“Trade what you see; not what you think.” – The Old Fool, Richard McCranie, trader extraordinaire.
“...Take Germany, where electricity costs 30 cents a kilowatt-hour—more than twice the U.S. cost and more than three times the Chinese price...[but]...
...At least climate-obsessed European governments are generally honest about solar and wind costs and raise electricity prices accordingly, making consumers bear the weight of green energy policies directly. In the U.S., by contrast, consumers pay solar and wind costs indirectly—through tax deductions and subsidies.
Solar and wind credits cost the federal government more than $20 billion in 2024, supplemented by state subsidies. Texas received about $2 billion in federal subsidies last year, and state government subsidies at least tripled that cost. This suggests a total hidden cost for the entire U.S. that perhaps runs more than $60 billion annually, implying that the actual cost of electricity with solar and wind is far higher than stated prices.” - Bjorn Lomborg, President of the Copenhagen Consensus, visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. Commentary at...
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/green-electricity-costs-a-bundle-wind-solar-data-analysis-power-prices-259344f4
My cmt: The Federal Government doesn’t actually pay the cost either since the politicians just run-up the Federal Deficit. No one will have to pay that, right? Maybe, but the house of cards will collapse when the debt gets so high that investors refuse to buy bonds. Some have suggested that interest rates are rising now due to the high national debt. Investors are bidding up the interest rates in a desire to get more return for the increasing risk. Our debt levels as a percent of GDP rival many banana republics.
"The Manufacturing PMI® registered 49.3 percent in December, 0.9 percentage point higher compared to the 48.4 percent recorded in November. The overall economy continued in expansion for the 56th month after one month of contraction in April 2020. (A Manufacturing PMI® above 42.5 percent, over a period of time, generally indicates an expansion of the overall economy.)” Press release at...
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/manufacturing-pmi-at-49-3-december-2024-manufacturing-ism-report-on-business-302341381.html
-Friday the S&P 500 rose about 1.3% to 5942.
-VIX fell about 10% to 16.13.
-The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose (compared to about this time, prior trading day) to 4.602%.
XLK – Holding since the October 2022 lows. Added more 9/20.
SPY – added 12/20. (IRA acct.)
QLD – added 12/20. (IRA acct.)
Today, of the 50-Indicators I track, 11 gave Bear-signs and 12 were Bullish. The rest are neutral. (It is normal to have a lot of neutral indicators since many of the indicators are top or bottom indicators that will signal only at extremes.)
The bull-bear indicator spread improved today from -10 to +1. The spread is Neutral, but the improvement from -10 to +1 is very bullish. The10-dMA of the 50-day indicator spread is also bullish since it is now rising.
"Yippee-ki-yay, Happy New Year," with apologies to John McClain.
TODAY’S RANKING OF 15 ETFs (Ranked Daily) ETF ranking follows:
*For additional background on the ETF ranking system see NTSM Page at…
http://navigatethestockmarket.blogspot.com/p/exchange-traded-funds-etf-ranking.html
For more details, see NTSM Page at…
https://navigatethestockmarket.blogspot.com/p/a-system-for-trading-dow-30-stocks-my_8.html
I trade about 15-20% of the total portfolio using the momentum-based analysis I provide here. When I see bullish signs, I add a lot more stocks to the portfolio, usually by using an S&P 500 ETF as I did back in October 2022 and 2023.
