QUICK MARKET WRAP

When you go swimming you never know what lurks just below the surface.

What with the all the current market jitters the real trouble might lay just below the rumblings and not in some far off place like next year when most expect the Fed to be well into its projected QE weening. http://www.fxstreet.com/analysis/daily-forex-market-wraps/2014/03/24/

QUACKING DUCKS

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There's an old Wall Street bromide quacking ducks get fed. Initial public offerings frequently attract the fast-buck crowd. They also often accompany a feeding frenzy.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/03/24/investing/premarkets/index.html

PMI TEA LEAVES

If you're a PMI fan you might find this update http://www.marctomarket.com useful. We don't put much stock in purchasing manager stuff. But along with March Madness it can lend to glancing water cooler one-up man-ship.

On the cosmic scale of importance they're about the same.

THE MARKET RUNS THE SHOW

In a recent post, Dial Up Your Counter-Intuitive Intuitive Barometer, we stated the market, not the Fed, runs the show.

Well, here's a piece from The Big Picture that makes the case quite plainly. Check out the charts. In all the clamoring, jockeying for position and media mesmerizing it's almost always the one hardly anyone saw coming.

What's key to remember is those officials who really think they're running things really think they're running things. It's their gray matter, manipulations and presence. They are the light and the way.

http://t.ritholtz.com/bigpicture/#!/entry/the-fed-and-hyperinflation,532ea2ca025312186ce846d8/3%

DON'T FALL ASLEEP AT THE TAX SWITCH

If you like annually visiting your friendly proctologist, you'll love this bipartisan proposal.

It's another classic example of the camel getting its nose under the edge of the tent. The first step came several years ago when Congress cut the mortgage interest deduction for homes priced at one million or more. The latest proposal suggests cutting it to $500,000.

But that's not the funny part. One elected wag had the contempt to play the analogy card, suggesting in these difficult economic times the government could put those usurped funds to "good use." That's what we now know they did with all the money they garnered from the first restriction.

Not that long ago one could deduct the interest one paid on new car loans, credit cards and the like. They confiscated those deductions in 1987. This is the slippery slope of dangerous stuff. Get this in your head and keep it straight: deductions are anathema to all governments.

Fall asleep on this one and, like the line in country song about the guy's girl, "You won't even know she's gone."


http://www.marketwatch.com/story/should-congress-limit-mortgage-deduction-2014-03-22?link=MW_popular

FED SPEAK

Question: What's the difference between voodoo and Fed speak?
Answer: Nothing.

That's what the newly released 'passing grade' the Fed stamped 29 of the 30 largest banks with in their so-called stress test is, Fed Speak. Quite often government makes its net bigger under the guise of the so-called fees. The term tax is too harsh, so we'll call it fees. Big pharmaceutical does it a bit differently; they just pay researchers to produce the results they want to spread a bigger net so more patients will require their drugs. It's a great gig if one can get it.

The idea that these bankers are not savvy enough to keep certain assets in certain dark places is hardly a new one apparently to all but the Fed. And that's just the tip of the full disclosure financial treadmill test.  Once again the public remains mesmerized by the media coverage.

CONTRARIAN INDICATORS

Sentiment should come to mind. As market jitters about a looming correction crank ever higher along with the Dow, here are some to consider, according to a recent Barron's piece.

But buy recommendations from analysts for U.S. Stocks compared to those for the remaining global markets are pushing 10-year highs. And roughly 85% of economists look for U.S. growth to weigh in around 2.5% to 3.2% this year. 

And again, per Barron's, 21 of 21 strategists ( Yes, that's 100 %!  Will someone please definitively define that term?) look for the S&P 500 to close 2014 at 1850. Low hurdles and even lower hanging fruit are Wall Street products--picked, packaged and pushed.

DIAL UP YOUR COUNTER-INTUITIVE BAROMETER

Things get tweaked. That's pretty straight forward. But how about your counter-intuitive intuition.

We'll, one Wall Street maven seems to agree with us: the market not the Fed runs things.

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/capitolreport/2014/03/21/goldmans-hatzius-yellen-made-a-mistake-and-the-fed-is-on-hold-until-2016/

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU TELL

Mark Twain noted that there are lies, damn lies and statistics. And there are ordinary folks like you and me. A harsh but important truism is everybody lies. So here is an interesting read. It's about lying.

Read it and see what you think or, if you're not into introspection, don't bother and just tell everyone you did.

http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/11/the-surprisingly-large-cost-of-telling-small-lies/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=1

WEEKEND READS

Going into the weekend we're written before about behavior; it a simple matter about choice. And everybody makes one. With the Federal Reserve and its incestuous cronies with their ties to Wall Street the choice is always the same: bail out the banking system.

Period. Pure fact. Doesn't matter who gets trampled in the process. This last time around it was those living on fixed incomes, retirees and the working stiffs. Job creation is an oxymoron. Job destruction is a more accurate term.

http://www.testosteronepit.com/home/2014/3/22/this-chart-is-a-true-picture-of-the-unemployment-crisis-in-a.html