At record high, U.S. stocks look to extend breakout --Weekly Thread Feb. 16

Weekly investment & finance thread ^ | February 15, 2015 | Freeper Investors

[expat_panama]

[excerpt from Yahoo Finance]     NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks are poised for more upward momentum even as uncertainty over oil prices and Greek debt negotiations keeps the market on tenterhooks, analysts say. Strong fourth-quarter U.S. company earnings and signs of an overall improving economy, alongside what appears to be the start of a bottoming in crude oil prices, have given equities support. After starting 2015 with its sharpest monthly drop in a year and a spike in volatility, the benchmark S&P 500 (.SPX) hit an intraday record on Friday while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) reached its highest point so far this year. As "stocks have found a footing, people aren't as afraid of the potential negative" stemming from recent instability in oil prices and Greece, said Wayne Kaufman, chief market analyst at Phoenix Financial Services in New York. "That's allowed stocks to start breaking out of the channel that they've been stuck in since the beginning of the year," he said. Volatility seems to abating.... {snip] ...market participants will be paying close attention to developments in Greece - which, alongside oil prices, have been at the root of the volatility seen in the market this year. Greece's new leftist government and euro zone finance ministers failed to agree this week on the next step for the country's bailout, leaving negotiations on the table for next week as they inch closer to a Feb. 28 deadline. The Greek government promised to do "whatever we can" to secure a deal with international creditors. While U.S. exposure to Greek debt is "pretty minor," uncertainty over the situation and the impact on broader markets adds to volatility, according to Charles Lieberman, chief investment officer of Advisors Capital Management LLC in New Jersey. "It's more in the nature of psychology than real substance," he said.

Also in the news: [excerpt from NASDAQ Oil Prices: Freaking Investors Out for 150 Years and Counting.. ] Whenever I read or watch financial media coverage of oil prices lately, the image that comes to mind is a bunch of kids who just ate half their weight in candy, washed it down with a gallon of Red Bull, and then run around the playground at warp speed. They both move so fast and sporadically that is almost impossible to keep up with them. Here is just a small example of headlines that have been found at major financial media outlets in just the past week: Citi: Oil Could Plunge to $20, and This Might Be 'the End of OPEC' OPEC sees oil prices exploding to $200 a barrel Oil at $55 per barrel is here to stay Gas prices may double by year's end: Analyst What is absolutely mind-boggling about these statements is that these sorts of predictions are accompanied with the dumbest thing that anyone can say about commodities: This time it's different . No it's not, and we have 150 years worth of oil price panics to prove it. [snip] Also keep in mind, these are just the change in annual price averages. So it's very likely that these big price pops and plunges are even more frequent than what this chart shows. Investing in energy takes more stomach than brains... {snip] ...However, if you had made an investment in ExxonMobil in 1980 and just held onto it, your total return -- share price appreciation plus dividends -- would look a little something like this.

--and a super big hat tip to abb for getting the Yahoo Finace link to me just in time!!

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This is the thread where folks swap ideas on savings and investment --here's a list of popular investing links that freepers have posted here and tomorrow morning we'll go on with our--

Open invitation continues always for idea-input for the thread, this being a joint effort works well.   Keywords: financial, WallStreet, stockmarket, economy.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

Just head on over to ZeroHedge. That will suck all the investing optimism right out of you. ;^)

[Qwackertoo]

Yes. I will have to practice much patience.

[abb]

That’s it. I’m buying BEARX first thing Tuesday AM!! I’m gonna make a fortune!!

It’s different, this time!!

LOL...

[Travis McGee]

Not sure this is the right time to post this, but I like it. I'm told it's Basel, Switzerland. With a waterfall added.

[expat_panama]

short-term trends, which are entertaining but random.

While that is a popular point of view, there're many of us who can make a nice living by watching for short term market trading signals.  It's controversial, they don't always work, but my personal experience and of a few others here is that there really are useful signals.

[proxy_user]

There are guys who make lots of money with short term trading.

It’s like poker. It’s a game of skill, and there are highly skilled players, and they do win everyone else’s money.

Investing? That it is not.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

The US is the new hot spot for aerospace manufacturing

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-us-becomes-hot-spot-for-aerospace-manufacturing-2015-2#ixzz3RsuCKddg

[expat_panama]

highly skilled players, and they do win everyone else’s money.

--and that's how gamblers, whores, and thieves view the markets when they want a quick kill.  The way grown-ups see the market place is as a place where we create wealth to feed our families.   If good people work hard, their hard work does not take other people's hard work away from them.  In fact, a good place to get a lot of work done is where ever we see other people working hard.  I've found that a bad place to get work done is where I find gamblers, whores, and thieves thinking that the wealth I created is somehow theirs.

Merchants create wealth when they provide the service of buying things at a low price and selling them later at a higher price.  It's a necessary service that we all need and skilled merchants are richly rewarded for the wealth they create.  This is true for the sale of used cars, of canned food, and it's also true for markets for shares of corporations.  Something else that we need to understand is that unskilled merchants harm others when they foolishly buy junk at high prices and then go broke when they're forced to unload their wares below cost.  They hurt others not only when they distort market prices but also when they either go on the dole, when they complain on forums like these about gamblers winning "everyone else's money", or when they attempt to illegally "take back" the wealth of others.

[Qwackertoo]

Hope it keeps up. Son is heading to college in the fall to major in aerospace engineering.

Happy we’re getting the Air Bus facility in Mobile!

Have a pretty decent presence with Boeing in Huntsville area but mainly NASA related.

[Qwackertoo]

You hit it right if you bought in Nov. Wish I had bought then!!!

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

Good luck to your son. I hope he prospers.

[Qwackertoo]

Thanks!

[expat_panama]

tx fer the headsup!   What really knocked my socks off was the related story: "The US is starting to regulate business on the moon"...

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

Interesting. I’m thinking California circa 1849, Oklahoma circa 1890 and now to the moon.

[expat_panama]

—and then Carter gives away Alaskan islands to Russia just like he paid Panama to take the Canal Zone. Ah well, give me a sec to quit my hyperventilating and we can just say that it’s wonderful how America leads humanity’s expansion.

[Mad Dawgg]

"I’m just wondering what positive economic indications underpin all this investing optimism...?"

[expat_panama]

whoa... morning already!  Looking good tho, traders for both stock indexes and precious metals still like our new bases and are going forward steadily.  We begin the trade week on Tuesday so we hear from Empire Manufacturing, NAHB Housing Market Index, and Net Long-Term TIC Flows.  

West Coast seaport talks resume with US labor secretary in room amid ... Fox Business - 2 hours ago A container ship sits anchored in Elliott Bay in view of other ships docked at the Port of Seattle beyond, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2015, in Seattle.

Oil pushes higher, Brent crude tops $62 a barrel MarketWatch - 4 hours ago Oil prices rose in Asian trade Tuesday as the breakdown in Greece's debt negotiations failed to affect bullish sentiment in oil markets, with Brent crude now topping $62 a barrel.
Shares in retreat after collapse of Greek debt talks U.S. stock futures and many share markets in Asia retreated on Tuesday after talks between Greece and euro zone finance ministers broke down in acrimony, stoking fresh uncertainty over a bailout program that Athens has rejected as "absurd". U.S. stock futures fell 0.4 percent while Japan's Nikkei share average shed 0.1 percent. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside

Negative interest rates: Coming to America?

Personal note:  I hate when I think I'm buying organic vegetables and when I get home I discover they're just regular donuts...

[expat_panama]

You’re not making it easy for me to get any serious work done this morning.

[abb]

Today’s to-do list:

Job One! - BUY @ Market Open - BEARX

http://quotes.morningstar.com/fund/BEARX/f?t=BEARX

[Mad Dawgg]

"You’re not making it easy for me to get any serious work done this morning."

Well good because "Work, is the curse of the drinking class..."

And so logically "Serious Work" is a serious curse of the Serious drinking class.

And as my wife will tell you I am a very serious fellow...