Why it’s almost Christmas Eve, Mr. Scrooge!
The Global markets are closed tomorrow and we’re bound to have a very slow day – if you are looking for a Santa Clause rally on today’s trading, you are very likely to be disappointed. Today is a day for relaxation and reflection. Remember, the words of Jacob Marley, who said:
Business! Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!
Marley was a man who worked and worked until the day he died and regretted it every day after. If you don’t believe in an afterlife and you don’t believe in leaving behind the World a better place than you found it, at least find some time for yourself so people don’t call you "a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner" after you’re gone.
I was inspired this morning by an old post on Barry’s site titled "Give and You Will Receive" listing 13 good ways we can all give every day.
’Tis the season of giving and goodwill to all man and all that and my children just completed their annual ritual of wrapping up all the toys they are done with to give to children who need them more than they do.
It’s a little thing, but if you want your kids to learn the benefits of charity, actually parting with things they like or liked and physically giving them to kids who clearly appreciate it is much more gratifying than writing a check to some anonymous organization. The same goes for volunteering some time (and money!) at a local shelter and helping some people come in from the cold for a nice, warm meal – it makes you appreciate your family dinner a LOT more!
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Whether 2014 will be another great year for the top 1% as the market screams even higher on wave after wave of free money remains to be seen. So far, the signs are looking good!
We cashed out for the holidays, just in case it's not, and it will be a Christmas Miracle if these levels hold up through New Year's Eve as we already have a headline in the WSJ that reads: Retail Sales Plummet. This is no particular surprise to PSW Members, as our annual Holiday Shopping Survey has indicated a poor shopping season from the start.
"This will go down as the one of the worst holiday sales seasons on record," said Mary Delk, a director in the retail practice at consulting firm Deloitte LLP. "Retailers went from 'Ho-ho' to 'Uh-oh' to 'Oh-no.'"
Not that these FACTS have had any effect whatsoever on this market, which seems determined to put up new highs no matter what is actually going on in the economy. As noted by Colbert above, the top 0.01% are so rich, they can have fun breaking their own stuff – doing double duty shopping for the rest of us – and they are the ones buying and benefitting from these non-stop rallies – what can possibly go wrong?
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Note the silly spike in the Russell to flush out the short stops yesterday – that was very exciting, wasn't it? Overall, we are still long-term bullish because I can't see how the Fed will ever put their free-money genie back in the bottle without first having to battle some very serious inflation. This is merely the end game of the plan that was put into effect 7 years ago, when Goldman Sach's former CEO, Hank Paulson, was put in charge of the Treasury (see "Burning Dollars to Fight Gravity").
The Nikkei (we're short) also had a silly spike, up to 16,160 yesterday afternoon, even though the exchange had been closed since Friday but today they re-opened and sold off heavily into the close, all the way back to 15,849 after struggling to hold onto 16,000. The /NKD Futures were quickly pumped back to 16,000, as soon as the Nikkei closed because it's Christmas – we have to at least put on a good show, right?
While the Gods of Finance play their little games, all we mortals can do is enjoy this time with our families and, oh yes, if you are so inclined – pray.
Wishing you the happiest of holidays!
From all of us to all of you: Thanks for 2012, it’s been a crazy start to the decade, but the century is young and, as long as we have the spirit to match it – what is there that we can’t accomplish together?
Looking forward to next year’s challenges and accomplishments to come.
All our best,
Phil, Ilene, Greg and the whole team at Philstockworld!
