Dartline™ … Closing Thoughts.

February 8, 2010, 4:00 pm EST — Closing Thoughts … The Standard & Poor’s 500 index closed down 9.45 to 1056.74, as trading volume on the two primary stock exchanges was severely lacking the totals from Friday’s session suggesting a major reversal from the fund and institutional participation, experienced last week. Without the “big players” this market can drop 25% from here. (Two stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume came to 1.1 billion shares compared with 1.6 billion shares Friday.) However, don’t panic, as Dartline has been saying — “Let the market come to you.”  — remains the favor of the moment. Keep you eye on what Stocksmirf suggests, as today, BTD portfolio showed a profit. Are you ready? … Mounting debt problems in several weaker European economies including Greece, Portugal and Spain have raised new questions about the health of the global financial system. Now maybe you understanding what Helicopter Bernanke kept interests at zero? … Clearly, Greece itself is nothing, except to underscore the continual contagion that has been “painted over” with the spin of the century — Expect rising debt loads in Europe to cascade into other parts of the world’s economy, which was started by the United States and accelerate here  for the post Lehman – Part II – Panic. Don’t blame the Chinese — but the financial media and Obama Nation that has all believing the Stockville is safe and the only place to park you money. All the noise about the billions on the sidelines waiting to jump in is still being talking up, etc. …

Granted, corporate earnings look good, but there is more to the allusion. Three out of four of the companies in the S&P 500 index that have reported results for the fourth quarter have posted stronger sales and profit numbers than analysts forecast. But look below the surface and you’ll see “cooked books” “misleading accounting practices” and “upside adjustments to inventories” just to name a few. All the fancy tricks banks used to make their numbers look good are now used by the rest of the bunch. … This weekend’s Group of Seven meeting did not lead to concrete action to tackle the sovereign debt problems of euro zone countries such as Greece, Portugal and Spain. European ministers told counterparts at the meeting they would ensure Greece sticks to its budget-cutting plan. Dartline believes more was needed to reassure markets euro zone debt problems would not upset global economic recovery. A Greek public sector union warned of further strikes to fight austerity measures, prompting an increase in the cost of insuring Greece’s sovereign debt. Greek government bond yield spreads over German benchmarks also rose, while the single European currency has shed nearly 10 percent from a 15-month high of $1.5145 hit in late November over growing fears Portugal and Spain could face the same kind of fiscal problems Greece is suffering. As long as EMU fears still loom and there is no strong signal from EU authorities that they will do something to tackle the situation in Greece, Spain and Portugal then euro downside potential will remain and world global; markets will continue to suffer.  Hello! Is anyone listening?