Dubai bailed out by Abu Dhabi.
Monday, December 14th, 2009. 9:15 a.m.
Markets got a bit of lift last night and this morning on news that oil-rich Abu Dhabi indicated it will stand behind Dubai’s close to defaulting debts.
Abu Dhabi is providing $10 billion of which Dubai will use $4.1 billion to make a payment on a Dubai World bond maturing today, and will use the rest toward interest expenses and working capital going forward.
Subscribers: There is an important Special Report and hotline in the subscribers’ area of the website from yesterday (Sunday). And the new issue of the newsletter will be out Wednesday!
Special thanks.
Special thanks to Barron’s for publishing my article about the market’s seasonality in its current issue (Dec. 14).
And to Timer Digest for noting in its current issue that in its survey of forecasts for 2009 a year ago, Sy Harding and Tom McClellan were the most accurate regarding where the Dow would be mid-year. “The Dow closed mid-year at 8447, and Sy Harding and Tom McClellan had predicted Dow 8500”.
Non-Subscribers: The sample issue of the Street Smart Report newsletter has been updated to a later issue you might find interesting. To go to it click the link near the top of the column on the right.
U.S. oil companies were virtually shut out in Iraq’s weekend oil field auction.
Iraq completed its largest auction of its oil fields. European and Asian groups were the main winners, including Royal Dutch Shell, Lukoil, Russia’s Gazprom, China’s CNPC, Malaysia’s Petronas. It was Iraq’s second oil field auction and completes the sale of its largest oil fields. U.S. firms were not competitive in the bids.
Big market move coming?
When Bollinger Bands narrow, indicating a lack of volatility, it’s often an early indication that a larger than normal market move will soon take place in one direction or the other. The bands have narrowed in to an unusual degree over the last couple of weeks.
Asian markets were mixed but mostly higher last night.
The DJ-Asia index closed up 0.5%.
Among individual countries; Australia closed up 0.4%. China closed up 1.7%. Hong Kong closed up 0.8%. Japan closed down 0.1%. India closed down 0.1%. Singapore closed unchanged. South Korea closed up 0.5%. Taiwan closed up 0.3%.
NOTE: If you’d like to see charts of how these and other markets have performed for the week so far, month so far, and last 3-months, click here, and click on any of the market indexes at the left side of the page it takes you to.
Markets this morning:
European markets are up this morning, on average of almost 1%.
Oil is down $.34 a barrel at 69.53 at the moment, still losing its upside momentum since mid-October when it reached $81.37.
Gold is up $4 an ounce at $1,124, after closing at a new correction low on Friday, down about $100 an ounce since reaching its record high at $1,225 two weeks ago.
In the U.S.:
This week has a quite heavy schedule of potential market-moving economic reports, but they don’t begin until tomorrow when the Producer Price Index, NY State Mfg Index, Industrial Production, and the Housing Market Index will be released. To see the week’s full schedule click here, and look at the left side of the page it takes you to.
Some excitement being created by the announcements that Exxon Mobil is acquiring domestic natural gas giant XTO Energy for $41 billion, and that CitiGroup is repaying $20 billion of the TARP money it received in the bank bailout.
Our pre-open indicators are pointing to the Dow being up 25 points or so in the early going, not meaningful as to direction.
Stock Market Patterns.
This is the quarter’s quadruple-witching expirations week (stock options, index options, futures and options on futures expire Friday), and the expirations week tends to be positive.
Interesting Chart of the Morning.
Are the gold stocks headed down to the lower limit of the unusually consistent trading band that has confined their rallies and pullbacks all year?
Please scroll down to see other recent ‘Interesting Charts of the Morning’.
To read my weekend newspaper column ‘Gold Lost Its Glitter in a Hurry – Again!’ click here!
Subscribers: There is an important Special Report and hotline for you in the subscribers’ area of the website from yesterday (Sunday). And the new issue of the newsletter will be out Wednesday!
Non-subscribers to Street Smart Report: While it’s helpful to look at daily and short-term expectations, it is the intermediate and longer-term signals and market moves that are most important to investors. So, please consider a subscription to our independent research and recommendations. The cost is equivalent to the cost of two cups of coffee per week. Can you afford not to subscribe?
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