Thursday, November 19, 2009

"Pay Attention Traders, Today Might be a Glimpse of the Future"

What gets my attention is when one of the big dogs of financial blogging, the Journal's MarketBeat or FT's Alphaville hammers on a point. I may be slow but if someone who observes this stuff for a living (and has pretty sharp sources to boot) takes the time to iterate and reiterate and then re-re, well eventually I get the point.
Here are some of today's MarketBeat posts, in order, starting at 4:31 a.m.:
Dollar Gains Ground in Europe
Going for Gold?: A Few Things to Consider First.
U.S. Stocks Aimed Lower As Dollar Perks Up
Where’s the Dollar Strength Coming from Today?
More on the Buck, the Yuan and Brazil
No Big Mystery Here, Dollar Up, Energy and Materials Down
Gold Reached for Records, As Dollar Stabilized: What Does it Mean?
Hmmm. A theme appears to be emerging. Here's their headline post:
Take notes traders. When the Fed eventually makes its decision to raise rates, which will likely prompt moves in the dollar, the universe might look a lot like today. Crude oil down, commodity currencies such as the Australian and Kiwi dollars down, and of course a limp stock market.
I have some decent resources that are pointing to the same conclusion. If we have panic buying in the buck, for whatever reason, he who panics first panics best.
Remember the action during Bernanke's speech on Monday?
(via The Market Ticker):

An EXACT correlation as soon as Bernanke's words were released - synchronized EXACTLY as to time. Dollar spiked, the S&P 500 dropped....