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Author:

Paul Schatz, President, Heritage Capital

Bears to Pounce at the Open

Stocks look to open sharply lower this morning on a variety of news events, although none that are singularly that bad. Greece is in the headlines yet again and frankly, if they are going to exit, let’s just get it over with. Their economy and market is not even a rounding error in the grand scheme of things, but a Grexit will open the door to the southern European countries saber rattling about an exit if they are not bailed […]   Read More
Date: January 27, 2015

Lots of News This Week

While last week was certainly news filled, this week will be even busier as the northeast plans for another snowmageddon. At the bus stop this morning, our new neighbors who are from Dublin talked about the more than 10 cases of water they bought. When I stopped laughing, I asked them what they planned to do with all that water. And while they were at it, I asked them if they also bought canned goods and ammo! That conversation gave […]   Read More
Date: January 27, 2015

Draghi & ECB Deliver

It’s a very busy week for the markets and economy coming off the ECB’s long anticipated announcement of Euro QE last week. On the one hand I thought it was smart to leak the $50B euros per month plan so that markets could digest it ahead of the official statement. It was also a great move to then exceed the number that was leaked by $10B euros. On the other hand, I am not in favor of this piecemeal approach […]   Read More
Date: January 26, 2015

7 Years Ago

As I drove home from Vermont today on Martin Luther King Day, I thought about past MLK Days, which is something I would normally do to pass the time away. My two boys were in the back seat napping and listening to music and I had Sirius on in the background. I vividly recall MLK Day 1994 as it was the single coldest day I have ever skied at Mount Snow, -25F with 20 mph winds that made it feel […]   Read More
Date: January 20, 2015

Early Warning System & January Barometer

With the first five days of January officially in the books, the Early Warning System (EWS) pioneered by Yale Hirsch is flashing a positive sign for the rest of January as well as 2015. The theory says that as go the first five trading days of the new year, so goes January. And as goes January, so goes the year. With help from my friend Carter Worth of Stern Agee (Carter did the heavy lifting and I peppered him with […]   Read More
Date: January 12, 2015

Another “V” for the Bulls… Must Run from Here

As I have written before, since mid 2012 the stock market has seen more “V” bottoms than in all previous years combined. “V” bottoms went from being very rare to becoming the norm. With each successive low, investors are changing their buying behavior to accept the “new” behavior as the norm. In my view, this is setting up the masses for yet another 2000-2002 or 2008 style wealth decimation. So now that we have yet another confirmed “V” bottom, which […]   Read More
Date: January 9, 2015

Waiting for Warm & Fuzzy

The “traditional” Santa Claus Rally ended in the red for the stock market and that’s not a warm and fuzzy sign heading into 2015. Through the first 3+ days into 2015, small cap stocks are not leading their large cap brethren and that’s not a warm and fuzzy sign. Stocks sold off hard to begin the year and that hasn’t been a warm and fuzzy sign. Today, the bull are trying to make a stand after seeing yet another 5% […]   Read More
Date: January 7, 2015

First “Key” Day of 2015

It’s only the second trading day of 2015, but I am going to get a little dramatic and say for the short-term, it’s somewhat of a key day. The second trading day of the year is seasonally a very strong one. Given the 1%+ down day to end 2014, there is a trend to see significant strength during the first week of the New Year to counter that unusual down day. Today is also the end of what many refer […]   Read More
Date: January 5, 2015

Don’t Count the Bulls Out to Begin 2015

Welcome to 2015! Wishing you and your family a very Happy, Healthy, Safe and Peaceful New Year! Stocks finished 2014 with a whimper rather than a bang as the lack of liquidity allowed sellers to move prices sharply lower on Wednesday. The last two days of December have become somewhat of a headwind lately, but that weakness is supposed to be reversed next week. As bullish as I was over the past few weeks on the small cap Russell 2000, […]   Read More
Date: January 1, 2015

Homestretch

This is it. Three more trading days and 2014 will be in the books as they say. Just 8 trading days ago, the bears were beating their chests yet again about how the bull market ended or the stock market was in 10%+ correction or a whole host of other nonsense. I wrote it right at the October bottom and I did the same thing 8 days ago; the bull market is old yet alive and weakness should be bought […]   Read More
Date: December 28, 2014