Archive for August, 2007

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Friday, August 31st, 2007

What does September hold for the Dow?

The chart below, courtesy of Chart of the Day, illustrates the Dow Jones Industrial Index’s average performance for each calendar month since 1950 (blue bars) and 1980 (gray bars) respectively. While the strongest upward movement in stocks has historically occurred during the November to January period, September has proven to be the most difficult month for stocks. It is interesting […]

1 Comment » - Posted in Stocks, Wall Street, Money, Markets, Investment, Equities by Prieur du Plessis
Wednesday, August 29th, 2007

Will a Fed rate-cutting program bail out Wall Street?

In my posting of August 17 I gave reasons why the Fed’s cut of the discount window rate on that day did not come as a surprise. Given the severity of the credit squeeze and the ramifications for the US economy at large, I also commented that a number of rate cuts in quick succession could […]

1 Comment » - Posted in Money, Stocks, Wall Street, Markets, Investment, Economy, Equities, Finance, Business by Prieur du Plessis
Monday, August 27th, 2007

Temporary stock market bounce or sustainable rally?

Sarah Connor’s lyrics “Get up and move, Don’t make me act a fool, Just bounce” come to mind when reviewing the performance of financial markets since the Fed’s emergency discount rate cut on August 17.
The invariable question is to what extent the actions of the Fed and other central banks have calmed jittery financial markets. […]

4 Comments » - Posted in Markets, Investment, Money, Oil, Wall Street, Stocks, Gold, Finance, Commodities, Business, Currencies, Economy, Equities, Bonds by Prieur du Plessis
Sunday, August 26th, 2007

Words from the wise for the week that was (August 18 to 24, 2007)

I spend a very large amount of time reading investment-related material. In order to share some of the more interesting snippets with readers, I have decided to add a new section to the blog – Words from the Wise – where I will regularly publish a number of quotations from market commentators. The content will […]

2 Comments » - Posted in Markets, Investment, Money, Stocks, Wall Street, Gold, Finance, Commodities, Business, Currencies, Economy, Equities, Bonds by Prieur du Plessis
Friday, August 17th, 2007

Why the Fed’s rate cut did not come as a surprise

Since hitting a peak on July 16, the meltdown in global stock markets has taken place with lightning speed. Given the fact that more than 10% (using the Dow Jones World Index as a proxy for global stocks) has already been wiped off investors’ scoreboards, the question invariably is how low can we go.
Has the […]

15 Comments » - Posted in Markets, Investment, Money, Stocks, Wall Street, Gold, Finance, Business, Commodities, Economy, Equities, Bonds by Prieur du Plessis
Thursday, August 16th, 2007

Crashing stock markets – Hoofy & Boo causing a laugh

The video clip of Jim Cramer ranting and raving about the credit squeeze stirred up huge interest in the financial world. And, true to the fast-moving pace of events, Hoofy the Bull and Boo the Bear did not waste any time hooking up to the action and giving meaning to the term “market meltdown”.

I hope […]

3 Comments » - Posted in Markets, Money, Wall Street, Investment, Humor, Economy, Finance, Business by Prieur du Plessis
Tuesday, August 14th, 2007

Gold – more than a safe-haven play

What’s up with gold? The dollar gold price would appear to be in pause mode of late, but somewhat deeper analysis shows a few interesting aspects.
On August 9 the bullion price was slaughtered by $12 together with an avalanche of selling across just about all financial markets, with the exception of government bonds. Whether is […]

3 Comments » - Posted in Markets, Investment, Money, Stocks, Wall Street, Gold, Finance, Commodities, Currencies, Economy, Equities, Business by Prieur du Plessis
Saturday, August 11th, 2007

The lighter side of the US housing debacle

The US housing situation is turning out to be a nightmare of much worse proportions than was generally expected not so long ago. And, to reemphasize my viewpoint, it is still rather difficult to detect even the faintest ray of light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.
But with all painful situations there is usually […]

2 Comments » - Posted in Markets, Money, Humor, Housing, Economy, Finance, Business by Prieur du Plessis
Wednesday, August 8th, 2007

Where to hide from jittery financial markets

“I have often been too bearish about the US equity markets in the last 12 years (although bullish on emerging equity markets), but I think it is fair to say that my language has almost never been this dire. The feeling I have today is that of watching a very slow motion train wreck.”
These are […]

11 Comments » - Posted in Markets, Money, Stocks, Investment, Finance, Business, Economy, Equities, Bonds by Prieur du Plessis
Monday, August 6th, 2007

101 Guide to the CDO Rating Process

Ever wondered about the rating process involved in transforming sub-prime mortgages into AAA collateralized debt obligations (CDOs)? Nothing can be easier, at least not the way it is explained below. (If the diagram appears a bit faint, that is a characteristic of the process!)

Source: Sarasin Chiswell

1 Comment » - Posted in Markets, Money, Wall Street, Investment, Housing, Business, Economy, Finance, Bonds by Prieur du Plessis
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