It could go either way today, although probably not very far. The most bullish outcome would be a close above 39.710, since that is the midpoint pivot associated with a ‘D’ rally target at 41.205. Alternatively, a close below 39.040 would indicate 37.710.
From the monthly archives:
July 2011
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The E-Mini S&Ps are four points in-the-green early THURSDAY morning, but there’s 15 points more upside before they run into a Hidden Pivot with the power to resist the tide. If the resistance fails, however, it would be signaling a possible 400-point rally in the Dow next week.
Our minimum upside objective is 1340.00, the Hidden Pivot midpoint of the pattern shown. Although a stall there could hint of serious trouble ahead, a two-day close above the pivot — the outcome that I expect due to the power of the impulse leg from which the target was derived — would be warning shorts to brace for a possible follow-through to 1388.75 (a.k.a. point ‘D’).
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We searched Google News in vain Wednesday afternoon for the latest, presumably sordid, developments in the U.S. budget crisis, finding instead only stories about the lethally hot weather that has blanketed much of the U.S., the apparent death of three hikers swept away by a waterfall at Yosemite, and yet one more setback between players and the NFL. Google’s story-of-the-hour concerned an unlikely Internet hero, Rupert Murdoch’s wife, Wendi Deng, who has come to the media baron’s defense with the ferocity of the proverbial house ablaze. Murdoch’s chief offense, as far as we can tell, is not the sleazy tactics his reporters used to ferret out very private information on certain people, but the blatantly political uses to which he has put some of that information. Not that every politician in the U.K. is his sworn enemy. Like any businessman who owns a newspaper, Murdoch has played favorites, and it is presumably only those whom his sensationalized reportage did not favor who have mounted an all-out assault on his publishing empire. » Read the full article
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Trillion Dollar Surplus a Corporate ‘Problem’
by Rick Ackerman on July 22, 2011 2:03 am GMT · 42 comments
Where would you invest $76 billion if you had it? That’s the size of Apple’s cash hoard at the moment, and it would appear that they have no better idea of what to do with all that money than you or I. Apple isn’t the only company with this “problem,” if you could call having a mountain of spare cash in the bank a problem. According to Standard & Poor’s data reported by the Wall Street Journal the other day, the 500 largest U.S. companies alone currently hold cash or cash equivalents that totaled $963 billion at the end of the first quarter, up from $837 billion a year ago. Tech companies in particular are glutted with cash they apparently cannot use. Microsoft’s got $60.9 billion sitting around; Google, $39.1 billion; and Cisco, $43.4 billion. What’s a company to do? Traditionally, high-tech companies have shunned paying dividends because shareholders expect the companies to use the cash more aggressively for growth. But the likes of Apple and Google have been growing plenty fast without dipping into their so-called war chests. Come to think of it, maybe they should start a war with China, Europe or Brazil. Hasn’t war always been good for business? As for the excuse that they need to hold cash in case a great acquisition opportunity comes along, Apple, Google and numerous other NASDAQ world-beaters could borrow all they want for next to nothing, at any time. » Read the full article