Thursday, January 27, 2011

Stocks Move Up, While Gold And Silver Get Bludgeoned: Here's What You Need To Know

Great day for equities, and horrible day for commodities.

But first, the scoreboard:

Dow: 2.46
NASDAQ: 15.70
S&P 500: 2.74

  • Well, we'll start the day around 3:30 AM, when S&P came out with an unexpected credit downgrade of Japan. That whacked the yen, as well as the rest of the "risk on" assets. For a moment, it seemed the day would take a bearish turn.
  • But it took just a few minutes for S&P to be reminded of its irrelevance. Japanese Bonds barely moved on the news, and it wasn't long before the entire move was totally erased. Kind of hysterical, actually.
  • Europe was pretty quiet. Maybe everyone's too busy at Davos to say anything that would create another crisis.
  • There really wasn't much economic news in the US. There was a big spike in initial jobless claims, and some are wondering if -- like with everything else right now -- the weather had something to do it.
  • On the earnings front it was a mixed bag. Potash absolutely crushed it. Proctor & Gamble wasn't so hot, really. Microsoft earnings leaked early, and the stock is jumping on the news. Thanks to signs of margin pressure at McDonald's, Proctor & Gamble, and the like, there was major outperformance by the consumer discretionaries. After the bell, Amazon will be out. Update: Amazon is out and, it's weak. The stock is diving.
  • Netflix exploded higher after yesterday's lights-out earnings report.
  • Really the big losers of the day were the precious metals: Gold, silver, and the like just got crushed.
  • Tomorrow should be very interesting between US GDP and expectations of big protests in Egypt.
  • Tomorrow should be very interesting. There's an expectation of big protests in Egypt, and in the US there's GDP.

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