Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Bernanke testimony raised spirits

Markets liked what they heard when Chairman Bernanke testified before Congress. He tried to clear the air about nationalizing banks. However, the concept will remain murky especially when the Federal Reserve has to make it up as they go along. Dow rose 236, advancers over decliners 4-1 & NAZ was up 54.


Banks had an excellent relief rally giving the S&P 500 FINANCIALS INDEX one its best days in some time. Of course, it came off extremely depressed levels.


Value
107.57
Change
11.39
% Change
11.8%



High yield securities found buyers today. The Alerian MLP Index gained 5 to 182 as shown in the Yahoo widget on the right. REITs & junk bond funds also had an excellent day while the VIX plunged 8 to 44½.


Oil rebounded while gold was hit with more profit taking. Maybe some of that money from gold sales was used to buy stocks.


CLJ09.NYM..Crude Oil Apr 09..39.93Up 1.49
....(3.9%)




ZGG09.CBT..Gold 100 oz. Feb 09..970.20 Down 24.30
....(2.4%)




Chairman Bernanke made investors feel better saying that the FED would not nationalize banks & the recession could end by later this year. He also talked about banks lending more & being prepared to cut divs to conserve cash for the balance sheet. His ideas sounded good but the FED's role in bank business & lending activity still has to be better defined.

Stocks Jump After Bernanke Says Recession May End This Year- AP
Fed urges banks to lend bailout funds: source- Reuters


The decline must the worst one since the depression. By way of comparison, at the start of 1973 Dow just touched 1000 on a wave of optimism. That year was awful, highlighted by the oil embargo driving up oil prices & inflation to what were record levels for modern times. The Dow kept dropping for more than a year. The total decline was more than 40%, dreadful. Then it took almost another decade before it tested 1K again.

The current peak was 17 months ago. After today's rally, Dow (7350) is down 48% from the recent peak.

Oct_9,_2007.........14,164


Asian markets will begin trading in a couple of hours with a strong upward bias. But economic reality will keep playing out. The markets will tell us if this relief rally has legs.

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