Coffee Prevents Diabetes: Look at Coffee Stocks

According to a study in a recent issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Chinese researchers at Wuhan University and Huazhong University of Science and Technology determined that compounds in coffee inhibit human islet amyloid polypeptide, which is a substance linked to diabetes. Previous studies have shown that drinking four or more cups of coffee a day can reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 50 percent.

It is not just diabetes that coffee can be used to help prevent. It may also reduce depression in women. Another study showed that men who drank six or more cups of coffee per day were found to have a 20% reduction in developing prostate cancer.

Fortunately for investors, plenty of coffee stocks are available to choose from. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has recently updated its list of publicly traded companies in the coffee business, many that pay dividends.

Peet's Coffee & Tea, Inc. (PEET) is the specialty coffee roaster, marketer, and retailer founded in 1966 in Berkeley, California. The stock trades at 33 times forward earnings. Revenues for the latest quarter were up 13.7%, but earnings tanked by about 60%. The company does not pay a dividend.

Starbucks (SBUX) is the largest coffeehouse retailer in the world, with outlets in 50 countries and over 17,000 shops worldwide. The stock trades at 21 times forward earnings and pays a yield of 1.4%. Earnings for the latest quarter were up 28.5% on an 6.8% increase in revenues.

The J. M. Smucker Co. (SJM) sells the Folgers brand of coffee, along with spreads, toppings, and beverages. The stock has a forward price to earnings ratio of 14.5 and a decent yield of 2.4%. earnings dropped 15% on an 18% rise in sales.

On the non-retail side, there is Coffee Holding Co. (JVA), a roaster of wholesale coffee which markets wholesale green coffee, private label coffee, and branded coffee in the US and Canada. The stock trades at 9 times forward earnings and has a small dividend yield of 1.3%. Unfortunately, earnings for the latest reported quarter dropped by 60% on an 88% increase in revenues.

For a list of all of the coffee stocks, including more than half a dozen that pay dividends, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com. The list can be downloaded, sorted, and updated.

Disclosure: Author didn't own any of the above at the time the article was written.

By Stockerblog.com

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Free Money Thursday - Quoth Bernanke "Forever More"

But where's my Trillion Dollars?
Federal Reserve officials said they expect to keep short-term interest rates near zero for almost three more years and signaled they could restart a controversial bond-buying program in yet another campaign to rev up the disappointing economic recovery.

The Central Bank's pronouncements came after a two-day policy meeting from which officials emerged still frustrated at the slow pace of growth and a bit more confident that inflation is settling down after climbing last year. The combination of persistent slow growth and low inflation, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke signaled in a news conference after the meeting, could give the Fed leeway to take more action to support the economy, though he didn't commit to it.
A bond-buying program—also meant to push down long-term interest rates—could be the next step. Mr. Bernanke said there would be a "very strong case" for even more action by the Fed "if the recovery continues to be modest and progress on unemployment very slow and inflation appears to be likely to be below target for a number of years out."

What amazes me is not one reporter at yesterday's news conference asked Dr. Bernanke what is COSTS to ARTIFICIALLY keep rates 3.75% below what his own board considers "normal" for another 3 - 4 years.  Maybe that's because we don't know what it cost already, do we?  We do know the Fed now has a $3Tn balance sheet.  Since I don't recall a bake sale at which the Fed sold $3Tn worth of cookies, I have to imagine that money was borrowed from somewhere and don't things that are borrowed eventually need to be paid back?  
I mean, I understand that, since Reagan, there has been a massive effort to destroy the American Education system and make the beautiful sheeple as dumb and compliant as possible (a less crazy article on the subject here) - but surely there must be some reporter who was accidentally exposed to some rudimentary economics who can come up with a better question than "when in 2014?"
Apparently, it is beyond the grasp of the MSM that, when the Government borrows money at 3% and lends money at 0.25% - SOMEONE has to pay that 2.75% difference.  I don't know how to put this in the "new math" terms my kids are learning but, in old math, if I borrow $1Tn at 3%, I owe the person I borrowed it from $1,030Bn at the end of the year - are you with me so far?
OK, so then I LEND that Trillion Dollars to my Bankster Buddies for 0.25% and, at the end of the year, they give me back $1,002.5Bn.  Here comes the really hard math part (hopefully someone from the NYTimes can keep up) - $1.030Bn minus $1.0025Bn is $27.5Bn and that's the amount we LOST lending money to the Banksters for 0.25%.
What's $27.5Bn between friends, right?  Well, that's where this math stuff really kicks in because we lent that $1Tn over and over and over again for the last 3 years so that's 3 x $27.5Bn or $82.5Bn.  Still, sounds like chicken feed in the grand scheme of things so why should we care if the Fed extends these ultra-low rates to their Bankster Buddies for 3 more years - after all, if we were in trouble, the Bankers would certainly do the same for us, right?
Unfortunately, we're going to need a calculator now because, funny story, the Fed didn't just lend $1Tn to their pals.  In fact, they didn't just lend the $3Tn on their balance sheet.  Nope.  It is estimated that the Fed lent an additional $7 TRILLION to their friends ON TOP OF the $3Tn they reported.  So $3Tn + $7Tn = $10Tn.  That means $82.5Bn (3 year loss) x 10 = $825Bn.  THAT is how much OF YOUR MONEY Bernanke just gave away yesterday (assuming they don't sneak in another bonus $7Tn) by extending 0.25% for 3 more years.  
Even this would not be so terrible if those banks were using all this free money to lend out to American Citizens at ultra-low rates to help them get back on their feet and help businesses refinance through rough economic times but that's not what's happening at all.
In fact, the banks are simply turning around and lending the money back to - you guessed it - US, at 3%.  So it not only costs us $825Bn to GIVE the banks a $10Tn loan but they turn around and lend it back to us for another $825Bn.  Mommy, when I grow up - I wanna be a BANKER!
I know it seems like the same money but it's not.  We borrow first, THEN we give the banks money, THEN they lend us more money and our Deficit grows and grows and grows until, like Greece, a bunch of Bankers decide we're a poor credit risk and decide to foreclose.  Don't worry though, they're not done lending us money yet.  Before we leave this point, I want to make sure it's clear enough for the Fox viewers - If I borrow $10 at 10%, at the end of the year I owe $11.  If I then lend you, my Bankster Buddy, $10 at 0% and then you lend me $10 back at 10%, then at the end of the year I owe $12 and you have $1.  
That's right, not only is the Fed screwing us with this scam but they are INEFFICIENTLY SCREWING US - we have to borrow $2 additional dollars in order to give the Banksters $1 - how stupid is that?  If we DIDN'T borrow the money to give to the Banksters, then we would not have additional debt and wouldn't need to borrow money from the Banksters.  That's why the key to this whole system is to have a society that has poor math skills and an even poorer understanding of economics because - ANYONE ELSE WOULD BE OUTRAGED!
But why should we be upset?  After all - "only" 377,000 Americans were laid off last week and that's just 21,000 (5.5%) more than last week and continuing claims "only" went up 88,000, to 3.55M (up 2.4%) - thank goodness for that 99-week limit right!  Durable Goods were up 2.1% ex-Transports and up 3% on headlines in December and many, many analysts will tell you how bullish that is - but they will never show you this chart:

That's funny isn't it because, usually, they LOVE showing charts and this one is free from the Government, so the graphics department doesn't have to do anything but put it on screen.  Yet, strangely, it's almost as if it didn't exist at all!   We love BA and do you know why we love BA?  Because BA is the ENTIRE difference between this complete and utter disaster and the lovely, lovely headline numbers you'll be hearing about all day.
Nonetheless, these may be our last 48 hours of being bearish because, if we hold our breakout levels over the weekend - we have no choice but to switch off our brains and run with the bulls.  So let's enjoy it while it lasts and short oil at $101 again along with the Dow at 12,800 and the Russell at 800 and see if they can burn us one last time.
After that, we'll be happy to join in the fun.

Once upon a Great Recession, while I pondered Global Depression,
Over what the New Year's markets may have yet in store,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
`'Tis some creditor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -
Only this, and nothing more.'
Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.
`Surely,' said I, `surely that is something at my window lattice;
Let me see then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore -
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; -
'Tis a Mormon, nothing more!'
Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In stepped Ben Bernanke right on through my chamber door.
Not the least of greeting gave he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, to my charts he went directly and drew on each of them a floor -
TLT at 116, Dow 12,000, 20 VIX -
Twenty VIX and nothing more.
`Profits!' said I, `this is evil! - profitable still, but clearly evil! -
You tempt us yet, what of the risks your plans ignore,
What of Debt and high inflation, the lack of jobs throughout the nation -
Surely you don't want stagflation - tell me truly, I implore -
Is there an end to you manipulation? - tell me - tell me, I implore!'
Quoth Bernanke, `Nevermore.'

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Tuesday - Topping Out or Just Pinning the Fed?

Tough call today.
The Dollar bounced off 79.75 this morning, nothing to crow about for Dollar bulls as the Euro remains just over the critical $1.30 mark and the Pound is solidly over $1.55 for the moment.
You could say it's a bearish sign that the Dow and the NYSE stopped dead at our breakout levels but that's to be expected on a first attempt at breaking out - even if they have already attempted the same move back in late October, when the Dow was 5% lower in it's test and the NYSE was testing the same line (7,866).
Our broadest market index is the one that's holding everyone back as what little volume there has been in this rally has been fairly narrowly focused on certain leaders.  Now a pessimist might say that this is a reflection of the blatant manipulation of the indexes in which certain Banksters place buys on stocks that have disproportionate positive effects on the junior indexes in order to fool retail traders into believing there is a rally while the Banksters drive the VIX down to multi-year lows, dump all their stocks on the bagholders and prepare to cash in by crashing the markets on a major event like tomorrow's FOMC Rate Decision which is, in fact, very unlikely to have any language specific to the QE3 that has been promised by the MSM since Thanksgiving.
An optimist would say - well, you can read almost any MSM site for that.  It's lonely at the top of the range when you are bearish, one by one the other bears capitulate and soon you are there all by yourself with your shorts - your lovely, lovely, cheap shorts!  The Dow shot up yesterday to just over the 12,749 breakout line we have as the tippy top of the range on our Big Chart so of course I called for DIA puts in Member Chat.  The DIA Feb $123 puts, which came in around .75 and finished the day not much higher at .78 after topping out at .95.  Ranges usually hold - if you're not going to have conviction at the very top of a range to short - when will you?  For one thing - you have a very good stop line to watch!
As noted by Dave Fry in his SPY chart, the bulls have engineered their golden cross and have spent a hell of a lot of money and time doing it - now they are counting on machines and retailers to respond like Pavlov's dogs to the sign of the cross and take all those expensive shares off their hands.
Or maybe CAT should be at $106.  The p/e is a reasonable-looking 16 and they are projected to grow next year despite the Global outlook for a mild recession in the first half.  Looking at other major Dow components:  CVX at $107 is only 10% higher than it was in 2008, when oil was $140 a barrel (with projections of $200) and Natural Gas was $8 - makes sense to you, doesn't it?  BA I do think is worth $75 for many reasons and IBM at $189 is more than I'd pay but I wouldn't kick them out of bed either.
JNJ is $5 off it's 2008 highs, KO is 5% over, MCD is 50% higher than it was in 2008, MMM is back to $90, PG is $10 shy of their $75 high, UTX is back to $80 (but down from $90 in July), XOM is a bit shy of their $95 high (also with oil 40% lower and nat gas 70% lower) and TRV wasn't in the Dow in 2008 but is over their highs by 10%.  Those are the Dow components over $50 - the ones that count in this price-weighted index.  
MCD Just reported nice revenues of $6.8Bn in Q4 along with $1.33 in earnings and that was indeed quite a bit better than 2008, where we had 0.87 EPS on $5.6Bn in earnings so nice - but is it up 50% nice?  Maybe the problem is that there are so few good stocks these days, that the really good ones are now fetching a hefty premium, which helps explain the Dow's relative outperformance since November.
Without risk (see above diagram), you can make a case for pricing MCD at $100 but are we accounting for the current risk in these prices?  Are we accounting for the risk that sent MCD from $66 in Aug 2008 to $46 in October?
Of course they were a screaming buy at $46 but the fact that they CAN fall that far needs to be taken into account when determining the VALUE (not PRICE) of a stock as a part of your portfolio.  We could go over the components one by one (maybe on a weekend) but the bottom line is we are priced to perfection at the moment and that perfection includes ONE TRILLION additional dollars being poured into our $15Tn economy (6.66%) by the Fed pretty much TOMORROW.
Anything less than that may lead to a bit of disappointment.
Not to be nitpicky - but the Dollar was at 88 in Q4 2008 so the Dollars MCD was collecting then were 10% more valuable than they are now.  While the growth of MCD is still impressive - they are a bit of a "Recession Stock" that benefits from the decaying buying power of the Global Middle Class, who have traded down to Happy Meals and the Dollar Menu to the benefit of MCD - other Dow components and other companies in general are far less impressive when viewed in the light of the earnings power provided them by the worth(10%)less Dollars they are now reporting earnings in.
Of course, if you are an American, you have to buy your MCD in Dollars too so it's right that they should charge you an additional 10% for their very valuable stock, isn't it?  Priced in Euros, in fact, MCD dropped 2% this week but it's not about the day to day picture - it's about the Global Macros.  In 2008, we didn't think the entire system would collapse in a single quarter, we didn't know the housing market would collapse or that over 100M people World-wide would lose their jobs in the next two years or that entire nations would face bankruptcy.  So maybe, just maybe, we can be excused for ignoring the risks.
But now?  REALLY???  Are we back to completely ignoring risk as if everything is all better in Europe and Japan and China and the good old USA despite the fact that pretty much NONE of those 100M people got their jobs back and another 100M people were born and they don't have jobs either!
STAGnant Global economy, rampant inFLATION and we are pricing things BETTER than they were in 2008 - before we were made aware of how many problems lay just below that bullish surface?
I suppose it's the lack of a sense of risk that is really bothering me.  As you can see from the chart - we've been this complacent before (and paid the price) but, as I said to Members yesterday - if we break our levels we'll just have to switch off our brains and stop reading the news so we can invest properly along with the crowd.
But we're not there yet.  Where's my Trillion Dollars Dr. Bernanke?  Where's the deal on Greece?  Where are the jobs?  Where are my breakout levels?  It's hard to be patient but I believe the risk is real and I'd rather be relieved to find out I'm wrong and my biggest problem is how to deploy my pile of cash than to be fully invested and falling off a cliff - at least I learned that in 2008.

read more “Tuesday - Topping Out or Just Pinning the Fed?”

FED to Start Forecasting Rates this Week.

Coming week is full of big fundamental announcements, including from central banks. On Tuesday, the Bank of Japan will disclose its interest rate decision. The BoJ has no room to cut rates any more, but it could introduce some unconventional measures. After all, the Japanese central bank lags behind its counterpart in this area. For example, it still has plenty room to expand asset purchases within the JPY 15 trillion ceiling that has so far been announced. In addition, this ceiling could be raised to, say 20-25 trillion. Of course, the real issue here is the ever-stronger Yen, which is not showing any weakness, in particular against the USD.

The BoJ will be followed on Wednesday with policy meetings in the USA and New Zealand. While the RBNZ announcement has the highest probability of some action, all eyes will be on the FED. Nobody expects a change this time, but it will be the first meeting when the central bank releases its interest rate projections. It goes without saying that everybody wants find out when FED expects the first interest rate hike and how much tightening is projected in the following years. Also, in recent few weeks public comments by regional FED presidents seem to signal a willingness to ease monetary policy further this year, the so-called QE 3. Latest fundamental data has been mostly positive, indicating economic growth, well, recovery in the USA. That does not rule out any action, but it probably pushes any announcement of a major policy move out to meeting later in the year. We will find out in few days.

Recently the uptrend in the AUD-CHF has become very choppy, as if ready to reverse. Corrections are bigger, volatility is higher, possibly building a top on the intermediate term chart. I would like to short it if the price dips under the recent low of 0.9695, with entry at 0.9690. This trade, if filled, will attempt to capture 120 pips. Alternatively, if the AUD-CHF continues higher and makes a new high, it is likely to form a divergence with the MACD. In such event, it could offer a decent shorting opportunity.

Another currency pair of interest is the EUR-CAD, also on the 4H chart. Here the price already bounced from the low of 1.2875 to 1.3147, perhaps forming a bottom. I want to go long on a bullish breakout with entry at 1.3155. The target is 1.3300. There is a small complication; I would like to see a little more pullback first. Not necessarily much lower, but I do not want to enter into a trade if the EUR-CAD rises right after the open. Initial opening moves often lead to false breakouts, something I want to avoid. After the first few hours, the order becomes valid.

While waiting for those trades, which could take some time because of relatively large time scale, I will look for shorter-term opportunities. One of them could materialize in the GBP-USD, among others. After a sharp rally on Friday, the cable is likely to go through a correction. Preferably, I would like to see a little continuation, but the signal itself will be a bearish reversal candlestick pattern on the hourly chart. Objective will be 50 pips, although details will have to be worked out once the entry is confirmed. Have a great trading week!

Mike K.
www.fxmadness,com

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Thrilling Thursday - Our "One Trade" Does Good!

One trade to rule them all!
That was our goal and our one precious trade for 2012 was BAC on January 5th, buying the stock at $5.75 and selling the 2013 $5 puts and calls for $2.55 for a net $3.20/4.10 entry (see "How to Buy a Stock for a 15-20% Discount" for more on this strategy).  On Tuesday afternoon, I modified the entry live on TV at about 3:45, with BAC at $6.70 and you can see the immediate reaction the stock had on my pick into the close.
BAC was $6.49 on Tuesday afternoon at the start of my interview but the 2013 $5 puts and calls were $3.10 so the net was only $3.39/4.20 - not a huge change.  BAC came through on earnings this morning and is up at $7.20 pre-market and we're well on our way to our 56% profit target, now with a 30% cushion.
It's no wonder that the TV crowd jumps on my picks as my last two appearances gave them a GNW spread on 10/24 for a 127% gain and an AXP spread from 10/5 for a 140% gain.  BAC was, by comparison, a fairly conservative play and that's because, as you know if you've been reading this week - I'm not entirely convinced that this rally is sustainable - but I'm feeling much better about it now that we have BAC earnings out of the way!
This is a great time to thank my friendbuddypal Jim Cramer for chasing all his sheeple out of BAC this year with his SELLSELLSELL rating - without you and your half-assed opinions Jim, we'd have to work for a living!  Why just yesterday, my trade idea for Members in the morning Alert was the FAS Feb $67/70 bull call spread at $2, selling the Feb $55 puts for $1.30 for net .70 on the $3 spread but last night - Jim didn't like my bullish Financials pick:

Financials were, in fact, one of my "Secret Santa's Inflation Hedges for 2011" that were published on Christmas Day, 2010 (and you can read that post for the logic behind each trade).  All 4 of those trades are done tomorrow so let's see how they performed for the year:

• 30 XHB Jan $15/18 bull call spreads at $1.40 ($4,200), selling 20 XHB Jan $14 puts for $1.70 ($3,400) for net $800.   

XHB Finished the day yesterday at $19.12 so we collect $3 on the bull call spread ($9,000) and the short puts expire worthless for a $4,800 gain (600%).

• 2 XLE Jan $55/60 bull call spreads at $2.60 ($520), selling 1 Jan $50 put for $4 ($400) for net $120.  

This was a trade just to pay for gas and the 2012 spread finished at $1,000 and the puts are expiring worthless with XLE at $71.08 yesterday so a profit of $880 is up 733% for the year - paying for a few tanks of gas, as intended.

• 6 DBA Jan $26/29 bull call spreads at $1.90 ($1,140), selling 4 DBA Jan $25 puts for $1.90 ($760) for net $380

The Jan 2012 spread finished way in the money for $1,800 and DBA closed yesterday at $28.63 so the short puts should expire worthless and that's a net profit of $1,420 or 373%.  The goal was to knock $100 a month off the cost of groceries.

• 40 XLF Jan $12/13 bull call spread at .80 ($3,200), selling 40 Jan $11 puts for .40 ($1,600) for net $1,600.  

XLF finished the day at $13.92 so we collect $4,000 on the bull call spread and owe nothing on the short puts for a $2,400 gain (150%)

Wasn't that fun!  Just like BAC, I love to have just a few simple trades for lazy people (or people who have real lives) that don't want to sit around trading all day trying to "beat the market."  The trick is to be realistic.  If you have $100,000 to invest and you hope to make 10% for the year - then you only need to put $1,500 into a trade that has the potential to make 733%, right?
In this case, $2,900 of cash put into these inflation hedges returns $9,500 - a very respectable blended 227% gain and, of course, as inflation hedges against things you are forced to buy every day - if they "lose" then you spend less at the pump and at the grocery store so it's a true hedge, meant to guarantee your buying power at the cost (potentially) of some of the savings you would have gotten if we were wrong and hit a deflationary cycle.  As it was, 227% has kept us well ahead of actual inflation - so far!
We've been holding off on getting bullish in 2012 until we A) See some earnings and B) See the NYSE over our 7,866 target.  Earnings have not been that hot and the NYSE has exactly 100 points to go after yesterday's close as it sits at a very unusual 10% below the Dow's on our 5% Rule Big Chart.
The Dow has it's own big level to hit at 12,749 and it's not likely to happen today but let's now prepare to get bullish next week.  I'll be laying out a new round of Inflation Hedges for 2012 and we'll certainly have more upside picks like yesterday's FAS trade idea but first we need our indexes to SHOW US THE LEVELS!
Corporate earnings are simply not that impressive so far, we still have a concern about Europe that doesn't seem too irrational and who knows what's going on in China but it doesn't sound all that good.  We're not seeing data that reassures us the US itself isn't in the throes of a recession (but we are definitely in denial of one) and it's gotta be a concern that the ECB handed out €489Bn to EU banks and they simply turned around and deposited €502B in the ECB's overnight facility (a record).  You're not creating economic liquidity when all the banks do is park the money and collect interest! 
Putting on my happy hat though, we are seeing a flow of capital out of bonds and into equities.  Perhaps the ridiculously low rates paid for bond risk - even as Greece prepares to give their bondholders 70% haircuts with other countries in just as bad shape - is forcing people to move to dividend-paying stocks as well as riskier equities in search of the kind of returns that can keep them up with inflation.
We've been partial to cash and cash has been very good to us as the Dollar has marched from 74 in October to 82 last week - giving us 10% more buying power from our sidelined money but if the Euro is "fixed" and getting stronger - we need to get off the sidelines and into things that generate good returns - like our One BAC trade or yesterday's more aggressive FAS spread.
Last Wednesday, I reviewed or trades from the first 5 sessions of 2012 and we were surprisingly bullish but that was because there were lots of good bullish opportunities and, above all, we try to stay balanced - no matter how bullish or bearish we feel.
Recently, we've seen better ISM numbers in the US (53.9) and Consumer Confidence jumped to 74 while Chinese GDP is rolling along at an 8.9% growth rate.  China's Industrial Production rose 12.8% in 2011 and, although they seemed to slow down in Q4 (waiting for better data), we are not yet making a good case for a "hard landing" over there.  Just this morning, in fact, the PBOC put their foot back on the gas and will allow the Nation's 5 largest banks to increase Q1 lending by 5% over last year (when their lending seemed out of control).
This is the kind of NEW INFORMATION that forces us to rethink our bearish premise.  We already know the ECB is pouring $1.5Tn into the Banks through the EFSF and the Fed has put in Trillions of Dollars through the back door into US banks and the BOJ and the SNB are both printing like crazy trying to devalue their own currencies at least fast enough to keep up with the money printing in the US and EU so, at a certain point - we can't afford to be bearish or we may drown at the bottom of Trillions of freshly printed Yen, Euros, Francs and Dollars - money, Money, MONEY!


Over in the Eurozone, those bond auctions are certainly going swell so far, just weeks after $700Bn was dumped into the market and 3% on French paper certainly beats 0.25% in the overnight vaults of the ECB and it's "so far - so good" except we're only taking the first of 1,000 steps towards a true recovery.  Oh sorry, I'm supposed to be thinking only happy thoughts...
We got our EU downgrades and they were taken in stride and Germany's ZEW Investor Survey dramatically improved and they are the guys with all the money in the EU so we have to pay heed to their opinion on the subject.  So our risk factors are certainly "improving" and certainly better looking than they seemed before the ECB pledged another Trillion Euros and, from the EU's perspective, before Obama had another $1.2Tn of his own spending money "approved" (ie. not blocked) yesterday.
So it's MONEYMONEYMONEY keeping the markets from going down in 2012 - so far and, if they can keep it up next week - we'll have to start taking it seriously.  For the rest of this week, however, we'll continue to just sit back and enjoy the show!

read more “Thrilling Thursday - Our "One Trade" Does Good!”