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

9/10/2005

Shoestring Economy

Stephen Roach thinks that Katrina might very well push America’s “shoestring economy” to the edge:

Never in modern history has the world’s leading economic power tried to do so much with so little. A saving-short US economy has long pushed the envelope in drawing on foreign capital to subsidize excess consumption. But now Washington is upping the ante as it opens the fiscal spigot to cope with post-Katrina reconstruction at the same time it is funding the ongoing war in Iraq. Could this be a tipping point for America’s shoestring economy?

Read the whole thing.

Posted: 7:25 pm

Weekend Sector Scan

XLE chart Yup, you guessed it. Energy. The best sector of the week again. Hey, I don’t make this stuff up.
XLU chart Utilities may not have had the strongest week, but still look pretty darned good.
XLV chart Health care stocks have had a great couple of weeks, but that’s coming off a pretty ugly August. The XLV has continued to make its way higher over the course of the year, but it’s been a rough ride.
XLY chart Consumer Discretionary stocks were third best this week, but this has the look of just a bounce in a downturn to me - note the huge volume down day on Thursday. Retail stocks are still performing pretty poorly.

 

The numbers for the week:

 

Sector Symbol 8 Week % Chg. 4 Week % Chg. 1 Week % Chg. YTD % Chg.
Energy XLE +16.4 +5.2 +3.6 +45.4
Utilities XLU +4.4 +5.3 +1.3 +20.0
Health Care XLV +2.9 +2.1 +2.5 +7.4
Industrials XLI +0.7 -0.1 +1.6 -2.7
Basic Materials XLB +0.4 -3.1 +1.8 -5.8
Technology XLK +0.1 +1.3 +1.5 -0.3
Consumer Staples XLP 0.0 +1.2 +1.2 +1.2
Consumer Discretionary XLY -0.9 -1.8 +2.3 -4.2
Financials XLF -1.7 +0.5 +1.3 -2.2

 

Charts courtesy of StockCharts.com

Posted: 10:46 am