarrely as it’s been. Maybe if we stop watching it start to behave a little better…

Posting will be very light and variable over the course of this week, but we’ll put up an open thread each market day for our readers to comment on the day’s market activity or to post any interesting links they might run across.

Check the space below for whatever the latest might be during this ‘off’ time, and please visit the various sites in the ‘Links’ and ‘Regular Stops’ for up-to-date market news and analysis.

BMB will be back in full swing by next weekend.

Posted: 1:00 pm

4/10/2005

A Case For Gold

In this week’s column, Bill Fleckenstein points out that the dollar may not fall a lot further - in relation to the Euro and the Yen, that is, since neither of those currencies is looking particularly strong right now either. And that, Fleckenstein says, is why gold should shine.

Posted: 9:19 pm

Returning to Health?

MRK chart Are these big-name drug companies regaining their footing after all of the bad news? Is all of the bad news out?

Merck looks like it’s put in a pretty solid bottom, and now must begin filling the huge gap formed back in the fall.
PFE chart Pfizer appears to have stopped the downtrend, and is also threatening a move higher from here.

 

Charts courtesy of StockCharts.com

Posted: 10:23 am

What’s Hot, What’s Not

Items of note on the latest industry moves:

  • Health care related stocks - hospitals, HMOs, insurers - making their presence known on the ‘best’ list. Health care groups seem to be holding up well in this struggling market.
  • Steel stocks continue to slide.
  • Transportation stocks have suffered of late - is this finally a reaction to higher oil prices or a forecast of a slowing economy - or both?

 

Best Performing Industries
Last Week Last 4 Weeks Last 8 Weeks
Airlines +5.5% Airlines +7.7% Hospitals +9.4%
Biotechs +4.6% Hospitals +7.3% Oil +7.1%
Health Care +2.7% Biotechs 4.7% Natural Gas +6.3%
Healthcare Payors +2.6% Healthcare Payors +2.8% Healthcare Payors +5.2%
Drugs +2.6% Health Care +1.8% Airlines +4.5%

 

 

Worst Performing Industries
Last Week Last 4 Weeks Last 8 Weeks
Steel -4.0% Steel -9.8% Networking -7.9%
Natural Gas -2.6% Gold & Silver -8.8% Disk Drives -7.7%
Oil Services -2.5% Transportation -8.2% Transportation -6.4%
Transportation -2.1% Networking -5.3% Steel -5.5%
Oil -2.0% Paper -5.0% Banks -5.1%
Posted: 10:09 am