The financial ETF XLF fell below its trend line.

Insider Buys – Methods and Strategies By Ilene and Dave A generally reliable stock-trading strategy is to buy a stock when an insider has just reported a significant purchase to the SEC. The theory is simple: the insider knows the stock is undervalued and/or knows there is good news on the way which will move the stock price up, and believes this...

Uptrend AMERICAN INTL GROUP INC (NYSE AIG) Smart Scan Chart Analysis confirms that a short term counter trend move is underway. When this action is over look for the longer term positive trend to resume. Uptrend with money management stops. Based on a pre-defined weighted trend formula for chart analysis, AIG scored +85 on a scale from -100 (strong...

Courtesy of Sajal at Fundamental Insights and Ideas With an almost ~40% equity markets rally behind us, this bull market may still have some upside left. The bears sure got caught flat footed on this one. It’s always interesting to collate responses from different strategists. I find that recurrent themes makes it easier to filter out the noise....

Gold prices softened on Monday but remained within sight of a two-month high above $960 touched in the previous session, retaining their sheen in the face of a weaker dollar. Crude oil’s rise to a six-month high has also benefited gold, which is often bought both as an alternative to the dollar and as an inflation hedge. Gold markets showed little...

Amid Rubble of Housing Bust, Phoenix Begins a New Frenzy (SNYTimes) The Crisis and How to Deal with It (The New York Review of Books) Cattle rustling on the rise as U.S. recession bites (Reuters) Gold bugs at last have their perfect trinity (Telegraph)

This post is courtesy of Phil’s Stock World. I encourage everyone to click here to sign up for a free subscription to The PSW Report. It’s easy! Time to get a little more conservative… In Part 1 of this post, we talked about the potential long-term value of taking a chance on companies that used to pay dividends but don’t at the moment. ...

Doug Short of Clusterstock How does the current bear compare with previous bear markets? Since 1950, the bottoming process has ranged from around six weeks to eight months. We’re now approaching the sixth month of an apparent bottoming process. Here’s a set of charts showing today’s bear with the eight completed bear markets since...

As we head into Memorial Day weekend, we are also closing the books on one of my favorite investing holidays — the time period for most money managers to file their 13-F with the SEC is pretty much coming to an end. These filings are an incredibly valuable tool, providing insight into the thoughts and actions of some of the best investors on the...

Dow Industrials, up 8.68 points this week, or 0.10% to 8277.32. Nasdaq Composite, up 11.87 points this week, or 0.71% to 1692.01. S&P 500, up 4.12 points this week, or 0.47% to 887.00. Next Weeks Economic Data Monday No economic events are scheduled for today. Tuesday 9:00 a.m. March S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index 10:00 a.m. May Conference...

Was reading today that California is now “borrowing” from cities and counties — by FORCE! This isn’t a loan, it’s CONFISCATION! There will be another shoe to fall when States and local governments begin to furlough employees as revenue shortfall hit, probably when property taxes come due in the Fall. That will cause unemployment...

JON C. OGG of 24/7 Wallst Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (BRCD) is the beneficiary of a research call this morning from Broadpoint AmTech.  Many research calls are not very aggressive and many are very reactive on the surface.  That is the nature of many analyst estimates, and Wall Street analyst have to take criticism every time they are wrong. ...

Each day I am going to preview a few of the strong uptrend stocks using Market Club’s Smart Scan Technology. This will give you guys just a bit more information for your trading day! Uptrend BANK of AMERICA CORP (NYSE: BAC) Smart Scan Chart Analysis is showing some near term weakness. However, this market remains in the confines of a longer term...

(Reuters) – Gold climbed to a fresh two-month high on Friday, breaching $960 an ounce for the first time since late March, as the dollar’s slide against a basket of currencies boosted buying of the metal as a currency hedge. Silver prices posted the biggest percentage gains among precious metals, however, climbing to a nine-month peak of...