Markets Ignore Inflation Report

FEBRUARY 20, 2008: Inflation showed up again today in the ‘hot’ CPI number. In January, core inflation rose 0.4% vs the forecasted 0.3%. Minutes from the last Fed meeting however indicated that the they would do everything they could to keep the economy from going into a recession. The Nasdaq celebrated by rallying 0.9% on heavier but average volume.

Retailers, oil drillers, and steel producers were strong today. Medical related, solars, and automobile stocks sold off. Transocean was up 7%. Research in Motion advanced 5%, and fertilizer maker Mosaic moved up 4%. Suntech Power dropped 12% and Sunpower lost 4%.

The Nasdaq is now 19% off it’s October highs. Stimulus packages, multiple rate cuts, bail-outs, etc. may have brought us a ‘counter-trend’ rally but have failed to change the direction of the markets, which is decidedly down.

Counter-trend rallies during corrections are by no means a signal to jump back in the markets. Bear market rallies can be sharp to the upside and come back down even faster. It’s best to wait for a ‘follow-through’ day and see top-rated stocks breaking out of proper bases before committing money to the long side of stocks.

Don’t forget that the banking system is in serious trouble, the housing sector is in ‘melt-down’ mode and the consumer feeling the pinch of higher inflation and less access to credit. More info at http://www.goldenticker.com

“Real Homes of Genius” – What were we thinking!

The Inevitable Collapse of the US Dollar – A “must see” video.

Peter Schiff has been a voice of reason for many years and now many of his dire predictions are materializing.

Bond Insurers MBIA and Ambac in Freefall.

It’s never pretty when your stock falls over 50% in one day.

“Our House, in the Middle of a Slump” (funny!)

Leave is again to the Brits to find a sense of humor in the all the misery of the global real estate meltdown.

Cramer exposes the corruption on Wall St. & the banking sector.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/22706231 A MUST SEE VIDEO

Why isn’t the Securities and Exchange Commission getting more involved in the whole banking sector writedown situation? Especially since the numbers are likely to get worse, not better? That’s what Jim Cramer, CNBC’s resident stock guru, wants to know.

“It’s all fiction!” he declared during a forceful exchange (see it in full in the accompanying video) on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

“How can we have these levels of fiction in financials after Sarbanes-Oxley? How do people get away with this? How do they live with themselves?”

Cramer made his comments while reviewing results from Merrill. But his real consternation surrounded the insurers who cover banking investments. Some of those insurers haven’t come clean about their liabilities, Cramer speculated. Eventually they will, and then the “fiction” will disappear, he said.

The banking sector and its related industries are all too chummy, Cramer accused. That led the numbers related to mortgage investments — investments that are currently souring — to break from reality.

“I think the financial guys all belong to the same club and they got to protect each other,” he said.

Worse, those executives behind the current credit crunch are unlikely to get any punishment for their mistakes and disingenuousness about their numbers, Cramer opined.

“I’m fed up with it. The American people should be fed up with it. And the SEC should be fed up with it,” Cramer said.