4/1/2007

Still Hooked

Bill Fleckenstein has no love for Wall Street analysts. But come to think about it, BMB doesn’t either, and neither should you:

Wall Street continues to view stocks as one-way bets, with positive outcomes. Every day, I am more and more astounded by the bravado/denial that I see. If you told this crowd that the world was going to end on Friday, they’d be buying stocks in anticipation of the rebound they would expect to occur after its demise. How anyone can be sanguine about how this movie ends is beyond me.

As Gary Kaltbaum has been reminding his listeners every day: The next bear market may be just around the corner, and maybe it’s a ways off yet. But there will be another bear market someday, and you can be certain — when that time comes, you will get no help from Wall Street. So it’s up to you to recognize when that time is upon us, and take proper steps to protect yourself.

Posted: 7:46 pm

What’s Hot, What’s Not

Notes on the latest moves in the industry groups, and since it’s the end of the quarter, it’s time to toss in the YTD numbers as well:

 

Best Performing Industries
Last Week Last 4 Weeks Last 8 Weeks Year to Date
Telecom ($XTC) +1.3% Steel +12.8% Oil Services +8.4% Steel +24.6%
Steel ($DJUSST) +1.2% Metals & Mining +10.7% Steel +7.6% Metals & Mining +16.6%
Biotech ($BTK) +0.9% Oil Services ($OSX) +10.0% Utilities ($UTY) +7.4% Utilities +8.3%
Metals & Mining (XME) +0.7% Oil ($XOI) +8.4% Metals & Mining +7.2% Oil Services +7.4%
Natural Resources ($GSR) +0.3% Natural Resources +7.2% Oil +3.4% Natural Gas ($XNG) +7.0%

 

 

Worst Performing Industries
Last Week Last 4 Weeks Last 8 Weeks Year to Date
Housing ($HGX) -5.0% Housing -7.7% Housing -14.5% Airlines -9.8%
Airlines ($XAL) -3.6% Airlines -3.5% Airlines -12.3% Disk Drives -7.9%
Transportation ($TRANQ) -3.4% Transportation -1.4% Brokers -8.5% Housing -7.4%
Disk Drives ($DDX) -3.0% HMOs ($HMO) -0.9% REITs ($DJR) -5.9% Networking ($NWX) -4.4%
Brokers ($XBD) -2.9% Banks ($BKX) -0.4% Transportation -4.7% Gold & Silver ($XAU) -3.7%
Posted: 11:29 am