First the scoreboard:
Dow: 13,047, +11.5, +0.0%
S&P 500: 1,403, -1.5, -0.1%
NASDAQ: 3,069, -5.7, -0.1%
And now the top stories:
- Today was largely about getting ready for tomorrow morning when the European Central Bank publishes it interest rate decision.
- Bloomberg reported that ECB president Mario Draghi would announce a plan involving "unlimited" bond buying of the sovereign debt of the most troubled countries in the Eurozone. The aim of such a plan would be to lower the crushing borrowing costs of those countries. However, none of this was confirmed publicly.
- Art Cashin, UBS Financial Services Director of floor operations, spoke to some traders who speculate that the world's central banks could announce a globally coordinated action. This wouldn't be unprecedented. Last November, the Fed, ECB, BoJ, BoE, and BoC announced a coordinated bazooka.
- With stocks moving sideways, investors are probably wondering if the markets are topping out. Rich Bernstein sent out recent white paper title, "This Is What Bull Markets Are About." He argued that most bull markets are characterized by negative sentiment and fear. And eventually money pours in to catch up. Bernstein believes that this bull market has further to go.
- Liz Ann Sonders of Charles Schwab also thinks stocks could rise further. She tackles the issue of historically high profit margins, which many believe will soon fall back to some long-term average thus causing stocks to fall as well. Sonders argues that profit margins are being boosted by increased overseas exposure, and if you adjust for this profit margins are actually much more modest than most believe.
- It's certainly worth mentioning that FedEx cut their quarterly earnings guidance last night. "Earnings during the quarter were lower than originally forecast, as weakness in the global economy constrained revenue growth at FedEx Express more than expected in the earlier guidance," wrote management. FedEx is a key bellwether of the global economy, so this should be taken pretty seriously.
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