19 Jul 2002

Posted at 16:19h in The Friday Brief by
Think back to March of 2000 and you might recall those strong the public statements that were bandied about by the government’s Microsoft trustbusters.  Their tone of retribution was the impetus, in the opinion of many, that launched the first phase of the ‘great bear market of 2000 to 200?.’  The question that keeps me awake at night is this; could the bear be prolonged indefinitely as our congress and administration posture to ‘reform’ securities laws, and in so doing, drive away investors and CEOs who fear that the new regulations will be too restrictive to promote effective capital formation or excessive penalties?  It is plausible that the markets are not so worried that every company is crooked as they are that Washington will overreach in addressing a problem that is not as widespread the big-government proponents would have us believe. 

07 Jun 2002

Posted at 15:23h in The Friday Brief by
It’s getting increasingly difficult to find the silver lining among these ugly, gray clouds.  Stocks have fallen for ten of the past twelve weeks.  The stock-price drubbings have taken their toll on the collective confidence of investors as well as this writer.  Each day brings news of tragedy in Israel and Palestine, or of escalation in the Kashmir region, or setbacks in the war on terror.  If the global news abates, there’s plenty of homespun grief to compensate; from political and bureaucratic finger-pointing over potential advance warning of 9/11, and an ever-growing list of blue-chip corporations admitting accounting transgressions, to company rating downgrades, and securities analysts stumbling over each other to get the bad news out first. 

15 Feb 2002

Posted at 16:07h in The Friday Brief by
The economy is coming out of, or may be out of recession.  Would somebody please notify the market?  Positive economic news is becoming almost commonplace, but its market impact has been mostly counter-intuitive.  In a bear market bad news is bad news and good news is sometimes bad news.  Many of the favorable economic releases of late have been greeted with fears of inflation and higher interest.  Yesterday, Jack Guynn, Atlanta Fed. President and non-voting member of Greenspan’s inflation police, knocked the wind out of the struggling market’s sails when he said that the Fed stood ready to raise rates at the first sign of inflation.  The S&P 500 and the NASDAQ dropped 1% and 1.5%, respectively on his comments.  If Mr. Guynn’s understanding his counterparts’ positions is true, then the Fed has learned NOTHING about the productivity miracle of the 90’s.  I think they have and that Mr. Guynn doesn’t speak for the majority. 

01 Feb 2002

Posted at 16:16h in The Friday Brief by
As we pointed out last week, the ‘January Effect’ never materialized.  Typically, January’s market volume is among the highest of the year as 401-K’s and corporate retirement plans receive their largest contributions.  In addition, investors come back to the markets in January to replace stock they sold for tax-losses at the end of the prior year.  The scarcity of enthusiastic buyers and a general malaise among investors weighed heavily on last month’s markets.  The S&P 500 declined 1.5%, the Dow declined .91%, and the NASDAQ fell by .82%.  The S&P 600, the index of small companies managed a gain of just less than 1%.  During the five Januarys prior this one, funds flowing into equity mutual funds averaged 8.8 billion dollars in the first two weeks.  The first two weeks of this January saw the exit of $4.7 billion from equity mutual funds, according to TrimTabs, a fund tracking service.