Monday, June 6, 2011

Markets decline, led by lower bank stocks

Stocks were under water all day finishing near their lows. Dow dropped 61, decliners over advancers almost 4-1 & NAZ fell 30. Bank stocks had a bad day on fears the Federal Reserve will boost capital requirements for the largest banks. The chart for the Financial Index looks just plain ugly!

S&P 500 FINANCIALS INDEX

Value	200.53
Change	-4.04 (-2.0%)

MLPs were caught up in market selling, bringing the index near the the key 350 support level. The REIT index fell 3½ to below 239 & down 11 from its recent 2011 highs. Junk bond funds slipped back & Treasuries were flattish ahead of selling $66B at auction this week. Oil fell below $100 a barrel as investors & economists await an OPEC meeting this week. Gold was also little changed around $1550, but its investors are very happy with its performance in 2011 (up 10% YTD).

ALERIAN MLP INDEX

Value	357.21
Change	-5.21 (-1.5%)

Treasury yields:

U.S. 3-month	0.025%
U.S. 2-year	0.421%
U.S. 10-year	2.993%

CLN11.NYM

....Crude Oil Jul 11

...98.68

...

1.54 (1.5%)

Cisco, a Dow stock, will introduce 2 new routers to help service providers handle surging data & video use. The routers will be capable of transmitting data more than 25 times faster than machines from the competition. Service providers are struggling to keep up with demand for data & video across their networks as consumers increasingly watch streamed movies from Netflix (NFLX) & Hulu, Web-connected televisions & tablet computers. By 2014, CSCO predicted that 90% of consumer Internet traffic will be video, driven by devices connected to the web & CSCO leads the market for routers & switches. The stock fell a couple pennies to below 16 with one of the dreariest charts around.

Cisco Said to Unveil Routers to Woo Users From Juniper, Alcatel

Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO)

Steve Jobs today
Photo: Bloomberg

Steve Jobs of Apple, aiming to capitalize on a shift away from personal computers, introduced iCloud, a service that stores music & other files online & keeps devices synchronized wirelessly. The iCloud will let users move their “digital life” from PC hard drives to remote data centers in the “cloud,” Jobs said, Apple iTunes, the biggest music seller, will let users keep their existing music library in the cloud for $24.99 a year. “If I acquire a song and buy it right on my iPhone, I want to get it on all my other devices,” Jobs said when he introduced the service. “Keeping these devices in sync is driving us crazy.” Apple’s new music feature, called iTunes Match, will scan every song in users’ libraries & match it with a copy in the cloud, customers won’t have to upload all their music song by song as with rival services. AAPL also is adding 250 new features to the Mac OS X Lion software, including more touch-control options & a service called AirDrop that shares files over Wi-Fi. Apple dropped 5.40 to 338 as the big event in San Francisco did not inspire buyers.

Apple’s Jobs Unveils ICloud, Moving User’s ’Digital Life’ Online

Apple Inc. (AAPL)

The average price for gas at the pump has been fairly flat for the last week, just below $3.80, down from its highs, but remaining at troubling levels.

	Regular	Mid	Premium	Diesel	85	**E85 MPG/BTU adjusted price
Current Avg.	$3.771	$3.916	$4.043	$3.998	$3.242	$4.267
Yesterday Avg.	$3.775	$3.920	$4.047	$3.999	$3.242	$4.266
Week Ago Avg.	$3.785	$3.929	$4.055	$4.016	$3.244	$4.269
Month Ago Avg.	$3.975	$4.118	$4.246	$4.162	$3.338	$4.393
Year Ago Avg.	$2.727	$2.896	$3.000	$2.990	$2.193	$2.887

Source: AAA

Dow didn't fall all that far, but this was a very bad day & down 720 from its peak 5 weeks ago. AAPL stock took a big hit, that is disturbing. MLPs continue in the dumps, never recovering from the big selloff in the first half of May. Greece debt problems are not going away soon. But more importantly, the economic recovery in the US looks to be stuck in neutral & there are few weapons left from the Federal Reserve or big spending problems by the gov. Stock markets are on defense & this time it could get serious.