Crash Market Stocks - Financial Tips On Making Money In The Stock Market

It is the week of all weeks for retailers. In fact, I find it comical to browse around online retailers to see that the norm has now become "Black Friday Week." Retailers are riding the black friday train as long as they can. Some, like Amazon, keep the party going a whole week after. For many, 40-50% of their profits will be earned in the next two months. That can be a big gamble if consumers are tightening spending a bit, which recent data is showing.

It is continually the big elephant in the room. On one hand, because of China, interest rates continue to remain at record low levels due to the large supply of treasuries they continue to buy (and the Fed). On the other hand, China's aggressive currency valuation and manufacturing is definitely starting to be felt in US businesses and has been for quite some time. So what is the answer?

Yesterday, President Obama announced that the US would be beefing up the military presence in Northern Australia, that man believe sends a message to China that the US still owns the Pacific.

Recently, I have been able to get two sides of the story as well as two perspectives and how we should go forward with our relationship with China.

First, I attended a presentation given by Joshua Cooper Ramo of Kissinger Associates, who has been nearly a diplomat of China and has lived there for over 10 years. He has recently written a book called "The Age of the Unthinkable," which talks about China in more detail.

Essentially, Ramo talks about the rising power of China and how, because of the population and buying power of the upcoming middle class, a mutual beneficial relationship cannot be ignored. He addressed many of the concerns and preconceived prejudices that many Americans have of China, as well as tried to dive into the culture of China and why they react a certain way to things.

Ramo feels that the next generation of China brings much more diversity and "free thinking" than does the current Communist party. He feels that as China continues to accept capitalistic companies into the country and with the help of social media, these barriers will continue to break down. He feels that if the US can make a mutual relationship work with China, it will be the best decision the US ever made.

However, there are always two sides to a story.

Next, I have listened to the words of Peter Navarro, a professor of Finance at The University of California Irvine and the author of the book, "Death by China." In this book, Navarro breaks down the manipulation and fraud of Chinese leaders in which directly effects both the health and economic well being of the US. He talks of the hacking, spies, and theft that occurs daily as well as the military threat as China continues to build their forces.

He also discusses the fault of the government for allowing many of the problems to happen. China allows almost no imports into the country, but exports more than half of the world's goods. Many factories in Detroit, Chicago, and Kansas City have been closed down and replaced with factories in China.

Navarro believes that unless something is done to regulate how China conducts business, especially within the US, we will suffer many consequences, as will our children.

You decide. How does the US go forward with their relationship with China? The fact of the matter is, that China does hold the largest middle class population and will have only more consumer buying power in years to come. As China continues to develop and become more urbanized, without a debt there will be extremely large opportunities there. The question is will US companies be able to take advantage of it. Some already have. This is why I continue to be bullish in Chinese companies. Happy Trading.

Republicans and Democrats are not the only people drawing lines in the sand and not wanting to budge. We are seeing a pretty divided stance on the near term movement of markets. I have been to several economic forecast meetings in which very highly respected economists discuss their near term outlook of the economy and it surprises me that I have heard many different stories from all of them.

This perfectly explains the volatility of the markets. In fact, some people change their minds day to day. Whatever it may be, their currently exists major differences of opinions among highly regarded economists and corporate CEOs.

For some, the debt crisis in Europe, combined with the monumental debt piling up in the US is only delaying the inevitable. That being another dip in markets. For others, record low interest rates, strong earnings among manufacturers, and more liquid banks is priming the market for more of a rebound. The one thing that most will agree, is even if we do trend upwards, that will be a very slow growth.

I am encouraged with recent earnings from manufacturers, however am discouraged with many of their "restructuring" plans for 2012. With the latest earning reports, many US manufacturing companies released a restructuring plan for 2012 in which they will be looking to scale down operations as well as cut certain jobs. All seem to have the same answer when asked why. Because they are unsure of near term outlook. They would better be prepared than be caught by surprise.

What worries me most is how sluggish the current economy is, while enjoying record low interest rates. In fact, without such interest rates, I believe it is safe to say we would be head deep in a depression as of now. They are the lifeline that has kept us a float, barely. However, this cannot last forever. How long will the government extend this benefit while stockpiles of debt continue to grow? That of course, will be the big question as we go into 2012. The government has made it clear by both words and actions they will take ANY action necessary to keep markets flowing. Whether or not that will come back to haunt us is a big subject of debate.

At any rate, I see commodities finishing strong to end the year. As risk and uncertainty continues to rise, commodities will go stronger. I see a lot of opportunity in some of the emerging market sectors, but I will go into much more detail about that in a later post. Happy Trading.

Stocks have rebounded quite nicely since September's trading woes. Two weeks ago, trading was looking quite grim with not a lot of optimism. However, markets have had some good trading days and bounced back. Beware of falling into the trap of going long too soon. There still remain a lot of discouraging signs in the market that could push for another sell off. Consumers are sensitive and just the slightest negative pressure can turn optimism into pessimism.

One big thing to keep eyes on is the VIX levels. We have seen quite the spike in the VIX (volatility index of markets), which mostly leads to downward trading in the long run. We saw record VIX levels in 2009 when markets reached lowest levels. The theory is that the more uncertain traders are, the more sensitive and volatile they trade. In fact, just in the past two months, we have seen several +/- 1% Dow trading days. It has come down a bit this past week, but still remains in high levels.

After months of upsetting their subscribers, Netflix announced this week that they would not be splitting their streaming and DVD company up. Recently, Netflix changed their subscription prices, charging significantly more for those wanting to continue receiving DVDs. In addition to the price change, Netflix announced their plan to divide the company and retain the streaming service under the Netflix name and create a new company (Quickster) to house the DVD business line.

Customers responded to this move with even more anger for the company, which resulted in some loss of subscribers. After a few months, Netflix finally gave into the complaints and hacked the Quickster company, keeping the two businesses under the same roof.

Throughout the duration of this debacle, we have seen a tremendous drop in Netflix's (NFLX) stock price. After reaching highs of well over $300, the stock almost reached the $100 mark this past week. Investors have begun to question the decision making ability of the company's leaders and whether or not they have the ability to continue strong growth.

Additionally, Amazon is starting to show its big, ugly face around the corner as a massive competitor of Netflix as they just recently announced their new Tablet as well as their growth in streaming content for their Prime users. This is another influencer for selling NFLX.

Personally, I believe the stock has been a bit oversold at this point. Much of the reaction has been emotional, which tends to reach far beyond the point of logical valuing. The point is, Netflix still controls the largest amount of streaming media content, which will always bear the largest subscription base. If Netflix can keep this trend, they should continue strong growth. I threw some of their stock in my account on Monday. Happy Trading.

A new week begins, and considering what happened last week, there was a lot of anxious investors awaiting the opening bell on Monday. Warren Buffett made it easier on everyone by announcing his plan for Berkshire Hathaway to begin purchasing back its own stock. This move is very interesting, as it is usually Buffett who is critical on companies who initiate to do so, accusing them of "propping up" stock prices for their own companies. He, however, said when there is added value, the move can be very worthwhile for investors. I guess the the market agreed, as Berkshire Hathaway A traded up nearly 8% today. However, it still remains down over 20% for the year.

Buffett is not the first to initiate buybacks for his stock. In fact, 2011 is already one of the highest volume of buybacks ever. This does not necessarily lead to upward trading in the overall markets. In fact, the largest year for stock buybacks was in 2008, which as many know, was the year that also marked the extremely large drop in the markets. The takeaway is, indeed companies buying back stock can be a very good thing for investors and often causes a short term pop in the price, however, it definitely does not guarantee big returns for that particular company.

Markets took a tumble last week as Bernanke announced his newest stimulus plan for the economy. Many felt that the proposed plan was much less than expected which caused a strong retreat in markets on Thursday. Fortunately, markets have recovered a bit since. However, a negative sentiment is still looming over Wall Street as new home sales continue to remain stagnant and employment is sluggish.

Kodak is seeing record drops in their stock price, as investors' concerns are growing in regard to their ability to reposition themselves as a "printer" company. Risky investors are hoping that indeed the sell off is too aggressive and hoping for a small buy back. At this point, they are clearly at high risk, but where there is risk there is a possibility of good reward right? Too risky for my blood.

We are reaching a very pivotal time in market trading, where the next few weeks are really going to set the stage for institutions heading into "redemption" seasons. We saw the massive sell off in gold on Thursday, as hedge funds were forced to sell, needing to show profits for positions. This indeed could be a trend in the near future, leading to me cool off on the gold investment for the short term. Time will tell. Happy Trading.