MARKET COMMENT
April 24, 2007
Yesterday’s “no energy policy” rant drew lots of feedback
whether posted or thru emails.
I should
be done with it BUT I STILL HAVE MORE TO SAY MAN!
First, XOM is an easy piñata for folks to bang at.
Would not XOM and others want to drill for
oil in Anwar and off the coasts of Florida
or California?
They would do so in a heartbeat.
But with domestic supply sources blocked by NIMBY’s they have no alternative but go overseas and
suck-up to the Chavez’s and sheiks of the world.
Their business is oil and energy.
It’s what they do!
Stop them from doing it and they die.
It’s no nefarious conspiracy.
Second, Chucky, the American consumer, expects sub $2 per
gallon gasoline as an “entitlement” with which to drive his SUV and RV
willy-nilly about the country.
Elsewhere
in the world folks are paying $5 commonly.
Not being energy independent means we fight wars to stabilize
the places from where it comes.
And, somehow this is all the fault greedy big oil companies?
Chucky is also told the planet is warming and he must do
something about it.
Oh wow!
Will that affect NASCAR?
You want to tick-off Chucky?
Good luck because thus far he’s been a hard dude to get along with.
Just ask the spineless politicians who he’s
intimidated.
As to alternative energy who wouldn’t be for it?
Maybe just some folks who don’t want it near
their Cape Cod compounds.
Okay I’m done.
This was a pretty weird day.
I don’t look at the markets during the day too much.
Usually I just inspect overseas markets, get
caught up on the news and watch the opening.
The news really sucked early today.
Home prices and sales were down, lower consumer confidence data, and more
concerns about subprime mortgages overwhelmed other
news out of the gate.
Last night I noted
TXN’s strong earnings and “after hours” action and
thought we’d have a good day today.
But
the morning news coupled with poor market action overseas threw a wet blanket
on those sentiments.
So when I looked at the close today I was more than a little
surprised.
But that’s how markets have operated
lately--ignore bad news and focus on bullish news.
This is earnings season and the bulls love
the earnings reports particularly from tech which seems poised to run.
What I sense is happening right now in markets is that there’s
a subtle shift in money-flow from previously hot areas [Emerging and overseas
markets] to tech.
And tech may be the
next hot area.
The bottom line is I sense a shift to tech.
If that’s right then tech sectors outlined
above should do well.
And as usual, you
can target your efforts to just those rather the entire sector.
We don’t need to post all the overseas markets once again
today.
We’ll revisit them all tomorrow.
Now as to my energy rants, I’m done--really I am.
Disclaimer:
Among
other issues, the ETF Digest maintains long or short positions in:
UDN, GLD, DBE, IGM, FDN, PSI, PBE and PSJ.