Submitted by Mark Hanna
Courtesy of MarketMontage. View original post here.
Markets have been ping ponging back and forth in quite volatile fashion the past three weeks, hanging out between the low 1540s and low 1560s. There is multi year resistance in this mid 1560s level versus the 2007 highs so with yesterday’s resilient bounce off the morning gap down, and relative quiet out of Europe with the re-opening of Cyprus banks we will see if today is finally the day this resistance is broken. Expect thin holiday trading as many head for the exits early ahead of Friday.
Looking at global returns for the quarter the two countries with the easiest central banks dominated among major indexes (Japan and the U.S.) The only other major countries that were even positive were the UK (fractionally), Australia, and Mexico. Germany, France, Italy, Spain, China, India, Brazil, Canada – all down. A very strange world indeed – “free markets” seem to be saying one thing in countries without QE and saying a whole different thing where central banks are pressing on the gas. As someone on CNBC said this morning he has had to throw out everything he learned for 25 years in the business to deal with the new reality.
Very interesting quarter for sector leadership – even notwithstanding the bomb that is Apple, technology lagged big time and materials continued to stink as they seemed to be tied very much to China nowadays. Safety has been the place for Q1 2013, especially the last 6 weeks after cyclicals and financials were leaders early on.
Disclosure Notice
Any securities mentioned on this page are not held by the author in his personal portfolio. Securities mentioned may or may not be held by the author in the mutual fund he manages, the Paladin Long Short Fund (PALFX). For a list of the aforementioned fund’s holdings at the end of the prior quarter, visit the Paladin Funds website at http://www.paladinfunds.com/holdings/blog
