The U.S. stock market is up triple digits with 45 minutes left to go in the trading day as the Federal Reserve talked about the strength of the economy in their released statement earlier today. They also said they were going to start buying back government bonds from the public (which is a sign of confidence on their part). While the markets are currently up big, I think this is a good opportunity for investors to take some short term profits as I could potentially see stocks sell off following this big move upward...the reason? Once the Federal Reserve starts to take away the punch bowl from the party (easy money they've been giving to the private sector), it may s;ightly hamper economic growth in the near term until companies and investors digest the new "norm"..hope that makes sense.
The European markets looked good overnight as the European Union reached a deal with several
large banks on working thru the financial/sovereign debt crisis that the EU countries have been struggling with. Japanese stocks were also up big overnight on good economic data.
Today I started selling out of my Ford position which was a big winner for us....while I still think it's shares will trade higher over the next year, they mentioned today how their overhead costs had risen which will ultimately affect/effect revenues and earnings. (which will be a headwind for the stock price). Several days ago, one of our large stock holdings, KKR Financial (KFN) got bought out for $12.79/share by another large financial firm (and we ended up making some good money for our clients). Other than that I'm counting down the days till Christmas!
And I just included this link b/c it's very cool and season appropriate! Gotta love a penguin!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHLjNzW5U9Y
