New 2009 Stock Highs
Posted On Thursday, September 10, 2009 at at 2:51 PM by Finance FanaticAfter today's green trading, indexes have reached new highs for 2009. Both the S&P and Dow were able to reach new tops since last October. If you were to tell someone back in March of this year that we would be at these current levels by October they would have most likely laughed at you. Wall Street has been running on a mind of its own the past few months, but unfortunately, businesses and the economy can't quite keep up, even with it being a "forward looking" indicator.
Home foreclosures for August came in at record numbers at over 18%. Over 300,000 homes filed for foreclosure just in the month of August. Such news causes frustration for those hoping for a beginning of a recovery in the housing market. As bank owned houses continue to dominate home sales, owners will find it harder and harder to sell their house at levels allowing them to get equity out.
Today, we saw yet another step down from a corporate CEO. John Mack, CEO of Morgan Stanley, plans to step down and give the reigns to Co-President James Gorman. At this point, many of the banks are looking for new beginnings going ahead and looking for places to put the blame on mistakes of the past. Thus, the easiest thing to do is to start fresh from the top. Banks will have their hands full well into 2012, especially as commercial real estate really becomes a problem for them. Leasing activity has picked up a bit, but new office leases are being dominated by credit repair services businesses and debt collection. Bad credit is at record numbers and millions are looking to improve credit. As a result, these businesses are thriving.
As for moves, Oil and the US dollar have been catching my eye. In my opinion, oil is nearing the end of its run and has seen its highs for quite sometime now. I am looking to pull some puts on DIG at this point to take advantage. Also, as of late, the dollar has been hammered. I see a lot of opportunity to long the dollar as I do feel there is a severe risk of deflation at the gates. UUP is one I plan to pull the trigger on very shortly as I believe the dollar should soon begin to gain some ground. Happy Trading.
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Great market comeback.