The Federal Reserve's FOMC Statement was released today, and to no one's surprise, the committee decided to continue and expand the Treasury maturity extension program dubbed Operation Twist. The Fed will increase its holdings in longer-term Treasuries by $267 billion, while selling the same amount in short-term Treasuries. Operation Twist is designed to put downward pressure on long term interest rates, [...]
As predicted last month, the world markets were headed for a significant downdraft as economic statistics and a worsening Euro crisis took hold. As expected, once the S&P 500 broke its 50-day moving average we at Alhambra thought it would test the next major level of support, which was the 200-day MA. So far the index has been able to [...]
The investment committee at Alhambra has been very busy these past 2 weeks analyzing the current world economic situation. Europe sits idle; they are mired in a financial crisis and engrossed in a political chess match. The rest of the world watches the drama and prays for it to end. For, resolution could ignite global trade and put their current [...]
According to the Federal Reserve's Beige Book, the US economy continued to grow at a moderate pace over the last two months, with only one of the 12 districts reporting a slower pace of growth. Economists had expected a report that would show more signs of a weakening economy and lost momentum, so the Beige Book was a bit of [...]
The S&P 500 Index fell over 3% for the latest week, as a disappointing jobs report number and lingering Euro-worries managed to knock the index below its 200-day moving average. The index does find itself at support at 1278, and seems likely to recover. It may be a short-lived rebound though. The S&P 500 Value Index, which consists primarily of [...]
A report on our tactical portfolio moves for the week, all which occurred Thursday. Global Opportunities portfolio: Sell AHT, Sell UPL, Buy CELG, Buy MSFT Ashford Hospitality Trust is a hotel Reit we purchased in the first quarter of 2011. With low interest rates, our thesis held that Ashford would obtain cheap refinancing of existing debt and leverage the performance of prime properties [...]
Non-farm payrolls in the US gained only 69,000 jobs in May, far below Wall Street estimates and the least in over a year. The results roiled the markets, as economicts were expecting an increase of at least 165,000. The unemployment rate rose to 8.2% from 8.1%, the first increase in 11 months, as more people entered the labor force despite a [...]
MONTHLY ECONOMIC DATA TABLES Source: US Treasury Click here to sign up for our free weekly e-newsletter. For information on Alhambra Investment Partners' money management services and global portfolio approach to capital preservation, Douglas R. Terry, CFA is reachable at dterry@4kb.d43.myftpupload.com
In the last update, the S&P 500 Cap-Weighted Index was at a crossroads. Well, the index proceeded to break support at the 50-day Moving Average before testing the 200-day. The index has returned 11.87% so far this year. The S&P 500 Equal-Weighted index ((RSP)) is set up so that every stock in the index has the same weight, thereby eliminating [...]
Guest post from friend of Alhambra, Brian Cronin: “The union of these States is perpetual. No state, upon its own mere motion, can get out of the union. The central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy.” So said Abraham Lincoln in March of 1861. On the other hand: “to exercise self determination through secession is to blow apart [...]
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