Stocks were mostly lower last week but rose Friday, Nov. 16, when U.S. political leaders expressed optimism that a deal to avert the fiscal cliff is possible. Trend may be determined by answer to ‘What If…?’ What if the tax increases and spending cuts associated with the fiscal cliff are allowed to take place? Stocks fell last week as traders pondered this possibility. What if Congress and the president can reach a deal and avoid the cliff? We saw stock prices move higher when this scenario became a possibility in the minds of traders. The long-term trend in stocks may… Read More
Stocks were mostly lower last week but rose Friday, Nov. 16, when U.S. political leaders expressed optimism that a deal to avert the fiscal cliff is possible. Trend may be determined by answer to ‘What If…?’ What if the tax increases and spending cuts associated with the fiscal cliff are allowed to take place? Stocks fell last week as traders pondered this possibility. What if Congress and the president can reach a deal and avoid the cliff? We saw stock prices move higher when this scenario became a possibility in the minds of traders. The long-term trend in stocks may be revealed when one of these two questions is answered definitively. Despite a 0.49% gain on Nov. 16, SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) was down 1.3% for the week. PowerShares QQQ (NASDAQ: QQQ), an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks the 100 largest Nasdaq stocks, fell 1.78% last week and is now down more than 5% in the past four weeks. ProShares UltraShort QQQ (NYSE: QID), an ETF that goes up when the Nasdaq 100 goes down, was up 3.5% last week and is up 13.52%… Read More