Free Investing

John Lounsbury submits:The AAR (American Association of Railroads) report through February was released yesterday (see here). So far 2010 is starting the same way that 2009 did.The following graphs have been selected from the report.Complete Story »

Sol Palha submits:Companies are quietly and gradually moving their pension funds out of stocks. They want to reduce their investment risk and are buying more long-term bonds. But states and other bodies of government are seeking higher returns for their pension funds, to make up for ground lost in the last couple of years and to pay all the benefits promised to present and future retirees. Higher returns come with more risk."In effect, they’re going to Las Vegas," said Frederick E. Rowe, a Dallas investor and the former chairman of the Texas Pension Review Board, which oversees public plans in that state. "Double up to catch up." Though they generally say that their strategies are aimed at diversification and are not riskier, public pension funds are trying a wide range of investments: commodity futures, junk bonds, foreign stocks, deeply discounted mortgage-backed securities and margin investing. And some states that previously shunned hedge funds are trying them now.Complete Story »

Jon Fisher submits:The home is the center of the economy. When the number of new homes on which construction is started (housing starts) begins to plunge, a corresponding spike in national unemployment is upon us. An inverse correlation of housing starts and unemployment is easily seen in the chart above. And the housing starts plunge precedes the stock market plunge.Complete Story »

Casey B. Mulligan submits: The elasticity of housing supply is the effect on the flow of home building (measured as a log change -- think of it as a percentage change) of the inflation-adjusted purchase price of housing (also measured as a log change).The elasticity has long been studied in economics; one of the seminal studies was published by Professors Topel and Rosen in 1988.Complete Story »

Perry D. submits:The U.S. Treasury reported its monthly inflows and much larger outflows on Tuesday. The bad news is that the bloated deficit exploded to new levels -- $220 billion in February alone (remember when we had annual budget deficits that size?), up 15% from year-ago levels. Anyway, the good news was that tax revenues soared from year-ago levels.Complete Story »

Richard Shaw (QVM Group) submits: Brick charts can make visualizing support, resistance and trends easier to interpret than daily price charts, by filtering out some of the noise in price fluctuations. The traditional name is “Renko” charts, which was translated into English as “brick”.Complete Story »

Gregor Macdonald submits: EIA Washington produces a ton of energy data that’s very current and detailed on global energy production. But what’s harder to come by is Non-OECD oil and oil product consumption. As the calendar turns to March, a lot of the annual data starts to complete for the prior years, and I found my way deep into some EIA caverns last night, and drew up the following chart (click to enlarge): Complete Story »

Hickey and Walters (Bespoke) submit:
The S&P 500 Financial sector rose once again yesterday, making it nine up days in a row for a total rally of 6%. Since 1990, there have only been two other periods where the sector rallied for nine straight days. In each of those prior periods, the streak ended at nine days. Complete Story »

ETF Database submits: Major indexes barely stayed in the green on Wednesday, as conflicting economic reports kept the market in a seesaw pattern for most of the day. The S&P 500 finished ahead by five points while oil closed just under $82/ bbl. The Commerce Department said that wholesale inventories fell 0.2% in January after dropping 1% in December. Companies’ sales rose 1.3%, the tenth straight gain. The drop in inventories and the rise in sales suggests that companies may soon have to begin restocking. However, news was not as good on the employment front with the government reporting that unemployment rose in 30 states in January and that five states are currently at record levels of unemployment. The ETFdb 60 added 2.49 points, or 0.2%, to close at 1,043.93. The ETFdb 60 is now up 1% on the year.Complete Story »

Edward Harrison submits:August 2009 was the high point of American’s satisfaction with the economy during Barack Obama’s tenure. Interestingly, this meshes with the data on the ground.Complete Story »