Meet the new BRICS’s – The ABC’s of investing in a foreign economy.

With growth expected to be tepid at best here in the United States for the next few years, you would be well served to allocate a portion of your portfolio overseas.  The BRIC’s have been said to be the place to be over the past few years but I have found a few more economies that you might want to consider.  I call them the ABC’s of foreign countries to invest in; Australia, Brazil and Canada.  The big economic revolution of the past decade has been China.  This ‘C’ is somewhat captured in my ABC as China is in the top three of import partners and export partners for the ABC’s, especially Australia.
Portfolio diversification theory is basically the answer to ‘don’t put all your eggs in one basket.’  A well diversified portfolio should have stocks from five to six different sectors.  Studies have shown that once you diversify your portfolio beyond ten sectors you start to lose return in your search to control risk.  A way to diversify past sectors is to diversify your portfolio across countries.

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Monday, August 23, 2010 - 4:00 p.m.

Stock Chart Work for Wednesday August 18th – Pennants, Trend Channels, Breakouts and Bounce Backs

The market had a strong day today on the backs of lower fears of deflation and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) upward guidance for their full year sales estimates.  This earnings season has had most stocks beat guidance providing for a July rally and more earnings are still expected.  The bearish moves in the market have come as a result of still poor jobs numbers and economic reports.  For the rest of this week we have a slow economic calendar and if we get by Thursday’s Jobless Claims unscathed there remains some upside room.

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Tuesday August 17, 2010 - 11:00 p.m.

Wall Street Wrap August 17, 2010 - If It Smells, It Sells

The market jumped on addition by subtraction today with the Producer Price Index (PPI) being reported at or above expectations.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 104 points (+1.04%, 10,406) and the S&P 500 jumped 13.16 points (+1.21%, 1092) while the tech heavy Nasdaq 100 rose 23.86 points (+1.30%, 1845).  The indices were stronger during the trading day but a sell-off in the last hour took the DJIA down almost 50 points.

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Tuesday, August 17, 2010 - 4:40 p.m.

 

Why Gold Will Start Shining Again Soon

Gold has been going sideways since early May with the New York Spot ounce price at $1,204.80.  So why should you get in now?

Gold traditionally runs up in the fall almost every year.  Why?  One of the biggest reasons is that India, the world’s largest gold consumer, has its wedding season every year from September to December.  It is a cultural practice to decorate the bride with as much gold as can be afforded and this is a big contributor to the price of gold running up every fall – and in particular September.

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Tuesday, August 10, 2010 - 8:00 p.m.

Playing the Employment Report Friday – 5 Longs and 5 Shorts.  Also, A way to play the Russian Wheat export restrictions.

Tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. the government will release the headline unemployment number.  Analysts expect the number to come in up one-tenth of a percent at 9.6% and a loss of 70,000 jobs.  If the number jumps to 9.7% or the job loss number is above 150,000, the market will most likely drop.  If the market is going lower you can make money getting short the following stocks;

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Thursday, August 5, 2010 - 7:15 p.m.

 

Wall Street Wrap – Market Down Slightly and it is a Win

After yesterday’s large gain, stocks dropped slightly today with the S&P 500 losing 5.40 points (-0.48%, 1,120).  The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished lower by 38.00 points (-0.35%, 10,636) and the Nasdaq 100 lost 7.18 points (-0.37%, 1,891)

Today’s market action was a win as many of the economic reports released today were below expected.  There were three numbers released that involved the retail market with the weekly ICSC-Goldman Store Sales reporting at -0.1% compared to last weeks rise of 0.6%.  Domestic Motor vehicle sales were expected to come in at an annual rate of 8.8 million and the reported number was 8.9 million.  Redbook’s chain store, discounters and department store sales reported a year-over-year growth of 3.0% compared to a prior 2.7% growth.

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Tuesday, August 3, 2010 - 4:30 p.m.

A Higher High Today and a Breakout in the S&P 500

The S&P 500 added over 24 points today and more importantly the index closed in territory to form a higher high.  Higher highs and higher lows are what form an uptrend (for more information on trends see www.StockTradingCards.com).  With today’s close at 1125.88, the S&P 500 took out its previous cyclical high close of 1115.01 and the June high close at 1117.51.  Not only does today’s close make the 500’s chart look more bullish, but it has dragged the 50 day exponential moving average above the 200 day EMA.  You may have been hearing a lot about a ‘Black Cross’ or ‘Death Cross’ in the financial media lately.  These crosses are when the 50 drops below the 200.  With today’s 50 tip toeing above the 200, we get a ‘Golden Cross’ and as its name seems to say, it is money bullish.

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Monday, August 2, 2010 - 9 p.m.

Update on Intuitive Surgical (NSDQ: ISRG) - Stock Drops 16+ points in the pre-Market

Intuitve Surgical Inc. (NSDQ: ISRG) dropped over 16 points in this mornings pre-market trading after reporting earnings Wednesday night. ISRG reported an earnings beat of 15 cents ($2.19 a share vs $2.04 expected by analysts) but it seems Wall Street does not like its current high valuation with a high p/e of over 40.

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Thursday, July 22, 2010 - 8:38 a.m.