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Thursday, February 16, 2012

All Green Lights in the US

     Today saw the US market indexes hit levels not achieved in years.

     "The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 123.03 points, or 0.96 percent, to close at 12,904.08, finishing at its best level since May 2008."

     http://www.cnbc.com/id/46412121

     But check out the Nasdaq.

     "the Nasdaq soared 44.02 points, or 1.51 percent, to end at 2,959.85, logging its best close level since December 2000."

      So not only has the Nasdaq regained all the losses since 2007 but even since 2000. To be sure there is still a lot of ground to make up there-the Nasdaq hit a high of 5000 in March 2000, but it does show how hot tech has been. It looked at one time like the Nasdaq would never return to those previous seen levels.

     Of course to cross 3000 would be a major psychological hurdle as 13000 is for the Dow. As for the S&P it's crossing the 1350 level today was technically important as 1350 had been resistance.

    The day started with some positive numbers out of GM. True they did miss expectations on earnings per share-$.39 per share vs. $.41 expected. However this mainly was because of Europe which in the last quarter of 2011 went negative-"even Germany" who is now seen as the strong man of Europe after for years being the weak man.

     There is the question of the future of GM sales in Europe but this is a macroeconomic problem of Europe not reflecting on Europe.

     In the US and China sales were very strong, indeed US sales beat and exceeded all expectations. For the year GM made its most profit ever.

     Unempl;oyment claims for last week dropped to only 348,000 from a perviouis 361,000. Under 350,000 is generally seen as the level of an economy in expansion.

      Even Europe got some good news by the end of the day.

      "The euro rallied against the U.S. greenback after a report that the European central banks will exchange their existing Greek bond holdings for new ones in an effort to help the situation in the debt-ridden nation. The swap would take place over the weekend, according to sources. However, the ECB and Bundesbank would not comment on the report."

      "Housing starts gained more than expected, climbing to 1.5 percent to an annual rate of 699,000 units in January, according to the Commerce Department."

      "Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve said its business activity index climbed to 10.2 in February, topping expectations from a Reuters poll for 9.5."

       “Things look like all green lights in the U.S. so stay in the U.S. and invest in U.S. based companies,” recommended Peter Andersen, CIO of Congress Wealth Management. "We’re right at the beginning of a fairly strong rally and that psychological level of [Dow] 13,000 will really bring more sideline players into the market.”

        All green lights in the U.S. Kind of like "Halftime in America."

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