Bradenton Times News Articles

The S&P 500 and Dow Industrials rallied last week to within a fraction of new highs. Supporting the rally was better than expected economic news that showed the economy sliding away from potentially a double-dip recession. The big news occurred on Friday with a plunge in the September unemployment rate. The shock-and-awe following the Labor Department news was the result of Fed Chairman Bernanke’s recent remarks. Just last month, the Fed Chief was offering dire warnings on the condition of the nation’s labor markets. It is doubtful that the jobs report will cause Bernanke to change direction or policy and therefore the Fed is expected to remain friendly towards the equity markets.

The popular averages enjoyed a large gain in the third quarter with the peak in stock prices occurring in mid-September. Renewed economic weakness, ongoing trouble in the euro zone and an overbought market caused stocks to slide the past two weeks. Encouraging is the fact that the mood of investors quickly moved away from extreme optimism, suggesting any further weakness should be limited in both time and price.

With the news out from the Federal Reserve and the ECB, stocks by and large spent the week consolidating recent gains. The notable exception was the Dow Transports, whose non-confirmation of the gains in the Dow Industrials remains the most glaring unresolved breadth divergence among the domestic markets. Internationally, the new multi-year low in China’s Shanghai Composite should attract attention and call into question the health of the global economy. So long as the equity markets are generally focused on central bank stimulus, stocks could continue to build on their recent gains (particularly if the sentiment surveys show renewed skepticism among investors of all types). If the focus instead shifts to the deteriorating fundamentals both domestically and abroad, stock market gains could narrow and the rally could be on borrowed time.

Matt Weidner and April Charney are two attorneys who have been at the center of the Florida foreclosure crisis since ground zero. Despite a lot of general references to "the housing sector" when referring to the economy, there has been almost no discussion of the ongoing crisis that continues to impact Florida communities or the fraud that has gone along with it.

The Federal Reserve finally unleashed QE3 last week causing a huge rally in the stock and commodity markets. Since the June lows the financial markets have been anticipating another round of Fed easing and Bernanke filled all expectations and much more with last week’s announcement. While QE3 was signaled in advance with Bernanke’s Jackson Hole remarks, the aggressiveness caught the market by surprise and sent stocks and gold soaring. The unprecedented actions by the Fed were prompted by concerns the labor markets were continuing to decline as witnessed in the August jobs report.

Three weeks ago, Governor Rick Scott joined county officials at Port Manatee for a groundbreaking ceremony. He praised state/private partnerships as being the economic engine that would drive the state of Florida into a promising future. This week he returns, joining some of the businesses he referenced, to attend the "Enterprise Florida" board meeting. However, a closer look reaveals that there may be trouble in this economic paradise.

The equity markets broke out of a summer trading range last week on the upside. The principal support came from the European Central Bank (ECB) introducing a plan to lower interest rates for countries suffering from an economic crisis due to excessive debt. Although many believe the plan to save the euro is another stop-gap strategy, the markets clearly interpreted the ECB plan to buy unlimited quantities of bonds to stabilize the troubled euro-zone as a positive. China added to the optimism late in the week when the government announced a huge $157 billion plan, on a multitude of infrastructure projects, to spur overall growth.

The Bradenton Area Convention Center has completed an extensive 18-month, $6.5 million renovation, updating one of Manatee County’s largest meeting venues with a variety of aesthetic and functional improvements. Located on the scenic Manatee River, the newly named Bradenton Area Convention Center features 60,000 square feet of fresh and flexible meeting space, seven spacious breakout rooms and new outdoor options for events. 

The S&P 500 fell for the second week in a row last week. The cumulative loss, however, was less than one percent. Considering the market was overbought in late August and the steady flow of negative news on the global economy, the markets have behaved better than could be expected. This is likely due to considerable attention paid to the prospects for additional Fed and Central Bank intervention.

The equity markets gave ground last week. After six straight weeks of rally, a decline of less than 1% should be considered a victory for the bulls. Despite the decline, 79% of industries within the S&P 500 finished the period in uptrends versus 78% the previous week. This suggests that any weakness that is likely to develop before the November election will be limited in time and price.