A poetic look at 2010

By Prieur du Plessis, on December 26th, 2010 posted in: Investment, Markets, Money

John Murphy is not only the top charting honcho at StockCharts.com, but he has also just produced an excellent summary of 2010’s investment happenings – written very admirably as a poem.

Twas the night before Christmas
And on the street they call Wall
Traders and investors were having a ball,
Stocks and commodities were ending on an upnote
Which for the global economy was a positive vote,
Extended tax cuts started by Bush
Also gave stocks a positive push,
Consumers were doing a lot of shopping
Retail stocks as a result were popping,
December had its usual seasonal rally
A last week Santa bounce should add to its tally,
During the summer stocks started to jump
And as usual gave the economy a bump,
Double dip economists got a surprise
While chart readers took the prize,
A weak dollar kept foreign stocks surging
As investors put money into markets emerging,
Commodity traders became even more bold
Which caused a new record high in gold,
Most commodities were also on the boil
As December saw a two-year high in oil,
Thanks partly to the mid-term election
Stocks and commodities became the top selection,
Rising inflation fears made bond yields rise
Only the Fed viewed that with surprise,
From inflation’s core it excludes fuel and food
Drivers and shoppers were in a more inflationary mood,
They started their bond funds to sell
As most fixed income categories fell,
Not all bonds fell across the fixed income field
One group that help up best was high yield,
Financials became December’s best
Even homebuilders passed a technical test,
2010 has been a pretty good year
So there’s plenty of reason for Christmas cheer,
To our readers on Main Street and Wall
We wish a Merry Christmas to one and all.