Stocks Fall Again As FOMC Meeting Minutes Fail to Inspire

Once again stocks were able to find footing in the middle part of the day, but fail to hold the highs. A few more FOMC members are open to more quantitative easing it wasn’t enough to help the market push back into the highs. Of course we still have the mess going on in Europe, but the market was looking for QE3 to hit the market. The Fed knows any further QE will result in very high commodity prices squeezing the poor even further. We cannot have this situation and given the situation in the Europe and here at home puts the United States Central Bank in a precarious situation. The market remains weak and while we may see a one or two day bounce the trend is still down. If one had to guess just by looking at a chart of the NASDAQ it is quite easy to see the 200 day moving average is a logical next step for the index. Yes, we are oversold and sentiment is getting quite negative we have yet to see any real panic set into the market. The VIX, a measure of fear has yet to signal real fear in this market. Perhaps a move above 30 would signal enough fear, but it has yet to eclipse the 30 level. Talk of another flash crash is always imminent given the even happened only two years ago. For now we have a market creeping lower and lower and even with FB coming public on Thursday there is very little that can save this market from the inevitable. The United States has been on a war path regarding spending. Wars, social security, medicare, prescription drug coverage, etc are a big drag on the government budget. Unfortunately, Washington DC will not tell the American public the truth. Spending needs to be lowered end of story. The Buffett tax is only estimated to bring in a few billion dollars a year extra! We have a 1.5T yearly hole at the moment that Obama feels quite comfortable with. This is nuts! The only fix is to overhaul the tax code into a one page simple code and reduce spending. However, the media and Obama administration do a great job distracting the public from the facts. If anything, the United States fiscal cliff is far more dangerous than a Greece leaving the EURO. As a reminder, this week is options expiry and Friday should be a fun day. Tomorrow will more than likely be a bit more entertaining with FB coming public. We are not planning on participating in the IPO nor trading it on the first day. We’ll sit back and wait for it to base much like EBAY and GOOG did after their debuts. We’ll be patient. Execute you trading plan and cut those losses short.