US durable goods numbers rose three times better than expected and the OECD tipped Australia would roar out of the economic downturn and grow by 2.4% in 2010. 

Another down day but the sell-off has not been convincing on Wall Street. In fact, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 ended up in positive territory! The Dow dropped 23.05 points or 0.28% to 8,299.86. The Nasdaq gained 27.42 points or 1.55% to 1,792.34. The S&P 500 rose 5.84 points or 0.65% to 900.94. The […]

The pullback I have been talking about for at least a month now looks to be in train, but the question is how far does it come back? The fears today that Wall Street traders used to justify their sell-off was the World Bank downgrade for global economic growth. The Bank has raised its global […]

The World Bank has upgraded China’s economic growth for this year from 6.5% to 7.2% and that has to be good news for Australia as a key supplier of vital raw materials to the third biggest economy. 

 These are crazy times when financial stocks can actually rise in the USA — and that’s something all optimists have been waiting for — and then the market goes lower on drug stocks hit by Obama’s changes to health care! Of course, the market still has not heard what it wants to hear — a […]

Despite the worst economic growth rate since 1982 — minus 6.25% on an annualised basis — the Dow Jones index only fell 1.5%. This suggests that while share prices could still go a bit lower, the willingness to sell off madly has waned since the start of 2009. A bear market rally soon would not […]

AMP’s chief economist Shane Oliver still thinks the S&P/ASX 200 will finish at 4,500. This is one for those who are wavering and getting close to capitulation! 

In case you are feeling like running to cash, consider this — there are experts who are optimistic. "We think the economy probably bottomed in January," David Magee told CNBC.  "We look at the quality spreads and the bond market, we see the default risks have fallen, and with that, we think that the economy's […]

According to CNBC: Goldman Sachs analyst David Kostin last week said he was lowering his full-year S&P forecast to 940 from 1,100—a significant drop but still a number showing a 20% gain from current levels. Also China announcing another stimulus package, at a time when there are signs that the first one is working to […]

According to CNBC, oil tycoon Bill Pickens thinks oil will rise to $US75 a barrel by year’s end. While this sounds like bad news to motorists, it has to reflect that he sees an economic recovery in his crystal ball. 

Newspapers are telling us we’re in recession — it’s possibly true, but the official line is that we have to get two quarters of negative growth and we haven’t got that yet. It does look likely that we will end up in an official recession as March is often a slow quarter, being post-Christmas. However, […]

Warren Buffett told CNBC that US banks are in better shape than many think. Most banks are in "pretty good shape" and can "earn their way out" of the current problems given the low cost of funds, but they "need to get back to banking." This is the job of the Obama administration and when […]