Stock Rally Adds Another Percent while Metals Fade: Week Ahead Worries-- Investor Thread Feb. 22

Weekly investment & finance thread ^ | February 22, 2015 | Freeper Investors

[expat_panama]

[excerpt from Yahoo Finance: What to watch next week: TGT, HD, M, HPQ, GDP and Greece] Next week will be a busy week on Wall Street with a raft of big earnings reports including Target (TGT), Macy’s (M), Home Depot (HD) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) to name just a few. Investors will also have a lot of economic data and geopolitics to digest this coming week and in the weeks that follow. The Commerce Department will release the latest reading on third quarter Gross Domestic Product. Yahoo Finance’s Rick Newman thinks investors will be watching that report closely, as well as the situation in Greece. Newman predicts Greece will finally cave in its standoff with its European underwriters over the terms of its debt deal. “I think next week is going to be the week that Greece blinks,” says Newman. He believes Greek officials will “finally say ‘OK, we have to go along with the bailout terms.’” And Newman believes that will lead to a pop in European stocks. Yahoo Finance’s Aaron Task is looking to our nation’s capital and a couple of looming deadlines as the next potential trouble spots that could rankle financial markets. Funding for the Department of Homeland Security will run out at the end of February unless Congress can come to an agreement to extend funding. Task believes this is just the first in a series of contentious debates... [snip] ...The Treasury secretary can use a number of gimmicks to postpone the day of reckoning, and experts think such gimmicks can carry us through September or October. Then we’ll witness a serious confrontation of the sort we’ve seen before—a game of fiscal chicken between Congress and the White House. If Blinder is right and the United States does breach the debt ceiling, Task believes that will set off “all kinds of fireworks in the financial markets.” 5 Oil Stocks Analysts Want You To Buy Now The recent drop in oil prices has created a situation that is very complex for investors. Oil has become cheap again and the stocks tracking the oil and gas sector have tanked to the point that at least ...

Why Female Investors Outperform Men - Heather Long, CNNMoney Females typically save 8.3% of their income, while men only save 7.9%, Fidelity found after looking at over 12 million retirement accounts and adjusting for certain pay disparities between men and women. That may not sound like a big difference, but it adds up over time. Consider that the median household income in the U.S. is around $50,000. If you apply those savings rates to the median income, women save about $200 more a year. So if their returns are about the same, women would end up with more. ..[snip]     After tight trading, volatility set to return to stocks By Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK (Reuters) - After a holiday-shortened trading week that pinned stocks in a tight trading range, equities are poised for a bout of renewed volatility as investors watch the economy and the Federal Reserve for signs of policy changes and economic strength. Through Thursday's close, the S&P 500 was held to its narrowest trading week since Thanksgiving as investors dealt with uncertainty regarding a forward path for the economy and a deal for Greek debt. Late on Friday, the European Union agreed to a four-month extension for Greece, and a late rally pushed the S&P 500 above technical resistance level of 2,100 after several failed attempts earlier in the week. The index was up modestly for the week, building on a 5-percent gain over the prior two weeks. "The market has done quite well this week holding things together," said Frank Cappelleri, technical market analyst and trader at ...

--and not only has all this been written by experts, but everything here's been posted on the internet so we can to believe every single word.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *  

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.

[1010RD]

Correct, absolutely correct. Free markets are based on trust. Trust is experiential, but it also reflects the natural world. When you see economic oddities for instance interest rates going down when they should be shooting up to reflect risk, you’re natural understanding of the world is broken.

Socialism breaks the natural consequences via political manipulation by those in control of government. Bets get bigger because government will intervene, hence too big to fail. That destroys trust.

[1010RD]

Europe via socialism has destroyed the work incentive and humans respond to incentives.

[1010RD]

Free trade in currencies is an illusion without the ability for new entrants to get into the market. Governments follow the same general pattern throughout the world. Look at Japan’s response to it’s central planning by MITI, now METI.

Look at how the IRS ruled on bitcoin. Are they neutral arbiters of what is and isn’t a currency. The market works and you have demonstrated a deep belief in markets.

What’s the harm of a true free market in currency? Stocks, bonds and ETFs are very close to being currency.

[abb]

If the history of the World proves anything, it is that market forces cannot be indefinitely manipulated. They eventually correct, sometimes precipitously, sometimes slowly.

That history also shows the contest between the “something for nothing” believers, and the “return for ones effort” people has gone on since began.

It will continue to go on.

Meanwhile, we all have to function the best we can, day to day.

[expat_panama]

Competition between Euro, Dollar and Yen

Competition rules and all must obey the law of supply and demand.  The world market has decided it wants one currency: the U.S. dollar.  Sure, some places use other kinds but they all evenutally end up going back to using dollars.  Kind of like Windows vs OS.  I recently visited a factory making Apple computers and computer systems for running the line and QC used applications on Windows platforms.

[abb]

I recently visited a factory making Apple computers and computer systems for running the line and QC used applications on Windows platforms.

SCREECH, SCREECH!!! Heathen!!! Heretic!!! Apostate!!! You just wait until the witch-burning detail gets here!!

[Toddsterpatriot]

What’s the harm of a true free market in currency?

So I get paid in "American Express Dollars" my mortgage is in "Exxon Dollars" and my bank pays interest in "JPMorgan Dollars".

I go to the store and items are priced in 18 different currencies. Seems a little clunky.

[1010RD]

Good insights and true. Thus has it always been and perfection isn’t for this world. Thanks.

[1010RD]

Interesting and I do prefer King Dollar to any other world currency king. At least we have a historical commitment to free markets and free trade.

[expat_panama]

Heathen!!! Heretic!!! Apostate!!!

lol!!  It's the old conflict between how we say what we want to believe vs how we do what works.  Kind of like the way tariff lovers tell us it's unAmerican to drink Panamanian coffee even though they themselves love to hoard Chinese gold.

[1010RD]

That would be clunky and what we see in clunky markets is consolidation, no?

Look at credit cards: Visa, MasterCard, and AE dominate. Not clunky, but totally functional. The market makes it work or changes it until it does.

All I’m calling for is an end to government monopoly of currency in America.

[abb]

I’ve always said the do-gooders always want to do-good with money that belongs to someone else.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

” do-gooders always want to do-good with money that belongs to someone else”

Philanthropy is fun when you got your hand in someone else’s pocket.

[Grampa Dave]

“Whole Foods has seen smartphone transactions surge 400 percent since it integrated Apple Pay.”

No real surprise there. I thought that the surge might be higher with eco liberals shopping at Whole Paycheck and their addictions to I Phones.

[Grampa Dave]

“Personally, I’d love to see an alternative to PayPal.”

So would I have.

I have used PP forever and never had problem until a few weeks ago.

Fellow Fly Fishers and kayakers are constantly selling and trading fly rods, reels, lines and kayaks/kayak parts.

PP has been great there. It has been great until I tried to sign up for a free 2 week trial on Ancestors.com with my new Android tablet.

I apparent signed up with AC wrong and correctly with PP. I was never able to log on to AC. I tried to send a hold to PP, and I never got through. I contacted AC several times and only got long complicated processes to do on my computer, and none worked to cancel the order and start out again. They just billed me for a service never used because I can’t log on.

So I get billed for a $100 from AC for a year’s service, and I still can’t log on.

If I had used one of my Visa cards, that payment would have been cancelled. My credit card vendors want to keep our business. That doesn’t work with PP. Good luck canceling it now and get a refund.

Visa for its high end customers apparently has something like PP that allows you to use your email and a log in without giving out your credit card number charge purchases on line.

I will be checking that out. Like others I get worried when I hand a cc to a waiter.waitress and they disappear from view. Now, I sit so I can see their credit card machine.

[expat_panama]

Visa for its high end customers apparently has something like PP that allows you to use your email and a log in

Now that is something that's very good to know --tx!

[expat_panama]

Happy Mid-week everyone!  This morning's futures have stock indexes mixed and metals soaring +1.16% after yesterday's stock gains in higher volume and PM's continued basing.  Reports:  MBA Mortgage Index, New Home Sales , and Crude Inventories. More at--

Yahoo Finance Live: Stocks after Yellen boost; Lowe's strong quarter; Buffett loves… Investors in a cautious mood a day after the Fed Chair helped send stocks into record territory; Lowe's follows Home Depot with a positive earnings report; Warren Buffett makes investing moves in Germany.

[Aquamarine]

Visa for its high end customers apparently has something like PP that allows you to use your email and a log in without giving out your credit card number charge purchases on line. I will be checking that out.

I'd be interested to know how that works.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

I think this may be it.

Visa Checkout

In 2013 Visa launched Visa Checkout, an online payment system that removes the need to share card details with retailers. The Visa Checkout service allows users to enter all their personal details and card information, then use a single username and password to make purchases from online retailers. On the 27 November 2013 V.me went live in the UK, France, Spain and Poland, with Nationwide Building Society being the first financial institution in Britain to support it.[75]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_Inc.#Visa_Checkout

[Aquamarine]

Thanks. My Visa card has a Rewards Program that can be redeemed for cash or merchandise. Don't know if PayPal offers such a thing, stopped using PayPal years ago.

Will call Visa tomorrow and see about getting a Visa Checkout set up.