Much
of the result reflected the success, at least for now, of what amounts to a
back-door bailout by the European Central Bank, which has lent nearly half a
trillion euros of three-year money to banks.” Full story at:
That is really good news since it will take away one of the
major issues overhanging the stock market.
If the European banks have less risk of failing, fallout from a
Euro-recession is likely to be much less.
As I noted a few days ago, December retail sales were
disappointing. As reported today, they
were flat from last year’s December. The
good news was that year-over-year retail sales were up about 8%. That’s not bad. The fact that December didn’t do as well may
be due to the economy slowing; but I suspect that the retailers may have
blinked and held too many sales in December, so it is hard to put to much in
the December sales numbers.
The S&P 500 was up 1/4%-% to 1296 today. VIX fell nearly 3% to 20.5.
Today
the NTSM analysis moved up to BUY again.
I
bought back into the stock market at S&P 500, 1155 on 7 Oct after the 6 Oct
NTSM buy signal. I remain 100% long in
the long term portfolio (100% stocks in the 401k.). (See the page “How to Use
the NTSM System” – the link is on the right side of this page).
I
am 90% long in the trading portfolio. I
may take profits on the trade soon to cut some risk. There are a ton of unknowns now.
Just
a reminder: 100% invested in stocks is way too much for most rational
folks. Don’t do it unless you have a
high tolerance for risk.
