Remember when Xerox had that popular add campaign featuring the monks? You don’t? Well, it was a long time ago, about as long ago as since Xerox has been a major player. But the copier company — excuse us, the document management company — is trying to change that, by moving into the IT field with its big purchase of Affiliated Computer Services, the same kind of move Dell made last week.
Elsewhere, the Chicago Fed sees some signs of weakness in August, and the World Bank says the Fed’s doing okay, but they want to see how the Fed does.
Make sense? Well, give us three minutes to explain it all. It’s Tomorrow’s News Today.
Posted by John Shipmanon September 28, 2009 Economy, Markets /
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That was a moo, not a growl, I assure you.
BlackRock chief investment officer Bob Doll sounds more bearish in his weekly commentary than we can recall, though he’s loathe to dispense with his bullish long-term bias.
“We believe that while the broad financial crisis is largely over, the economic crisis is only halfway through,” he says. ”While we do believe the recession has ended, we would argue that the recovery has only just begun and will likely require a period of years to return the United States to trend levels of economic activity.”
That sounds pretty bearish, no? There’s more.
“State and local governments remain deeply troubled and are faced with the choice of raising taxes, reducing spending or some combination of the two,” Doll notes. “Additionally, global trade policy remains a concern, as there has been increasing noise about enacting protectionist trade policies, which we believe would hurt overall global economic growth.”
US stocks rise sharply in a lightly attended session, after a couple of high profile M&A deals involving Xerox and Abbott Labs.
DJIA rises 124 (1.3%) to 9789, S&P 500 adds 19 (1.8%) to 1063, Nasdaq Comp gain 40 (1.9%) to 2131. Volume is very low, as many are off to celebrate Yom Kippur. It’s the Dow’s first positive day in the past four sessions, and its biggest one-day point gain since Aug. 21.
Stocks rise early and for the most part stay there, as investors seize upon spate of M&A deals to drive shares higher. Xerox strikes deal to buy Affiliated Computer, and Abbott buys Solvay’s pharma unit. World Bank’s Zoellick questions the Fed’s ability to expand its role.
The gains count, no doubt. But with such weak volume, which was just 3.7B on the NYSE, there’s little conviction behind the gains, and if stocks start falling again tomorrow, picking up where they left off last week, well, those whispers about a lack of will get louder. Although despite the recent selling, it still seems like the bulls aren’t going to be stopped until they push the Dow back over 10000.
So the recovery, apparently, is going pretty swimmingly if you’re a G20 minister. It’s not going quite so well if you’re just an underpaid (but at least employed) researcher at the Chicago Fed. And it’s positively going to hell in a handbasket if you’re a well-known, but probably still underpaid, journalist at a British paper.
It depends upon your specific vantage point. But no matter where that is, we’re all following the same map. Back in July, I wrote an Ahead of the Tape column for the Journal, looking at the markers the NBER, the National Bureau of Economic Research, uses to mark recessions and expansions. At the time, I said none of them could safely be said to show definite signs of recovery (and I’m quite sure the bulls were laughing, if they even read that far.)
Panoply of US economic data this week — positioned just a short time before 3Q earnings season gets rolling — should offer a good test of both bulls’ and bears’ mettle.
Not a great deal of conviction on either side last week, so closely watched data — ranging from readings on housing, manufacturing and employment — coming in the next few days may give us a better sense of direction for stocks headed into 4Q.
Dallas Fed Sept manufacturing outlook due at 10:30am. M&A activity (Xerox and Abbott Labs each with deals) helps promote a slightly positive premarket mood, despite weakness in Asia overnight.
S&P futures up 5.70, DJ futures up 42. Ten-year flat, yield at 3.33%.
J.P. Morgan reported some strong earnings today. But what this bloggers eye were some of the sub-numbers in the earnings report. The bank booked $1.8 billion in investment banking fees. But don’t be fooled – that wasn’t from big M&A advising. But $429 million was in advisory fees. Instead, that $1.3 billion + remaining fees […]
Bernie Madoff tells CNNMoney he’s having trouble sleeping. Click here to read more about that from CNN. He doesn’t know how lucky he’s got it, living behind bars in America. In China this week, a 39-year old businesswoman received the death sentence for running a $70 million Ponzi scheme – pocket change next to the […]
