September 3rd, 2013

Alright, we're moved into the new house and settled.  My office is set up, and most of the "to do" stuff that needs to be done when one moves into a new house (painting, caulking, spackling, etc etc etc) is done.  This means I can finally get back to updating this blog on a regular basis.

I know the month of August was a huge down month in the market, and there was a lot of talk about the Hindenburg Omen.  Additionally, there's still a lot of anxiety about the situation with Syria.  I'm guessing that if we do go to war with Syria it may negatively impact the markets.

On the whole, though, the market hasn't been that volatile the last week or so.  Today was the first trading day after Labor Day, though, and that means we're watching for the post-Labor-Day "pop" which will be followed by a hard sell-off.

The markets in general, though, have definitely turned over.  I think a lot of what we're seeing is stock prices being over-inflated by the Fed's "heroine effect" of pumping money into the system with their bond-buying initiatives.  Don't get me wrong, I say ride the wave as long as they keep feeding it, but don't expect to ride this tidal wave of cheap federal money for ever.  When this does end (and it will), just be ready and make money to the downside.

Actually, be ready to make money to the downside anyway, because that's where the market's headed for at least the next month or so.  There is still the very real possibility of a crash by October.  Especially since there's possible war with Syria looming, possible fed tapering, and mutual funds have to dump their losers by the end of October for tax purposes.

Today the biggest news came from the tech giants.

It was revealed that Apple's share of the smartphone market rose 7.8% compared to this time last year, and Apple now controls 43.4% of the total global smartphone market.  Apple shares surged early morning on the news, but slowly declined as the day wore on.

Microsoft bought out Nokia in a $7.2 Billion deal.  Shares of Microsoft sank over 6% while shares of Nokia surged over 25%.  Microsoft struck the deal hoping this would give them a larger foothold in the mobile devices market, currently dominated by Apple.

Amazon.com announced a program today called Matchbook.  Matchbook basically lets you get an e-book copy of any real, physical book you purchased through Amazon.com for $2.99 or less (in many cases, for free).  Shares of Amazon.com surged on the news.

Since it's a new month, I'm going to look back at the monthly charts for the Dow, S&P, and Nasdaq.

Dow Jones Monthly

Nasdaq Composite Monthly

S&P 500 Monthly