Headlines surrounding the contagion from Ireland’s financial woes and accusations of insider trading at some of the largest US hedge funds brought the markets to negative territory for the week.  Monday started out on the negative side with financial stocks continuing to drag the Dow Jones Industrial Average lower as more news surrounding sovereign debt issues in Ireland and a wide spread probe into insider trading in the United States rocked the markets.  News that Ireland had announced an application to the European Monetary Union and the International Monetary fund for aid caused European stocks sell off and brought the US markets down.  Bank of Ireland, one of the country’s two largest banks,  lost 16.85% on Monday to close at $2.22.  There was no lack of bad news as the FBI raided a number of large hedge fund offices in their continuing probe into insider trading practices. 

Tuesday brought more instability across the globe as North Korea’s aggression against South Korea brought geopolitical …

Better than expected US retail sales in the auto and on-line retailers Monday morning were expected to keep the market strong, but after a solid morning the market closed flat.  One outlier was Ford which gained 70 cents or 4.3% on news of stronger auto sales. 

Tuesday was a different story and awoke to more negative global news surrounding Irish sovereign debt problems and a slowing Chinese economy.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average had one of its worst days this quarter losing 178.47 points to close at 11023.50.  China led the fall with concerns surrounding stronger inflation data and a rise in interest rates that would slow down the economy. Europe followed suit to the downside with concerns that Ireland’s debt problems would spread to other European countries.  Wednesday was a quiet day for most sectors with the exception of banking.  While banks were a drag, the markets were supported by consumer-discretionary stocks which were buoyed by Target as third …

This past week the markets took a bit of a breather from their upward march following the mid-term elections.  Congressional debate over the prior administrations tax reductions has yet to start as the new Congress settles in so there was not much news out of Washington that would affect the markets.  The G20 meetings were also fairly quiet on global trade issues but currency concerns continue to spook the international markets.

Monday the markets closed down after six days of advances.  Travelers was the culprit in the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing 1.50%.  Lingering conversations surrounding the Federal Reserve announcement from the prior week pushed commodities higher and gold hit a new high Monday of $1400 an ounce.  The caution followed through to Tuesday regarding unintended consequences of the Fed move and news from Bank of America that even with its sale of BlackRock, the bank will not meet capital requirements by year end.  The shares lost …

An unprecedented win in Congress by the Republican Party and “Teapublican” party Tuesday helped usher in a strong market for the week.  The markets were tentative on Monday with only a six point gain on the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Tuesday only had a 64 point rise as traders and investors waited for election night news and the Federal Reserve’s November meeting. The gain did bring the blue chips to the highest level since April 26th of this year.  Following news of the election results, the Federal Reserve Board announced Wednesday a plan to inject another $600 billion into the financial markets by purchasing  Treasury bonds over the the next eight months.  While the news had been anticipated since August, when the Federal Reserve hinted at such, only some government bonds rose on the news while others, namely, the 30-year Treasury bond, fell.  The effect on the equity markets was much more muted …