The world's craziest reality show continues in the financial
markets as we digest the implications of the European bailout.
Some top line observations:
1) More than 70% of corporate earnings have beat analyst
expectations but the one that missed - such as Amazon,
Netflix, IBM and 3M missed significantly.
2) Apple is a great company but that doesn't always make
for a great stock. Steve Jobs mapped several years of
pipeline - including Apple TV, which is supposed to be
amazing.
3) Gold has had a major runup - more than 500% in the last
decade - and investors would be wise to remember that
commodities aren't historical safe havens. In fact,
gold will likely peak on fear, not greed.
4) We continue to monitor the shifting social mook - OWS
Occupy Wall Street and the other such movements sweeping
the world - as the social mood shapes risk appetites and
risk sppetities define the price action of financial
markets.
5) The latest European bailout is big on headlines but short
on particulars regarding how policymakers will implement
this mind-boggling package. Still, given that uncertainty
is bad for the markets, this may serve as a positive
catalyst into year's end.
These are tricky times and there's no shame in admitting it's
hard. There is only shame in pretending that it is not.
