Blog – Page 8 – Sterling Holdings & Investments

Sterling Market Commentary for Tuesday October 2nd, 2012

October 2, 2012 sterlinginvestments 0

A Look at Monday’s Market: The overall market was mixed on Monday with the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average finishing the day moderately higher while the NASDAQ finished the day slightly lower. Among the indices I track there was strength in the Airlines, Natural Gas, Gold/Silver, Biotech, Insurance, Healthcare related, Commodities, Transports, Retailers, and Financials. There was weakness in the Telecoms, High Tech, and Utilities. In the commodities markets, Oil was higher by $0.29 to $92.48 per barrel, and Gold was higher by $9.40 to $1,780.50 per ounce. In the Grain markets, Wheat was lower by $0.182 to $8.842 per bushel, while Corn was higher by $0.004 to $7.566 per bushel, and Soybeans were lower by a whopping $0.406 to $15.602 per bushel.

Sterling Weekly for the Week of October 1st, 2012 – 3rd Quarter Performance Report

October 1, 2012 sterlinginvestments 0

Since the previous edition of the Sterling Weekly, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 237.58 points or approximately 1.8% to close at 13,437.13 It has been a busy 6 months since I last published the Sterling Weekly, I am very happy to announce that during the last 6 months, my wife and I saw the birth of our 1st child, a very healthy baby boy that we are very excited to have in our lives. Over the course of that period of time the market has moved slightly higher. However the continued bond buying and quantitative easing policies of the Fed continues to cause me a great deal of concern; specifically that the Fed is creating a financial bubble unlike the world has ever seen before. I have concerns that when this bubble finally bursts there will be negative consequences that are devastating for the world economy.

We saw the end of the 3rd quarter last week. As usual, I like to take a look at the performance of the various sector indices I track and see what the market is telling us. I usually find these results somewhat interesting. I have published the results below for your review as well.

Sterling Market Commentary for Monday October 1st, 2012

October 1, 2012 sterlinginvestments 0

In today’s Sterling Market Commentary I look at a couple of pressures that I see facing the market. We also take a look at the Dow Jones Transportation Average and its influence on the market.

Sterling Market Commentary for Friday September 28th, 2012

September 28, 2012 sterlinginvestments 0

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed Thursday at 13,485.97 I continue to see upside resistance at 13,558.92 and downside support at approximately 13,345. Volume on the Dow Jones Industrial Average continues to be light. I generally consider this to be a negative sign when the Dow Jones is trading at multi-year highs.

Sterling Market Commentary for Tuesday September 25th, 2012

September 25, 2012 sterlinginvestments 0

A Few Thoughts on Tuesday’s Market: I continue to look at the market with a nervous eye. I do not believe that the strength of the overall economy is nearly as strong as the major market indices would have us believe. This causes me to be concerned that we could see a severe and lasting downturn when the music stops. I think that the Fed has grown increasingly desperate, and it is running out of arrows in its quiver.

Sterling Market Commentary for Monday September 24th, 2012

September 24, 2012 sterlinginvestments 0

A Few Thoughts on Monday’s Market: The major market indices and a large number of the various sector indices that I track are obviously benefiting from the Fed’s 3rd round of quantitative easing, otherwise known as QE3. However to be very clear, I consider QE3, and the previously quantitative easings’, QE1 and QE2, to be an unprecedented form of market manipulation that is not only ineffective, but one that has very serious, negative unintended consequences that are detrimental to the US Economy. Manipulating interest rates to artificially low levels will not make up for bad fiscal policy out of our elected officials in Washington, DC. Worse yet, these artificially low interest rates are creating a bubble in all bond classes as savers either search for higher yields or safety; these artificially low interest rates punish savers with reduced interest income, and create a sense of uncertainty that is holding back business development. It seams that the only group benefiting from these artificially low interest rates is the largest companies in the US and global economy. These are the companies that dominate the major market indices; and that is why these indices are doing so well, while the rest of the economy is seems to be disconnected from the stock market.

Sterling Market Commentary for Tuesday September 4th, 2012

September 4, 2012 sterlinginvestments 0

In looking at the charts of Friday’s trading activity, very few of the charts I looked at appeared to be demonstrating any sort of a break from their recent trading ranges. The one exception to this is the gold and silver stocks. They all had breaks above recent trading ranges; and appear to be headed at least to new short term highs. Of course it is always wise to remember that gold and silver stocks have a tendency to be very volatile and can reverse course suddenly and without warning. With that being said, I found Newmo

Searching for a Micro-Cap Biotechnology Fund

August 30, 2012 sterlinginvestments 0

We are very pleased to announce that Erik Nelson, President of Sterling Investment Services had the following artilce, ‘Searching for a Micro-Cap Biotechnology Fund’ published in the 2nd Quarter edition of Micro-Cap Review Magazine. We have reprinted the article below for your reading, and a printer friendly copy of is available here.

Sterling Market Commentary for Monday August 20th, 2012

August 20, 2012 sterlinginvestments 0

In looking at the charts from Friday’s market, I noticed a couple of things. The 1st being that there were a significant number of stocks that broke through downside support on fairly heavy trading volume, and a lot less stocks broke through upside resistance on heavier than normal trading volume. The other item I noticed is that the S&P 500 ‘SPX’ has yet to surpass its yearly high of 1,419.04 set on April 2nd of this year; while the S&P 100 ‘OEX’ (which we do not hear much about anymore) surpassed its yearly high of 645.29 set on April 2nd of this year with its close of 646.22 on August 10th. While a couple of weeks of action may not be too significant in the long run, until we reach the long run there may be some significance in the short term message………………….

Sterling Market Commentary for Wednesday August 15th, 2012

August 15, 2012 sterlinginvestments 0

One of the things I noticed in my review of the charts from yesterday’s market was that the Dow Jones Transportation Average has not really participated in the market’s move higher this year. While the Dow Jones Industrial Average is higher by approximately 7.8% year to date; the Dow Jones Transportation Average is higher by only 62.09 points or approximately 1.24% year to date. For those who follow the Dow Theory and the relationship between the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Dow Jones Transportation Average, the lack of movement in the Dow Transportation Average is a significant signal. For me, this usually signals that either the Dow Jones Transportation Average is going to move sharply higher and play a game of catch up; or there is a significant risk that the Dow Jones Industrial Average will move back lower and give up the majority of its year to date gains.