Capitalogix

Is the S&P 500 Index at Its Likely Bounce Point?

What an Interesting week we just had.  Facebook is buying Instagram for $1 billion; AOL struck a $1 billion deal to provide hundreds of patents to Microsoft; Sony is cutting 10,000 jobs after its worst fiscal year ever; and “The Lion King” has passed “The Phantom of the Opera” as the highest-grossing Broadway musical ever.

On the other hand, the Markets suffered the toughest week they've had this year.

Here is a chart of the S&P 500 Index.  With price flirting with the 50-day moving average and testing the support of the Index's recent up-trend ... perhaps this is a likely bounce point.

 

 
Also, notice the relative strength indicator at the bottom of the chart.  As noted by the green arrows, an RSI reversal higher from the highlit zone has been a good indicator that the broader market will likely move higher as well.

On the other hand, a failure to move higher here could feed the "Sell in May and Go Away" crowd.  What do you think?

Related articles

• Day of Billion Dollar Buyouts: Facebook Acquires Instagram, Microsoft Buys AOL Patents (techcitement.com)
• 'Lion King' Surpasses 'Phantom' As All-Time Box Office Champ (newyork.cbslocal.com)
• Is the S&P 500 Index About to Flash a Major Buy Signal? (capitalogix.typepad.com)

Some Fun Links for Your Weekend Reading

Let's start with a cartoon about Reverse Psychology.

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

Lighter Links:

• Inside Stanford's Famous Course on Creativity. (Fortune)
• How Data Visualization Turns Scientists Into Storytellers. (Mindjet)
• Wyoming Town with 1 Resident Sold for $900,000. (News)
• Watch Google's Autonomous Car Drive a Blind Man to Taco Bell. (AutoBlog)
• DUI Suspect Sings 'Bohemian Rhapsody' in the cop car. Not a great way to prove your innocence. Classic. (Newser)

 

Trading Links:

• Here is Why Facebook Bought Instagram for Nearly a Billion Dollars. (GigaOM)
• Small Business Owners Optimistic. Things are looking up ... (SmallBizTrends)
• U.S. Stock Correlations Are Down. Waaaay Down. (WSJ MarketBeat)
• Economists Have a Lot to Learn From the Weather. (Bloomberg)
• Trouble in Shipping Turns Ocean Into Scrapheap. The world's biggest vessels are now worth little more than their scrap value. (Telegraph)

The Need for Speed - How Impatient Are We Becoming?

Here is an infographic about how 'Urgency Junkies' have become addicted to instant gratification.

 

Created by: Online Graduate Programs 

Are we becoming impatient or just seeking out conveniences and efficiencies.

Patience may be a virtue ... but information is an asset.

Wanting it all now has clearly become the new normal when it comes to accessing information.

The National Debt and Federal Budget Deficit Deconstructed - Tony Robbins

Markets posted the biggest weekly drop of 2012, as investors weighed steady domestic-labor and jobs market data amid a backdrop of on-going concerns about Europe's economy.

 

Short term, traders may be asking whether the stock market can sustain its gains, or are investors facing a pullback?  But, longer-term, there are bigger issues deserving focus and attention.

 

Here is a video from a source many may find unlikely to intelligently deconstruct the National Debt and Federal Budget.

Nonetheless, watch as Tony Robbins discusses the $15 trillion U.S. national debt and what can we do about the enormous growing federal budget deficit?

 

It is worth a few few minutes ... he is very good at simplifying things and telling stories.

  

 

via Tony Robbins.

 

Related articles

• Bernanke: Budget Deficits Are Unsustainable (pragcap.com)
• National Debt Skyrockets Under Obama, Far Faster Than Under Bush (openmarket.org)
• More Ways to Visualize Big Numbers, Like a Trillion (capitalogix.typepad.com)

Some Links for Your Weekend Reading

As you probably heard, the jobs recovery suffered a setback in March.  With the election coming, this promises to be an issue getting lots of scrutiny.

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

Lighter Links:

• 10 Proven Strategies of High-Performance Teams [INFOGRAPHIC]. (Mashable)
• IBM's Quantum Computers Could Change The World. (FastCompany)
• "When Siri Goes Psycho". A Clever Short Film. (Flixxy)
• Ranking the Web's Best 2012 April Fool's Jokes. (Blogs)
• Fruit Flies Use Alcohol to Cope With Sexual Rejection. How evolved do you feel now? (TW)

 

Trading Links:

• Facebook's Value Shoots Above $100 Billion On Its Last Private Trade. (BizInsider)
• Stocks Just Had The Best Quarter Since 1998, So Why Is Wall St. Skeptical? (Insider)
• A Good Sign: Companies May Finally Be Starting to Spend That Cash. (Businessweek)
• U.S. Tax Hackers: Cheating or Beating? (Infographic)
• Groupon's Shares Continue Falling to Close at All-Time Low.  Everyone loves a discount, and yet no one seems to be buying. (AllThingsD)

Attack of the Killer Tornadoes

It's a day after a string of Tornadoes blew through the DFW Metroplex area. 

 

We saw some crazy stuff.  Here is a link to 25 unbelievable pictures from the storm.

Also, here is a video of tractors being tossed around like rag dolls by the Tornado.

 

 

 

A lot of that happened right by here.  However, we were lucky and suffered relatively little damage.

Today, things are getting back to normal.

You'll be happy to hear that the capitalistic eco-system is at work again.  Hordes of salespeople are going door-to-door offering to fix a roof, clean the yard, repair your fence, or suck out the dents left on your car.

Considering the alternative, I'll take that as a good sign - and be grateful for surviving the 2012 Attack of the Killer Tornadoes.

Related articles

• Twitter & Twisters - A Life-Saving Combination (warriorwriters.wordpress.com)
• Tornado Tuesday: My Top 10 CBS Contemplations (dfw.cbslocal.com)

Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading

Here's a bumper sticker slogan that rings true more often than you might want.

 

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

Lighter Links:

• Seven Truths about Change to Lead & Live By. by Rosabeth Moss Kanter (HBR)
• Good List of 100+ Useful Infographic Tools & Resources. (DailyTekk)
• A Blast from the Past: The New Use for Dormant Fiber from the Dot-Com Boom. (TD)
• ‘Ender’s Game’ Launches Production Blog. A Great Book for a Movie. (MoviesBlog)
• Five Leadership Lessons from Captain Kirk. Knowledge from the heavens ... or at least from the Starfleet. (Forbes)

 

Trading Links:

• How 9 Tech Giants Traded Just After Going Public [INFOGRAPHIC]. (Mashable)
• Tech IPO Pipeline: 65 + Startups with $100 Million+ Valuations Since 1/11. (CBI)
• New Kinds of Funds for Commodities. (WSJ)
• Why Do Investors Sometimes Make Bad Investment Choices? (KnowWPCarey)
• Billionaire: "All I Know About Investing In Startups I Learned Playing Poker". (Insider)

Party Like It's 1999 - If You've Been in the Right Tech Stocks

Sure the S&P 500 Index has done well this year.

But those results pale compared to how some select tech stocks have done.

Here is a chart comparing the performance of LinkedIn, Salesforce, Apple, Priceline.

 

  

There will be a lot of "woulda, coulda, shoulda" after a run like that ....

Related articles

• Commodities Are So 2011: Why It's Tech's Turn to Pop and (Maybe) Top (minyanville.com)
• Time to Get Real? (zerohedge.com)

A Little Monday Morning Motivation

Wow, how time flies!

 

via someecards.com

 

The 1st Quarter of the year is almost in the books.  How are things going?

Spring is an excellent reminder that I was supposed to get in shape before spring.

Here Are Links for Your Weekend Reading

Energy Policy and Green Energy have been in the news recently.  Here is a cartoon poking fun at the situation.  It's called "Feeding the Federal Furnace."

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

Lighter Links:

• The Five Stages of Strategic Grief. (HBR)
• Reid Hoffman's 10 Rules for Entrepreneurial Success. (Entrepreneur)
• 6 Surprising Things Social Media Can Predict. Why to mine social media. (TheWeek)
• Why an MRI costs $1,080 in America and $280 in France. (WashingtonPost)
• DataViz Tool Shows You Gaping Holes In Your Password Security.  Scary Cool. (FastCo)

 

Trading Links:

• Everything That's Wrong With the Economy in 1 PowerPoint Slide. (TheStreet)
• Central Banks' $9 Trillion Is Global Economic Lifeline. (USAToday)
• Bye-Bye American Pie: The Challenge of the Productivity Revolution. (RobertReich)
• School for Quants: Learning to Calculate Our Future. (FT)
• Amazon Faces Taxing Times. After losing the battle to avoid collecting sales taxes, investors may learn why it fought so hard for so long. (WSJ)