It is Friday, and there is not much to report.  Lots of red appears on my watch list and and a sigh of frustration escapes my mouth.  Yesterday it was reported that the unemployment rate continues to remain at 9.5% with figures showing less improvement now than earlier in the year, hinting at a slowed recovery.   It would seem that each day a new figure is released that swings the market wildly one way or another, making investment decisions very difficult.

One day were climbing out of the recession, and the next, our economy is undoubtedly headed for a double dip.  This morning the market dropped drastically, regaining about half of its losses by lunch.  International markets continue their decline as confidence in the U.S. economic recovery lessens each day.  The FTSE, DAX, and the Nikkei  all closed low especially Japan, closing down 183 points.  It has also been reported that China has begun to offload our Treasury bills, selling off its stockpile by about 10%.  China will not need us if we continue on in this manner.  Even the Quants cannot get  a firm grip on Wall Street anymore.

In an article by the New York Times, the writer explains that 2008 and 2009 were both bad years for quant investment managers.  Quant funds have dropped from $1.2 trillion to $467 billion.  The writer goes on to say that the finance world is undergoing a technical arms race to Out Smart and out Trade Wall Street, so don’t feel bad even the rocket scientists are taking a hit.  The market remains to defy quant theory and remain anomalous, and it would appear that the golden years of the Quants, where Jim Simmons returned 39% a year, after fees between 2000 and 2007 are over.

Each day it would seem that the news grows more grim.  China is at our heels and our government continues to spend an exorbitant amount of money in an attempt to stimulate our economy.  It’s not working and we could be in a lot of trouble in the upcoming months.  Hopefully some positive news will be released next week to lift the spirit’s of U.S. investors but until then I think traders are just going to step away from their desk and take a long lunch.

For more information visit http://www.worldmarketmedia.com/779/section.aspx/2272/post/us-economy-continues-to-frustrate-investors

-
About the Author:
WorldMarketMedia.com (The Global Online Investment Community) is a high traffic stock market, news data website providing cutting edge new media products and services to publicly traded companies worldwide. Our Editor’s Desk authors insightful real-time coverage on the economy, the capital markets and their listed companies.
Article Source

Comments are closed.