Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Tuesday night's action was tired but bullish, since minor correction targets were not getting hit. There's one such target in the E-Mini S&Ps that could help night owls chase boredom, but we'll have wait for the opening bell to find out whether Monday's short squeeze is about to get second wind.

A Motley Fool e-mail promotion that I received yesterday piqued my interest in this former "cloud" computing hottie, which they rate as the best investment opportunity since Microsoft's first stock-split. Coincidentally, AKAM's recent high at 23.58 created a "camouflaged" impulse leg that looks

We'll breathe easier when the futures finally push above 935.80, but the significance of the move won't be as bullish as before, since the rally has been interrupted by a so far three-day correction from the recent high at 934.80. I hesitate to read too much into it, but

The futures were struggling to go lower shortly after 11 p.m. Tuesday -- much as they did Sunday night, telegraphing Monday's rally. The nearest Hidden Pivot support is _____ , a midpoint whose 'd' sibling lies at 893.75, but both numbers were getting shunned -- a development that hinted of

As California goes, so goes the nation?  Let's hope not, since voters looked all but certain on Tuesday to force the deepest spending cuts since statehood was achieved in 1850. We have no qualms endorsing spending cuts over tax increases, but in this case the cuts will be so severe that it's possible only basic services will survive. A certain casualty will be the state's once-vaunted higher education system, which looks set to take a $2.3 billion hit on top $3 billion in reductions already baked in the cake. At the grade-school level, 27,000 teachers have already been laid off, but another 25,000 would face joblessness if tax-and-spend measures on the ballot are voted down. That would represent 15% of the state's public-school teachers and a possible boost in class size from 35 to 50 students from 20 to 35.  The almost certain failure of Tuesday's ballot initiatives will also push the state's borrowing needs into the stratosphere, placing a commensurate burden on taxpayers for years to come. California legislators had been planning to borrow about $13 billion in the coming fiscal year, but that figure will likely have risen to about $20 billion by Wednesday morning.  Under the circumstances, what incentive would anyone have to live in California, assuming one is not trapped in a home worth less than its mortgage?  Ordinarily, we might expect a huge exodus to Nevada, where property values have crashed to levels that down-and-out Californians could afford. Trouble is, the casino jobs that might otherwise lure Californians to Las Vegas and Reno have  largely vanished, and the gambling industry remains in its worst funk since Bugsy Siegel took Horace Greeley's advice to Go West, young man. Almost as scary as California's fiscal future is that of New York. Suffice it to say, the state's financial