On February 21, 1972, President Nixon arrived in Beijing after more than two decades of hostility between China and the US. The world was also on the brink in those days. The US was still in Vietnam, and Russia was building up a million-man force on the Chinese border getting ready to invade.
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Long term trends are very difficult to time, but cannot be ignored as a backdrop for cyclical and secular moves.
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No, I'm not talking about Apple, very loudly creeping up, then down and representing ever more SPX points. The creeping up is oil.
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A reader pointed me to the National Geographic Channel's new show called "
Doomsday Preppers". I had never watched the show until today, but I have to admit that it was intriguing.
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From Yahoo Finance:
Zynga Inc. develops, markets, and operates online social games on the Internet, social networking sites, and mobile platforms. The company offers poker games, word games, and board games.
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Where have all the themes gone? Speaking to traders around the street, I get the sense that there's just beta and more beta. Don't get me wrong, there are big moves under the surface, but the moves are more about volatility than expressions of themes.
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Portugal, and yields, and Iran - oh my! None of these are new stories.
Portugal is bigger than Greece - but we knew that. Moreover, we knew Portugal was in dire straits. We knew Germany was already hesitant to provide more assistance and would demand higher guarantees.
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I am not immune to the hunt. Yield can help you wait out a lot of volatility, and is especially important in times of questionable returns and incredibly low rates on savings. Pundits have been talking up the dividend yields of some brand name US firms such as JNJ or PG.
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Last year I started writing about the divergent forces working on oil: global slowdown vs. geopolitical unrest. So far, geopolitical unrest has been winning.
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TechCrunch reported earlier today about "a study by the British Psychological Society [that] found a link between stress levels and the number of times a person picks up their smartphone to check messages and mails. As an addict, I can completely agree with this finding.
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For months, we were following BAC as the barometer for all that was financial. BAC had it all: Countrywide waste, new consumer fees, brand name shorts, and brand name entrants (albeit into preferreds), and more. It was easy to see it become a single digit, and then watch in wonder as it broke down.
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Here's the issue: most fund managers are used to taking some time off in August, or at least in the July-August period at some point. This year, their plans were thwarted by what can only be described as PAIN. So Joe Manager didn't have his time off, and wasn't able to de-stress.
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In a nutshell, this article summarizes the problems we are facing.
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The euro is starting off 2012 weak - that's not news - Spain is having a tough time with sovereign auctions, and Greece will soon be testing the euro's exit mechanisms.
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February 21, 2012 5:09 pm | 
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