Active Markets

Where to start on this whacky Friday...

As I write it is approximatels 1:00 P.M central standard time, the Yen is up over 1.5% trading in the 113 range, gold has pushed above the $700 /oz, the DOW is off trading down 180 points, the U.S. dollar index is back below the 80 level which might be the most important thing in the markets going on.

As chaotic as it is, I sit back and smile to myself. It is a glimmer of true capitalism...just a glimmer. All the carry traders continue to get whacked, while gold and the U.S. dollar begin to show their true colors. While I type and scream to the world, "I TOLD YOU SO!!!"

I apologize. Although amazingly stubborn, I am not a self-loving boob, but when you stand on the side of the line that I do, it feels good to be right. Being a doom casting bear takes a lot out of a man. We are constantly reading headlines of, "The bears were wrong again" and today we read, "the bears are back out of their caves."

Anyways, what the heck is going on here? Well recent pay roll figures came out and were very poor indeed.

The funny thing is market irrationality. Just the other day, economic data was rather positive and the headlines read, "The markets sell off due to strong economic data reducing the chance of rate cuts."

Then junk data comes out today, and the market sells off even more sharply. Anyway we look at this, the downward pressure on the markets is great indeed. Any chance for the markets to go down, it seems that they are taking it. While I fully expect the situation regarding coming economic figures as well as the equities market to only get much, much worse.

I understand that some of these posts are spurratic and conver a number of topics. I feel that it is necessary to involve the new readers in some of my thought processes going forward so they understand a little bit more where I am coming from. The other piece of the puzzle is that markets are so intertwined today, that it's hard to discuss one thing without discussing three others. Going forward I will be generalizing less, and sticking more to specific topics. Stay tuned...