With the markets having performed well over the past 2 months, the million dollar question is how are stocks going to perform going forward. Well conventional money management thoughts are that the market needs to "take a break" and consolidate some of the recent gains we've seen. That being said, the animal instincts of investing might cause the markets to continue their rise as investors grow more positive as they've seen there portfolios rise in value. As I've written, I am concerned that consumer confidence remains weak, Washington is still behaving in a ridiculous manner, corporate earnings remain weak, and consumer spending is dropping off as people are beginning to cut back on spending as the higher payroll taxes are hurting consumers "pocket books". Because of these concerns I have, I still think we will see a downturn in the markets over the coming month. While that sounds like a negative thing, it will give investors the opportunity to buy stocks at cheaper prices (buy low sell high - which is why I've been selling stock holdings over the past month).
In other developments, Wells Fargo management, one of the country's largest banks, said this morning that they are seeing declining housing refinancing, probably because of increasing interest rates and the bad weather we've seen so far this year. I've had a lot of people ask me lately what I think about buying Facebook as an investment, my answer simply revolves around the time frame an individual is looking to own the stock. If someone has a long investment time frame, I think buying Facebook at its current price of $27/share is a decent investment (long term) idea. I think the stock will continue to hover around $26-$32/share as the company is still trying to monetize their mobile advertising business.
With respect to other what other investment ideas I've been tracking, I'm not finding a great deal of "value" investment ideas in light of the market advance we've seen. On a more positive note, the housing market continues to improve and recent comments out of Home Depots management team confirms such as they are seeing an increase in sales at their stores.
Hope everyone enjoyed Fat Tuesday yesterday and Happy Ash Wednesday
