Rick’s Picks Weekend Edition

Bear Rally Provides Cover for Spinmeisters

Bailing out the economy and the banking system has been such a brazenly corrupt, mendacious and, ultimately, doomed enterprise that one could almost forget for a moment how very clever the perpetrators are. If we needed proof that these guys are the slickest behind-the-scenes spin doctors around, consider the following two headlines that ran on successive days atop the Wall Street Journal’s front page. “Rate Rise Clouds Recovery” was the grim news that greeted us last Thursday, on day one. The article described how, despite the Federal Reserve’s explicit strategy of buying as much Treasury paper as it takes…

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Like Gold at $990, but LOVE It at $918

Unh hee-yah! Unh hee-yah! Unh hee-yah! Gold futures have been pumping iron for more than a year — and so much the better for all of us if they weren’t up to demolishing the $1000 barrier a couple of weeks ago after getting as close as $992 per ounce. We should regard bullion’s tedious ups and downs over the last eighteen months as quiet preparation for an explosive show of strength. When it finally happens, detonation will be so powerful…

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What’s Next, an Abby Cohen Sell Signal?

Sometimes common sense comes from the most unexpected places. Consider this bearish take on the stock market from – better sit down for this – a Morgan Stanley strategist, Jason Todd: “Equity markets now implicitly need a V-shaped recovery to sustain further gains,” he told a reporter for the Wall Street Journal yesterday. “We do not expect such a recovery and therefore believe the next move is more likely to be down than up.” What’s next? A warning from Abby Cohen, perhaps, to lighten up on stocks? Actually, it looks like traders…

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Calm Before the Storm?

We waited in vain yesterday for the mood change that would have made the day even remotely interesting. Instead, the broad averages spent the day scratching little sores, so to speak, creating in the process a six-hour stretch of airless tedium for bulls and bears alike. Although we found relatively few trading opportunities worth sharing with subscribers, there were reasons to think it will be bears who come out ahead on the next move. Way…

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Behind BRIC’s Smile, a Scheme to Dump Dollar

The U.S. may still be able to cajole China and Japan into buying our soon-to-be-worthless Treasury debt, but members of the so-called BRIC alliance — Brazil, Russia, India and China — have been easing toward the escape hatch. A subscriber of ours whose firm trades in far-flung global markets sent us the following dispatch — a cautionary note for all who may have been unduly impressed by last week’s nominally successful Treasury auction. Our correspondent writes as follows:

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