By Rodrigo Campos NEW YORK (Reuters) – January has turned out to be strong for stocks with just two trading days to go. If you’re afraid to miss the ride, there’s still time to jump in. You just might want to wear a neck brace. The new year lured buyers into growth-related sectors, the ones that were more beaten down last year....

Too bad the media and internet bloggers don’t research for facts, rather than promote hysteria….. 3 Misconceptions At a conference in Philadelphia earlier this month, a Wharton professor noted that one of the country’s biggest economic problems is a tsunami of misinformation. You can’t have a rational debate when facts are...

China loan growth quickens Reuters – 3 hours ago By Kevin Yao and Judy Hua BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s banks ratcheted up lending in the last month of 2011 on the back of stronger money supply, reinforcing perceptions that the central bank is gently easing policy to cushion the impact of the global economic slowdown. Chinese...

T-time should become a hot U.S. investment topic, now that Europe has decided to go from T+3 to T+2 in 2014. T stands for “transaction.” Most stock trades in the U.S. now settle in three days, or on T+3. During that period, some market maker has your shares or funds at his disposal. Since the Europeans are switching to T+2, our regulators...

By Tom Cleveland http://forextraders.com The end of the year is quickly approaching. Time to review the stock portfolio, dump a few losers for tax purposes, and adjust for the “obstacles” in the road ahead. The crisis in Europe is the proverbial “smell” in the room that will not go away, and no one expects any miracles to happen across...

By Lu Wang – Dec 5, 2011 1:53 PM PT inShare6 More Print Email Enlarge image Market Studies Inc. founder Tom DeMark. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg Play Video Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) — Tom DeMark, founder of Market Studies LLC...

Reuters – 5 hours ago By Ann Saphir MUNCIE, Indiana (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve must take immediate action to inject new life into a moribund U.S. recovery or risk letting the nation settle into a permanently lower growth path, a top Fed official said on Monday. “There is simply too much at stake for us to be excessively...

Reuters – 4 hours ago France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy (L) welcomes German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a meeting in the eastern French city of Strasbourg, November 24, 2011. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer BERLIN (Reuters) – France and Germany are planning a quick new pact on budget discipline that might persuade the European...

Centuries of natural selection have hardwired human beings to find patterns and imagine relationships. This wiring is the basis of such things as lucky charms, special pre-game meals, ominous black cats and the idea that rising global temperatures are caused by, rather than correlated with, industrialization. Given our superstitious nature, it could...

The 11.4% gain we saw for the S&P500 in only 5 trading sessions was unusual to say the least. Since 1950, there have been only 16 occasions when we saw “buying panics” like that. There was 1 loss (2001) 2 break-evens (‘01 and ‘02) and the rest saw healthy gains. (Source: Laszlo Birinyi)