Weekly Economic & Investment Recap: 5.2.08

May 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment

And That’s The Week That Was, the Brounes & Associates market/economic commentary for the week ended May 2, 2008.

Wow. Talk about a busy week.  With Exxon-Mobil experiencing the second best corporate quarter EVER (and still disappointing investors), earnings season moved closer to completion and the results have not been half-bad (at least, not as bad as many anticipated).  Profits from overseas have been the savings grace for many multi-national companies.  Likewise, news about the economy seemed to invigorate investors as reports on labor and manufacturing depicted continued sluggishness, BUT the data beat most analysts’ more dire forecasts.  The Fed cut rates for the seventh time since 2004, but indicated that the move would be its last for a while (barring any unexpected developments).  The dollar rose from its recent doldrums; oil fell from its all-time highs; and investors went bargain shopping for yet another week.

Next week finds little in the way of significant earnings/economic data. Hopefully, no news is good news.   

Coming up in the week ahead:  ISM - Services (Monday), Consumer Credit (Wednesday), Trade Balance (Friday)

Weekly Economic & Investment Recap: 4.18.08

April 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Attached/linked please find And That’s The Week That Was, the Brounes & Associates market/economic commentary for the week ended April 18, 2008. Enough with the negativity. No more “gloom and doom”.It’s time for a newattitude. Bring back the bulls.  Apparently folks simply have had enough (at least, for one week that is).  While this week’s earnings reports were lackluster at best (for the most part), investors rejoiced that no new surprises surfaced.  Financials reported lower profits (and some losses), though the news came in as expected and the newfound sentiment seemed to be that the “worst of times” has now passed.  In fact, reports from a few “new economy” techs (IBM, Google) and “old economy” companies (Caterpillar) surpassed expectations and added to the euphoria.  Even some relatively weak economic releases couldn’t put a damper on the optimism.  Here to hoping the new “trend is your friend” (and we can all use a new friend these days). 

Coming up in the week ahead:  Existing Home Sales (Wednesday), Durable Goods Orders (Thursday), New Home Sales (Thursday)

Weekly Investmtent & Economic Recap: 4.11.08

April 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Attached/linked please find And That’s The Week That Was, the Brounes & Associates market/economic commentary for the week ended April 11, 2008. Welcome to 1st quarter 2008 earnings season and consider yourself warned by Thomson Financial (and virtually everyone else) not to expect much.  (And with those low expectations, Alcoa, UPS, and GE did not disappoint.)  While airlines struggle to afford the surging gasoline prices, management also decided they probably should start abiding by certain FAA regs.  Alan Greenspan became the latest culprit in the ongoing financial crisis “blame game” as many of those same folks who proclaimed him a genius a few years ago are now taking their shots about how he ran the Fed.  (Take note, Dr. B. they can turn on you quickly.)  Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, News Corp and Time Warner all talked about ways to revolutionize the Internet ad and search games (and who should buy whom in the process).   And, through it all, investors seemed to take it all in stride (until Friday that is).   

Coming up in the week ahead:  Retail Sales (Monday). PPI (Tuesday), CPI (Wednesday), Housing Starts (Wednesday), Industrial Productions (Wednesday), Leading Indicators (Thursday)

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