Nice last hour

That last hour of U.S. equity market trading today was so welcome. It may not mean much more than a good night's sleep. Nothing wrong with that. With Asian markets being down for the third straight week and the Euro markets being upended by PIGS* debt issues and a precipitously declining currency, the U.S. might be seen as a haven. Could that be the last hour. It certainly wasn't U.S. retail standing against panic. Who did the traders represent in this day and age when downward movements are generally piled on by the still totally unregulated fast trading hedge fund community. Some traders with real money stepped up.

It may simply have been alert U.S. money managers looking at oversold groups against 50 day moving averages. Or could it have been global managers looking at the relative value in the U.S. versus the outlook now presenting itself in other markets. The U.S. has issues but it has some great corporations, the best that there are. If 2008 and 2009 taught us anything it was look fast for value and safety, don't wait, and other market equity players may do just that.


*PIGS is a really bad choice by a Barclays analyst trying to follow up facetiously on the BRIC Goldman label in 2003 that was such a success. PIGS---Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain, of course BRIC---Brazil, Russia, India, China.