Are You Laughing or Crying About The Markets?

There’s no question about it, the markets can be very difficult at times. On the other hand, you can laugh all the way to the bank if you approach the markets in a systematic way.

I was looking once again at the S&P 500 and many people have said the market has gone up, not on the fundamentals, but on the perception that things are going to be better. Perception is one of the most powerful elements of the market. I would say that perception trumps both the fundamental and technical.

So what’s going to happen to the S&P 500? Is it going to continue going higher for the rest of the year, or are we close to a turning point?

In our new short video, we outline several key areas that this market is fast approaching. These levels could be the Achilles heel for this market and potentially set the direction for the rest of the year.

Just Click Here to watch the video and as always, the videos are free to watch and there is no need to register.

Please take a minute to leave a comment and let us know what you think of the video and the direction of the SP 500.

Phil Flynn's Energy Report: Dollars Deficits and Oil

A breakout in oil and what do you get, another day older and deeper in debt, like about 1.42 trillion dollars deep. Now it does not get much deeper than that. The US Budget deficit screams while politicians fight over ways to spend more money and the dollar loses ground and respect. 1.42 trillion dollars and the oil bulls continues to breathe easy up in this new atmosphere as a breakout to the upside has the bulls firmly in control.

Just how much is 1.42 trillion dollars? Bloomberg News reports that $1.42 trillion is more than the total national debt for the first 200 years of the Republic, more than the entire economy of India, almost as much as Canada's, and more than $4,700 for every man, woman and child in the United States. Is it any wonder why the Canadian dollar is almost trading at par with the dollar? The Federal budget deficit for 2009, more than three times the most red ink ever amassed and the highest as a perercentage of GDP since the Second World War.....Read the entire article.

Crude Oil Rises to One Year High Above $79 as Equities Increase

Crude oil rose to a one year high as advancing global equities bolstered confidence that an economic recovery will lift fuel consumption. Oil topped $79 a barrel, extending its longest winning streak in two years, as U.S. stocks increased, contributing to an advance in equities from Shanghai to London. The dollar weakened, boosting the appeal of commodities as an alternative investment. “As long as the dollar stays down and equities stay up, that’s a good enough reason to buy crude,” said Brad Samples, a commodity analyst for Summit Energy Inc. in Louisville, Kentucky.

Crude oil for November delivery rose 28 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $78.81 a barrel at 11:45 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier, prices touched $79.05 a barrel, the highest level since Oct. 15, 2008. The November contract expires tomorrow. The more widely held December contract added 18 cents to $79.20 a barrel. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.9 percent to 1,097.84 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 100.67 points, or 1 percent, to 10,096.58 at 11:46 a.m. in New York.....read the entire article.

Crude Oil Rises for Eighth Day on Speculation Demand Recovering

Crude oil climbed above $79 a barrel in New York for the first time in a year, rising for an eighth day on speculation demand will increase as the global economy recovers from recession. A report today may show confidence among home builders in the U.S., the world’s largest oil consumer, is at its highest in 17 months, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. There is no shortage of oil and OPEC won’t increase output to quell price gains driven by speculators, Secretary General Abdalla El-Badri told the Wall Street Journal on Oct. 16.

“The economic numbers are looking better and a lot of that seems to have already been priced in,” said Ben Westmore, energy and minerals economist at National Australia Bank Ltd. in Melbourne. “There is still a big question mark over how much of that, especially in the U.S. and China, is being driven by the stimulus packages.”
Crude oil for November delivery rose as much as 52 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $79.05 a barrel in after hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest since Oct. 15 2008.....Read the entire article.

USO and UNG Technical Analysis with Idan Koren

From guest analyst Idan Koren....

Today we look at the USO and UNG and try to decipher where they are headed and what possible trades could be on the table. We believe that the USO is the reason why the S&P remains up while other stocks have potentially topped already.

Natural Gas: The Russians Are Coming!

The new trading desk in North America for Gazprom, the largest producer of natural gas in the world, sits halfway up the 56 story Bank of America tower in the heart of the America's energy capital. So far, the office, which started trading contracts last week for the first time, is quiet. That won't last. "Our target for volume growth is pretty strong," says John Hattenberger, president of Gazprom Marketing & Trading USA, an arm of the Russian behemoth that claims 17% of the world’s natural gas reserves. "If we could hit 5% [of the U.S. market] in the next five years, that would be about right. In 10 years, I think we could get to 10%." U.S. demand for natural gas is about 60 billion cubic feet a day.

Gazprom for years has been a dominant player in the natural gas market through the use and control of pipelines. It exports gas to more than 30 countries and meets a quarter of Europe’s needs. The U.S. market, however, the largest in the world, has been too far away for Gazprom to reach. Pricey new liquefied natural gas developments, which allow for worldwide shipping, should change all that. Global LNG demand is expected to double by 2020. "LNG is a strategic way for Gazprom to get into markets that it can’t access by pipeline," says Hattenberger. "It makes a lot of sense for the world’s largest gas company to bring gas to the world’s largest gas market and it has to be done through LNG".....Read the entire article.

Halliburton Profit Drops Less Than Analysts Estimated

Halliburton Co.’s third-quarter profit dropped less than analysts estimated on projects the world’s second largest oilfield services provider is working on outside of North America. Net income fell to $262 million, or 29 cents a share, from $672 million, or 74 cents, in the third quarter of 2008, Houston based Halliburton said today in a statement. Excluding costs for job cuts, profit was 31 cents a share, 5 cents higher than the average of 24 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Oil futures in New York averaged $68.24 a barrel in the third quarter, 42 percent lower than a year earlier. Crude climbed from $59.79 in the second quarter. Operating profit from a region that includes Africa, Europe and the former Soviet Union fell 2 percent, and income declined 16 percent in the Middle East and Asia. The drop in North America was 93 percent. “I thought that the numbers in the Middle East and Europe came in stronger than I expected, both in terms of revenues and margins,” said Mark Brown, a senior analyst at Pritchard Capital in New York who has a “buy” rating on Halliburton shares and owns none. “I thought that was a good sign for Halliburton”.....Read the entire article

Peak Oil Will Influence The Shape of Our Future World

We are currently reading another interesting book dealing with the global economy and cheap oil that combined to revolutionize the world's transportation business and altered the history of our economic development. The book is called The Box: "How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger" by Marc Levinson. This book is essentially a history of the evolution of the mundane shipping container (just a large metal box) that brings us exotic foods and inexpensive consumer products from around the world. Much like the books, Cod: "A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World" and "Salt: A World History", both by Mark Kurlansky that document the world altering impact of simple things like a fish and grains of a chemical product, the shipping container is a remarkably simple device that also changed the course of the world's economy.

If oil is no longer available, or cheap, will developed economies be capable of getting cheap foodstuffs and industrial and consumer products that have contributed so much to their economic development and high living standards? The answer from Messrs. Rubin and Steiner is: No!

The two authors have the same theme, how Americans will have to give up traveling, abandon eating foods that come from great distances away and find new ways to work. These books, listed on the non fiction book lists, amaze me because they truly are fictional works. Admittedly they are based on reasonable premises, but they are largely speculation about how the world of the future will unfold.....read the entire article.

Phil Flynn: NO MAS!

No Mas, refiners wave the white flag as the Energy Information Agency report that US refinery runs plunge 10% to 80.5 percent! That puts refinery runs below the five year average of 81.4 percent causing a steep drop in gasoline and drop in distillates setting off a firestorm of buying in the petroleum complex. Keep in mind that that this is a five year average that includes two major hurricane related shut downs. In other words refiners are running like they were hit by a hurricane and if you look at their margins for profit for doing business they kind of were. His was the the third lowest run rate of the last 10 years, excluding 2005 and 2002.

Refining profit margins have fallen 83% in the last nine weeks a drop that has refiners just shutting down. If you can’t make a profit making a product why bother. And what is more it is likely that if demand and margins do not pick up soon we could see further cuts in runs and also in supply. The cuts supported crude as the market thinks that refiners will focus on only the highest yielding crude oil not wasting effort on the lower yielding stuff.....read the entire article.

Bloomberg Analysis: Oil May Breach 200 Week Average, Test $85

Crude oil is poised to breach technical resistance at its 200 week moving average and rally to $85 a barrel, according to technical analysis by Citi FX. Oil for November delivery touched a one year high of $77.97 a barrel yesterday, positioning it to breach the 200 week moving average at the close of today’s trading, said Tom Fitzpatrick, chief technical analyst at Citi FX, part of Citigroup Capital Markets in New York. The average last week was $74.98 a barrel.

“If that happens, we think a move to at least $85 could be in the cards with some interim resistance just above $80,” Fitzpatrick said. Such a move “is likely to confirm the directional bias for the rest of this year.” Oil last crossed the 200 week moving average a year ago on its way down to $32.40 in December, the lowest price since February 2004. Before that, crude spent more than five years above the average as it rallied to a record $147.27 a barrel in July 2008.....read the entire article.