Skip to main content

Monday - news in review

Taking it all in, a brief review of the day's news.

The Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq are all up slightly on the day, so far. Nasdaq faring the best with a 1 percent gain at midday.

Asian markets have not fared so well this Monday. Major indexes across Asia were down 2-3 percent on the day, continuing the losses that began late last week.

The Nikkei, Hang Seng, Shanghai Composite, Kospi, and Straights Times indexes have all taken a haircut of more than 2 percent on the day, with the Hang Seng falling 3.7 percent.

Bloomberg reports that commodities are falling on worries over economic growth. There is current weakness in copper, oil, gold, corn, and wheat as the UBS-Bloomberg's CMCI Index of 26 commodities has declined 1.2 percent on the day.

Still, for many of these individual commodities, the declines seem to represent more of a retreat and consolidation after reaching recent multi-year and record highs. The same is true of the CMCI index, which "touched a record high of 1,250.7118 on Oct. 19".

For more on the Commodities markets, see this Bloomberg video clip with Sean Corrigan of Diapason Commodities Management, who makes some very interesting and sensible points on the current action in various commodities during a recent TV interview segment.

Trouble in the shipping sector? Bloomberg reports that an influx of newly built crude oil tankers could greatly outpace the increase in oil demand as estimated by the IEA, leading to potential earnings shortfalls and a decline in share prices.

Lower freight rates and higher marine fuel prices are also said to be looming over the supertanker sector. Still, optimists point out that many oil tankers will likely be converted over the near term to haul bulk commodities such as grain, coal, and iron ore. This should ease some of the expected tanker glut.

Emerging markets could be the next bubble, Marketwatch reports. A report by the Institute of International Finance says confidence in emerging markets is high, and money flows into these markets could increase as investors look favorably on their resilience and performance.

"They have almost become a safe haven now and there is the risk of them developing asset bubbles," said IIF Managing Director Charles Dallara.

Quite the shift in sentiment from ten years ago.

Last but not least, Bear Mountain Bull points to a CNBC interview with Marc Faber.

Be sure to also check out the link to last week's CNBC clip with Marc Faber - some interesting comments made on the long-term outlook for the dollar and building US inflation.

Take care, everyone, we'll see you as the week progresses.

Popular posts from this blog

Seth Klarman: Margin of Safety (pdf)

Welcome, readers! Signup for free email updates at the Finance Trends Newsletter . Update: PDF links removed due to DMCA notice. Please see our extensive Klarman book notes below. New visitors, please check the Finance Trends home page for all new posts. Here's something for anyone who has been trying to get a look at Seth Klarman's now famous, and out of print, 1991 investment book, Margin of Safety .  My knowledge of value investing is pretty much limited to what I've read in Ben Graham's The Intelligent Investor (the book which originally popularized the investment concept of a "Margin of Safety"), so check out the wisdom from Seth Klarman and other investing greats in our related posts below. You can also go straight to Ronald Redfield's Margin of Safety book notes .    Related posts: 1. Seth Klarman interviews and Margin of Safety notes     2. Seth Klarman: Lessons from 2008 3. Investing Lessons from Sir John Templeton 4.

Slate profiles Victor Niederhoffer

Slate's recent profile of writer/speculator, Vic Niederhoffer has been getting some attention from traders and finance types in recent days. I thought we'd take a look at it here too, to offer up some possible educational value from Vic's experiences with trading and loss. Here's an excerpt from Slate's profile of Victor Niederhoffer : " I've enjoyed getting your e-mails. It sounds like you've thought a lot about being wrong. Well, the reason you contacted me, to call a spade a spade, is that I'm sort of infamous for having made a big, notorious, terrible error not once but twice in my market career. Let's talk about those errors. The first was your investment in the Thai baht, which pretty much wiped you out when the Thai stock market crashed in 1997. I made so many errors there it's pathetic. I made one of my favorite errors: "The mouse with one hole is quickly cornered." That is key. There are certain decisions you make in li

William O'Neil Interview: How to Buy Winning Stocks

Investor's B usiness Daily founder and veteran stock trader, William O'Neil share d his trading methods and insights on buying winning stocks in an in-depth IBD radio interview. Here are some highlights from William O'Neil's interview with IBD: William O'Neil's interest in the stock market began when he started working as a young adult.  "I say many times that I didn't get that much out of college. I didn't have much interest in the stock market until I graduated from college. When I got married, I had to look out into the future and get more serious. The investment world had some appeal and that's when I started studying it. I became a stock broker after I got out of the Air Force."    He moved to Los Angeles and started work in a stock broker's office with twenty other guys. When their phone leads from ads didn't pan out, O'Neil would take the leads and drive down to visit the prospective customers in person.