Another week, another slow Wall Street. I had a pretty good week as I made a few good purchases last week. I accumulated more “OPC” and “FNM” stocks at a low price. I am very optimistic about OPC, C and CEMJQ. I wish I could purchase CEMJQ as will without making any calls. That would make things easy. We had a pretty good weekend. We went to a dinner party which was quite eventful.
The market looks really bright this morning. I don’t know what to expect during the month of October. I am hoping it won’t be as gloomy as the investors forecasted to be. Time will tell, I guess.
Things are still slow in Fort McMurray. I just hope that we get going at some point. It just does not look very good for the rest of the year. I am hoping that 2010 will be better for us and we will be back in the green again.
LONDON (AP) -- German stocks led the advance in Europe Monday after voters gave Chancellor Angela Merkel's new pro-business coalition a majority in parliament, while takeover fever helped U.S. markets to early week gains. In Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 index of leading British shares closed up 83.5 points, or 1.6 percent, at 5,165.70 while France's CAC-40 rose 85.86 points, or 2.3 percent, to 3,825. However, those gains were dwarfed by the DAX's performance, which ended 154.90 points, or 2.8 percent, higher at 5,736.31 after elections Sunday gave the conservative Merkel a second four-year term. Her Christian Democrats have enough seats to end the "grand coalition" with the center-left Social Democrats and are expected to form a new government with the pro-business Free Democrats. Merkel said she wants to have a new center-right government in place by the time Germany celebrates the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9. However Marc Ostwald, a strategist at Monument Securities, cautioned against too much investor euphoria as Peer Steinbrueck of the Social Democrats will no longer be finance minister.
- WASHINGTON (AP) -- Big job losses and a spike in early retirement claims from laid-off seniors will force Social Security to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes the next two years, the first time that's happened since the 1980s. The deficits -- $10 billion in 2010 and $9 billion in 2011 -- won't affect payments to retirees because Social Security has accumulated surpluses from previous years totaling $2.5 trillion. But they will add to the overall federal deficit. Applications for retirement benefits are 23 percent higher than last year, while disability claims have risen by about 20 percent. Social Security officials had expected applications to increase from the growing number of baby boomers reaching retirement, but they didn't expect the increase to be so large.
What happened? The recession hit and many older workers suddenly found themselves laid off with no place to turn but Social Security.
- Stocks leapt on Monday as deal news, upbeat analyst comments and the perception of available bargains after last week's losses fueled broad-based buying. The Dow Jones Industrial Average recouped most of last week's 155-point fall, trading 138 points higher in recent action, up 1.4%, at 9803, helped by gains in 29 of its 30 components. The only exception was Kraft, which was recently down 0.2% and has moved between gains and losses throughout the session.
- NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil rose nearly 2 percent above $67 a barrel on Monday as U.S. equities jumped and news emerged that Iran was test-firing missiles. U.S. stocks climbed as more merger and acquisition activity encouraged investors and hinted at economic recovery, which could spur energy demand. U.S. crude rose $1.18 to $67.20 a barrel by 12:49 p.m. EDT (1649 GMT), after earlier falling as low as $65.41. London Brent rose 86 cents to $65.97. Support for oil also came from Iran test-firing a type of missile on Monday that defense analysts said could hit Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf region, state television reported. "Crude futures are following the stock market right now and the news from Iran firing missiles has sparked some buying, too," said Phil Flynn, analyst at PFGBest Research in Chicago. Tensions over Tehran's nuclear program have supported oil prices in recent years. The country is the second-largest oil producer in the Middle East. In late 2008, Iran threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 40 percent of the world's globally traded oil passes, when tensions rose in another row with the United States around the nuclear work.
- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the World Bank on Monday sounded a cautionary note about granting greater regulatory power to the U.S. Federal Reserve and said the dollar's future will "depend heavily on U.S. choices." "It should not be a surprise that American democracy is hesitating about authorizing the Fed to supervise systemic banking as well as operating monetary policy, adding to its power," World Bank President Robert Zoellick said. In a speech prepared for delivery at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, Zoellick said the U.S. Congress had a long tradition of viewing banks with suspicion that made it a challenge to beef up the U.S. central bank's power after last year's financial panic. Aiming to prevent a repeat of the crisis that pushed the world financial system to the brink of collapse, President Barack Obama has proposed sweeping changes to U.S. regulation that would make the Fed the lead systemic risk regulator.
- MANILA, Philippines – Rescuers pulled more bodies from swollen rivers Monday as residents started to dig out their homes from under carpets of mud after flooding left 140 people dead in the Philippine capital and surrounding towns. Overwhelmed officials called for international help, warning they may not have sufficient resources to withstand another storm that forecasters said was brewing east of the island nation and could hit as early as Friday. Authorities expected the death toll from Tropical Storm Ketsana, which scythed across the northern Philippines on Saturday, to rise as rescuers penetrate villages blocked off by floating cars and other debris. The storm dumped more than a month's worth of rain in just 12 hours, fueling the worst flooding to hit the country in more than 40 years. At least 140 people died, and 32 are missing.
- TEHRAN, Iran – Iran tested its most advanced missiles Monday to cap two days of war games, raising more international concern and stronger pressure to quickly come clean on the newly revealed nuclear site Tehran was secretly constructing. State television said the powerful Revolutionary Guard, which controls Iran's missile program, successfully tested upgraded versions of the medium-range Shahab-3 and Sajjil missiles. Both can carry warheads and reach up to 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometers), putting Israel, U.S. military bases in the Middle East, and parts of Europe within striking distance. The missile tests were meant to flex Iran's military might and show readiness for any military threat. "Iranian missiles are able to target any place that threatens Iran," said Abdollah Araqi, a top Revolutionary Guard commander, according to the semi-official Fars news agency. Iran conducted three rounds of missile tests in drills that began Sunday, two days after the U.S. and its allies disclosed the country had been secretly developing an underground uranium enrichment facility. The Western powers warned Iran it must open the site to international inspection or face harsher international sanctions. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hasan Qashqavi said the missile tests had nothing to do with the tension over the site, saying it was part of routine, long-planned military exercises.
- CAIRO – Al-Qaida's deputy leader on Monday seized upon President Barack Obama's failure to bring about a freeze in Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and called him a "fraud" in a new audio message. Ayman al-Zawahri's 28-minute audio message was mainly a eulogy for slain Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, but he also took the opportunity to slam NATO member states operating in Afghanistan, including Germany, which he criticized for keeping troops there. The recording comes after a series of al-Qaida videos this past month, including several attacking Germany and threatening strikes against Berlin's military mission in Afghanistan. Those releases raised concerns among German authorities ahead of parliamentary elections which ended Sunday. Al-Zawahri reserved special scorn for Obama, whom he has insulted in nearly every one of his messages since the latter's historic election as U.S. president. Many experts believe that Al-Qaida is struggling in the face of Obama's popularity in the Muslim world, especially compared to his predecessor George W. Bush. Obama publicly called for an Israeli freeze in settlement construction in order to restart the peace talks, but was rebuffed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week.
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