Glass Half Full?

Glass Half Full?

For me that would be a “yes.”

Starting last spring we had the Fannie and Freddie debacles, an extended period with no visible leadership in Washington, train loads of toxic assets on the books of most lending institutions, inability in all sectors to obtain credit, layoffs in most industries, losses in the stock market, plummeting sales of new and existing homes, and defaults on home mortgages, an astronomical deficit, and lessening revenues. Considering this, I’d say this is about the most severe recession that I have known. So how can my glass be anywhere near half full?

I have no choice. Optimism is our only hope! Jon Stewart may want to borrow my line; it’s funny but true. We’ve gotten some much needed leadership in Washington, Congress somehow passed the stimulus package (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act/ARRA), and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has forecast unemployment will peak at 9.4% in late 2009 or early 2010. Now we need investors to get back in the market. I don’t think we will rebound over night. I am looking for signs of improvement. That’s where it starts. Optimism may breed confidence.

For about the last two weeks, we have seen some life in the markets also it appears that the housing market may be stabilizing so why did I get up this morning to hear gloom and doom on the morning news show? While I was still sipping my coffee, analysts were predicting that Wall Street would be positive about Treasury’s plan to partner with private investors to buy up toxic assets. But the pessimistic talk on the TV continued, they had already written there forlorn script and I had to listen to it. Joe Scarborough threw a temper tantrum because a couple of guests thought the Obama administration was doing pretty well, considering what they had to deal with. That was at 9:00 a.m.

Now we’re at the closing bell on Wall Street. Let’s recap. We’ve seen Sec. Geithner’s plan was a hit with the financiers and they announced better than expected figures on existing home sales. Volume was up, the NYSE closed up about 500 points, all DOW stocks closed higher, the S&P had its best day this year, NASDAQ was up nearly 7% - back above 1500, bank stocks up, tech stocks up, home builders, retailers, industrials, transportation and energy sectors all closed up. The DOW and NASDAQ both are on track for their biggest monthly percentage gains since 2002. The S&P is on pace for its best monthly percentage gain since 1991. The Board is green.

I know this may be one wonderful isolated trading day but then again it may signal a turn around. I know that if the market keeps going in a positive direction before long there will be profit taking and it’ll dip again. But for now things are better than they were.

WILL SOMEONE PLEASE TELL THE TALK SHOW HOSTS?