The Weeks That Were---Catch Up TIme
Where have they been? I wrote them but left them sitting unposted on the floor by my desk while I worked with four students on reading and spelling (very different needs and levels) back-to-back four days a week (I don't "do Fridays."), worked on Slingerland Institute stuff, and began to get the Stock Market Game in gear for fall. I still have much to do, particularly in regards to the Stock Market Game, but part of that is developing this Week That Was newsletter.
So here they are:
The Week that Was---7/16 to 7/20/07
THE MARKET
Thursday the Dow closed at an all time high of 1400 breaking a new hundreds level. Only 3 months ago it hit 13000. At that time people said stocks and the market had gone up too far, too fast.
Can it go to 1500? That's only a 7.5% increase---from 1400 to 1500.
THE ECONOMY
(In last week's post while discussing the Economy, I said I was optomistic and would see if I boosted retail revenues via Nodstrom's preseason sale. A friend and I went shopping early Friday morning and spent a couple of hours. She bought one pair of shoes and I bought nothing. However, people were pouring out of the store with not just one big bag but two and three.)
Many companies reported their 2nd quarter earnings this week. Most earnings reports seemed good, such as energy, technology, medical devices, speciality retailers, and infrastructure companies. The trouble spots were with housing, financial, and some pharmaceutical companies.
Many companies are buying back their stock and acquisitions and mergers are occuring everywhere (wish I were a successful investment banker---one of my next lives.)
Interest rates are about the same as they were when the Dow was at 1300.
The Week That Was---7/ 23 to 7/27/07
THE MARKET
Down For the Week: the Dow down 4.2%; the S&P down 4.9%; and the Nasdaq Composite down 4.6% (Equal treatment for all!)
The weekly market declines, as measured by the S&P, were the worst since September 2002 and as measured by the Dow, the worst since March 2003. (Wonder what I was doing in September 2002 and March 2003. Obviously, my portfolio survived!)
Housing and credit-related issues (subprime lending and defaults) were the center of the decline.
In the housing market the discussion was about weak new and existing home sales. (We have been hearing this for a while. This is not new news.) The news was "shocking losses from well-known homebuilders" via their 2nd quarter reports. (This is called a reality check. What did the commentators expect?)
Concerning financial stocks, they (whoever "they" is) are worried about problems in the Credit Market and leverage loan markets. (This reminds me of when the downside of Junk Bonds became a reality.)
OIL
Crude oil was $77.
The Week That Was---7/30 to 8/3/07
THE MARKET
This was another week of major losses. The Nasdaq lost 2%, the S&P lost 1.8%, but the Dow lost only 0.6%. (Investors moved to the largest blue chip stocks, as measured by the Dow.)
Obviously, the market is in a correction. This down market is creating many buying opportunities for us to take advantage of when the correction ends. When a correction lasts long enough, eventually all leading, top-rated stocks will be hit. (Now is the time to create a potential buy list or update the buy list you currently have.)
OIL
Crude oil hit an all time high on Wednesday of $78.77.
7:54:05 AM 
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