Snap back

It's been soooo long. Bulls returned to bid up stocks last week with banks leading the way. The S&P 500 FINANCIALS INDEX soared 28 points points, shown below. But the index remains short of the Nov low which was hoped to be a floor. Citigroup (C) went up 78¢ from $1 the week prior. Impressive, but the stock still has a lot of work in front of it just to become a $2 stock.

Nov 20__125

Mar 6____81
Mar 13__109


Dow had a great week, breaking thru the 7K ceiling (which had been a floor a couple of weeks prior). The upper line shows how well the Alerian MLP Index has been preforming this year, the Nov lows in the 155 area have held so far.


Dow vs Alerian MLP Index --- YTD




Other high yield sectors also benefited from these gains. The Dow Jones REIT Index, after plunging more than the Dow this year, rebounded 20% last week (off a greatly oversold level). Junk bond funds rebounded but to a lesser degree than the others.

Over the weekend, OPEC decided to keep production levels on hold. Their focus will be on enforcing cutbacks already approved. They are afraid more cutbacks might damage the fragile world economy.

•OPEC Will Keep Oil Production Quotas Unchanged, Adhere to Current Targets


The White House is trying to put a positive spin on global meltdown. During the campaign, Obama said McCain was out of touch by suggesting the fundamentals of the US the economy were strong. Now that's the same message the White House is putting out. They view the "mess" as temporary. Uh, huh!

White House says economy is sound despite 'mess'- AP


Further gains in the markets will come if they feel gov is working to repair the economy & financial meltdown. Not sure how that will play out.

We saw an excellent movie last night & want to give it a plug. Carmen & Geoffrey is about 2 famous dancers who have been married for 53 years, quite an achievement. In all fairness my friend is more into dancing, so she enjoyed it more than me. Carmen DeLavallade & Geoffrey Holder have an interesting story, with the focus on their dance & his art. When credits were shown at the end, the tall buy sitting behind us got up & went down front. He was Geoffrey, adding stories including how he met Carmen. Check local movie art houses if you want to see an enjoyable movie.