The Urban Institute Twenty-nine urban areas are suffering from “double trouble;” 29 are weathering the storm relatively unscathed; 21 have strong employment despite big house price declines; and 21 are seeing house prices holding steady despite substantial job losses.

The Market Ticker Look at this nonsense (and BS): French President Nicolas Sarkozy bowed to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s demand for an International Monetary Fund role in a potential rescue package for Greece. Qualcomm’s forecast helped send S&P 500 technology shares up 1.6 percent. Financial shares rallied 2.3 percent as Bernanke...

CalculatedRisk One week and $2 billion to go … So the program is essentially over. We should be watching to see if 10 Year Treasury yields rise – and if mortgages take “a beating”. From the Atlanta Fed weekly Financial Highlights released today (as of last week): Click on graph for larger image in new window. Graph Source:...

The Mad Hedge Fund Trader I was so busy writing about the collapse of the yen yesterday that I didn’t have a chance to comment on the nearly failed Treasury auction. The government offered for sale $42 billion five year bonds which came in at a surprisingly high yield of 2.605%, with a bid to cover ratio at an uncomfortably high 2.55. The...

Tim Iacono The CFTC (Commodities Futures Trading Commission) is meeting today to discuss the trading of futures and options in metals markets and the possible use of prophylactics, but not the kind of prophylactics that you were probably thinking of as a simple search on “CFTC prophylactics” reveals this term is used frequently to describe...

Henry Blodget of Money Game We don’t mean to rain on the stockmarket parade (we’re enjoying it, too), but we’ll confess to being astonished by it. We understand that the world’s governments are pumping money into their economies.  We understand that that money has to go somewhere.  We understand that, right now, that somewhere...

While the VIX is not something I follow on a daily basis it is important to keep an eye on it. When extreme low levels are reached we know the market (John Dow traders) are feeling confident and buying up everything they can get their hands on. I like to trade with the trend but when extreme levels are reached I start looking for a low risk setup...

Courtesy of Mish The US dollar soared today in the midst of a crisis in the Eurozone no longer contained to Greece. Please consider Portugal’s Debt Rating Lowered by Fitch on Finances Portugal’s credit grade was cut by Fitch Ratings for the first time, underscoring growing concern that Europe’s weakest economies will struggle to meet their...

GoldScents The rally off the February bottom is now going on 32 days. This is probably not the best time to chase stocks higher. I’ve been saying for a couple of weeks that the market needs to take a breather, preferably before earnings season as it would then be setup for a strong rally through April. As the “normal” cycle in stocks lasts...

Scott Redler of T3Live I am out of all my longs as of today. I sold all my swing trades taking off all my risk on the long side. Going forward, I will only be using active three-day strategies from both the long and short side. I think the longer-term follow-through money has been made. We’ve been in core longs since March 1st managing them accordingly...

The Mess That Greenspan Made One of the things that many people go through their entire lives without ever realizing is that conditions haven’t always been the way they remember them to be. Due to the length of a typical lifetime and the number of those years that individuals are productive, it’s reasonable to think that someone in their...

By Jeff Clark, Senior Editor, Casey’s Gold & Resource Report Like many of you, the passage of the healthcare bill wasn’t met with the popping of champagne in my house. I found myself chanting “Uncle Sam, Uncle Sham” as the day wore on. Higher taxes and other major changes are headed our way. And yet, I think there’s something in the bill...

Money Game More excellent stuff from PIMCO chief and bond God Bill Gross on what it takes for a country to survive a sovereign debt crisis: The answer, from a vigilante’s viewpoint is “yes,” but a conditional “yes.” There are many conditions and they vary from country to country, but basically it comes down to these: 1. Can a country issue...

By Phil Davis Issue #1 (this is my audition to take over the McLaughlin Group, by the way): Americans are disgusted with Wall Street and give both Wall Street Executives and Corporate CEOs ratings as low as Congress (66% disapproval).  In a Bloomberg survey conducted over the weekend, by a 2-to-1 margin Americans believe the economy has...

T3Live The prepared trader right now is the profitable one. If you are not doing your research and following the sector rotation, you are left twiddling your thumbs while the other guys are riding momentum. Adjust to what the market is giving you and don’t blindly buy, but look for the best opportunities out there each day/ The gap down this morning...