Almanacs “January a bellwether for direction of stocks - Chicago Tribune” plus 4 more |
- January a bellwether for direction of stocks - Chicago Tribune
- The Almanac - Jan.5 - Post Chronicle
- Stocks on Wall Street start year with rally - Ledger-Enquirer
- A creative and fun ‘Dream’ interpretation - Boston Globe
- Hike, cross-country ski or snowshoe in 'Oaks' Land - Daily Tribune
| January a bellwether for direction of stocks - Chicago Tribune Posted: 05 Jan 2010 06:25 AM PST The stock market faces a big test as 2010 gets under way: Whether its performance will be lifted by the phenomenon known as the January effect or squelched by uncertainty about the economy. The January effect is the buying blip that frequently occurs with the start of a new year. Investors who sold stock before the end of the old year to claim a tax loss often reinvest that money when a new year begins. Dating back to 1950, according to the Stock Trader's Almanac, the January effect usually, but not always, sets the tone for the rest of the year. Conversely, when the market has lost ground in January, more often than not it fell for the full year as well. "If the first five trading days of January are up, the end of January will usually be up, and the correlated end of the year is usually up," said Ray Harrison, principal of the Harrison Financial Group wealth-management firm. "I say 'usually,' but I believe we're headed that way." On Monday, stocks began the year on a high note. The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 155.91 points, or 1.5 percent, to 10,583.96, reaching its highest close since Oct. 1, 2008. The Nasdaq composite index and Standard & Poor's 500 posted larger gains. The economy, however, could trip up a positive January effect. This week brings some crucial economic reports, including on Friday the Labor Department's employment report for December. The government's news last month that employers cut 11,000 jobs in November, far fewer than the market anticipated, has lifted expectations for the December report. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters are forecasting that 23,000 jobs were lost in December. If it turns out that employers cut more jobs, investors uncertain about how much momentum the recovery will have in 2010 could sell. But a surprisingly strong report may have an equally chilling effect on stocks. One concern in the market is that a healthier economy would lead the Federal Reserve to pull back its stimulus measures, and investors aren't sure about the economy's ability to flourish without that help. An upbeat January effect also could be threatened by fourth-quarter earnings reports. Investors have been pricing in strong results, especially because they are being compared against companies' weak reports from the final three months of 2008. But if the results aren't sufficiently positive, January could be a troubling month in the market. Still, there could be plenty of gains to be had, especially if, as often occurs, small-cap stocks outperform big- and mid-cap stocks. Mutual fund managers and other institutional investors, who sell off the shares of riskier small companies to make their end-of-year balance sheets look better, frequently buy back such shares early in the new year. For some, however, "January may be a letdown," Ablin said. He said it's difficult for investors to profit from the January effect because the market expects it to happen and prices it in before the end of the old year. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| The Almanac - Jan.5 - Post Chronicle Posted: 05 Jan 2010 04:45 AM PST Today is Tuesday, Jan. 5, the fifth day of 2010 with 360 to follow. The moon is waning. The morning stars are Saturn, Mercury and Mars. The evening stars are Venus, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune. Those born on this date were under the sign of Capricorn. They include Zebulon Pike, discoverer of Pike's Peak in Colorado, and Navy Capt. Stephen Decatur, both in 1779; King Camp Gillette, inventor of the safety razor, in 1855; U.S. baseball executive Ban Johnson in 1864; German statesman Konrad Adenauer in 1876; astrologer Jeane Dixon in 1904; Walter Mondale, former vice president and 1984 Democratic presidential candidate, in 1928 (age 82); Italian writer Umberto Eco and U.S. football coach Chuck Noll both in 1932 (age 78); actors George Reeves in 1914, Robert Duvall in 1931 (age 79), Diane Keaton in 1946 (age 64), Pamela Sue Martin in 1953 (age 57) and Suzy Amis in 1962 (age 48); and singer Marilyn Manson in 1969 (age 41). On this date in history: In 1643, in the first record of a legal divorce in the American colonies, Anne Clarke of the Massachusetts Bay Colony was granted a divorce from her absent and adulterous husband, Denis Clarke. In 1914, Ford Motor Co. increased its daily wage from $2.34 for a nine-hour day to $5 for eight hours of work. In 1919, the National Socialist (Nazi) Party was formed in Germany. In 1925, Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming was sworn in as the first woman governor in the United States. In 1933, construction begins on the Golden Gate Bridge over San Francisco Bay. In 1948, the first color newsreel, filmed at the Tournament of Roses in Pasadena, Calif., was released on this date by Warner Brothers-Pathe. In 1964, Pope Paul VI and Greek Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras met in Jerusalem, the first meeting of a pope and a patriarch in more than five centuries. In 1993, the state of Washington executed multiple child killer Westley Allan Dodd by hanging in the nation's first gallows execution in 28 years. In 1994, the United States and North Korea agreed, in principle, that the latter would allow inspections of its declared nuclear facilities. In 1995, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill requiring Congress to comply with its own civil rights and labor laws. The Senate followed suit six days later. In 1996, the longest U.S. government shutdown ended after 21 days when Congress passed a stopgap spending measure that would allow federal employees to return to work. U.S. President Bill Clinton signed the bill the next day. In 1998, U.S. Rep. Sonny Bono, R-Calif., of Sonny and Cher fame, was killed when he hit a tree while skiing at South Lake Tahoe, Calif. In 2000, the Clinton administration decided that Elian Gonzalez, a 6-year-old Cuban refugee whose mother drowned while trying to enter the United States, should be returned to his father in Cuba. The next day, hundreds of Cuban-Americans marched in protest in Miami. In 2002, a 15-year-old student pilot, flying alone, was killed when he crashed his single-engine Cessna into the 28th floor of the Bank of America building in Tampa, Fla. No one else was hurt. In 2004, Pete Rose, one of major league baseball's greatest stars but barred from the sport for gambling, admitted he bet on games involving his own team. In 2005, at least 24 people were killed in two car bomb explosions in Iraq in mounting violence ahead of upcoming elections. Also in 2005, Eris, the largest known dwarf planet in the solar system, is discovered. And in 2005, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan launched a $977 million emergency appeal to cover six months of aid for 5 million victims of the Southeast Asia tsunami. In 2006, at least 134 people were killed in two car bombings in Iraq and more than 120 others were wounded in a second day of heavy violence. In 2007, U.S. President George Bush named Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte to become deputy secretary of state and retired Adm. John McConnell to replace him at the Intelligence Department. Also in 2007, 43 people died in a two-day series of militant assaults on migrants, mostly milkmen, in two districts of India. In 2008, tribal violence following the disputed Kenya presidential election claimed almost 500 lives, officials said. Turmoil exploded after incumbent President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner over opposition candidate Raila Odinga, who had a wide early lead. In 2009, Leon Panetta, the former California congressman and chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, was chosen by President-elect Barack Obama to be head of the CIA. Also in 2009, Israeli troops, in a massive air, land and sea assault, pushed deeper into Gaza, seizing control of rocket-launching areas surrounding the city of Gaza, even as Israel pledged to allow humanitarian aid into the strip. A thought for the day: Maya Angelou said: "If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain." (c) UPI Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Stocks on Wall Street start year with rally - Ledger-Enquirer Posted: 05 Jan 2010 05:14 AM PST When the S&P 500 has gained more than 1 percent on the first day of trading, the index has ended the year higher 86 percent of the time, according to Schaeffer's Investment Research. After a big first day, the average yearly gain in the S&P 500 index has been 14.7 percent. That's important because the index is the yardstick for the overall market and for many investments such as mutual funds. Still, trying to predict the year based on the first day of trading is dicey. Over the past 20 years, the S&P 500's first-day move regardless of its size correlated with how the index finished the year just 11 times. Six of those years saw the market advance, while five saw it slide. And as investors are well aware, there are plenty of potential obstacles that could pull the market back down, including Friday's December employment report from the Labor Department. Other threats include the struggling real estate market and expectations of rising interest rates. Analysts agree that the huge gains of 2009 — when the S&P 500 index jumped 64.8 percent in nine months to end the year with a gain of 23.5 percent — have almost no chance of being repeated this year. After such a huge run in 2009, some market watchers believe lingering questions about the economy could trigger a correction, which is generally considered a drop of at least 10 percent. But for those who believe "as January goes in the stock market, so goes the rest of the year," the first trading day of 2010 is a good omen. Multiple factors China's manufacturing industry posted the fastest growth in 20 months for December, while a trade group of purchasing executives said demand at U.S. factories was increasing. The Institute for Supply Management's index of manufacturing activity rose to 55.9 from 53.6 in November, a bigger improvement than analysts predicted. The market may also have rallied Monday based on what's known as the "January effect," the buying spurt that often occurs with the start of a new tax year. Investors who sold stock before the end of the old year to claim a tax loss reinvest that money when trading begins again. According to the "Stock Trader's Almanac," a book that tracks market trends, there have been only five times since 1950 when the January effect turned out to be a poor indicator of the rest of the year. The Dow industrials rose 155.91, or 1.5 percent, to 10,583.96. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 17.89, or 1.6 percent, to 1,132.99, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 39.27, or 1.7 percent, to 2,308.42. The stock market barreled higher in 2009 in part because the big banks at the heart of the 2008 financial crisis started making money again. But much of their ability to do so was dependent on the Federal Reserve, which helped with ultra-low borrowing costs. Investors are uncertain how banks and the rest of the economy will fare as policymakers begin to withdraw some of those emergency supports from the economy this year. Unemployment David Kelly, chief market strategist at J.P. Morgan Funds, is looking first at jobs, not statistics, to determine whether the market can hold and even build on the steep advance of 2009. "The crucial last checkmark on the clipboard of economic recovery is employment," Kelly said. If unemployment remains at 10 percent, it will be hard for consumer spending to increase and that's what drives the economy. "Jobs, from an economic psychology point of view, are kind of the holy grail. A lot of people in America don't believe the economy is recovering," Kelly said. Next report Friday The next major snapshot of the job market comes Friday, when the Labor Department is scheduled to release its employment figures for December. It is already the biggest report on investors' calendar each month but this one will set the tone for trading in 2010. Economists forecast that employers cut 23,000 jobs in December, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters. In November, the number of jobs lost came to 11,000 jobs, far fewer than anticipated. Kelly said a gain in jobs, when it occurs, could send a jolt through the markets. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| A creative and fun ‘Dream’ interpretation - Boston Globe Posted: 05 Jan 2010 06:04 AM PST Evett has wisely given Walsh free rein, and the actor responds by creating one moment after another of inspired lunacy and physicality. My favorite moment comes near the end of "Dream,'' when Bottom and his fellow tradesmen finally get their shot at glory, performing in a play about two doomed lovers, Pyramus and Thisbe, as entertainment at the wedding of Theseus, Duke of Athens (Curt Klump), to Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons (Autumn Elise Henry). Bottom has, of course, been assigned the role of Pyramus, and when it is time for his death scene, Walsh turns it into a protracted swoon that makes Rasputin look like a pushover. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Hike, cross-country ski or snowshoe in 'Oaks' Land - Daily Tribune Posted: 05 Jan 2010 05:07 AM PST
SPECIAL TO THE OAKLAND PRESS/ Jonathan Schechter. A winter picnic on snowshoes adds to the hiking adventure. Groundhogs are hibernating in subterranean dens with barely detectable heart beats, perhaps dreaming of springtime gluttony in your vegetable garden. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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