Wall Street Greek: Investors Celebrate a Fumbling of Foreign Policy

It seems our government is fumbling its foreign policy these days, as it faces the first crisis it cannot blame on its predecessor administration. President Obama’s indecisiveness is looking to our counterparts overseas as weakness, and to me as well. The statements of our leaders, including the Secretary of State, may have the right tone to them, but the words have been poorly chosen. Is it me, or is calling a military action “unbelievably small” counterproductive to the psychological impact the greatest nation in the world seemed to want to make. Stocks rallied globally today on the possibility that America will not get messy in the Middle East, but I’m not sure we can count on that.

Our founder earned clients a 23% average annual return over five years as a stock analyst on Wall Street. "The Greek" has written for institutional newsletters, Businessweek, Real Money, Seeking Alpha and others, while also appearing across TV and radio. While writing for Wall Street Greek, Mr. Kaminis presciently warned of the financial crisis.

Foreign Policy

Market ETF	September 10	Year-to-Date
SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY)	+0.7%	+18.6%
SPDR Dow Jones (NYSE: DIA)	+0.9%	+16.2%
PowerShares (Nasdaq: QQQ)	+0.5%	+20.1%

Stocks recovered ground Tuesday on hopes that war might be avoided, or is it an “unbelievably small” strike, as it was poorly described by Secretary of State Kerry. Stocks climbed not only in America, but across the world, due to the many wildcards that seemed to be possible with Syria.

Economic Events

ECONOMIC REPORT SCHEDULE
Economic Data Point	Prior Period	Expected	Actual
TUESDAY
NFIB Small Biz Optimism Index	94.1	95.0	94.0
ICSC Weekly Store Sales	-0.6%		+1.5%
-Year-to-Year Pace	+1.8%		+2.3%
Redbook Store Sales	+4.7%		+4.6%
Job Openings (JOLTS)	3.936 M	3.928 M	3.689 M

The economic data was mostly negative Tuesday. Small businessmen weighed in with a lighter level of optimism than the prior reported month and less than economists expected from them. The weekly sales data reported by the ICSC and Redbook was notably improved, but it was mostly because of the Labor Day weekend comparable. Though on a year-over-year basis, growth was respectable as well. The JOLTS Report showed a lower level of job openings than was expected and significantly less than the prior period count. Judging by last month’s nonfarm payroll figure, it’s not because jobs are being filled, but rather due to less job openings being posted. Also, there is likely a seasonal factor involved here at the end of summer. All in all, this was not a great day from an economic perspective.

Overseas Markets

EUROPE	CLOSE	ASIA/PACIFIC	CLOSE
EURO STOXX 50	+1.9%	NIKKEI 225	+0.5%
German DAX	+2.1%	Hang Seng	+1.0%
CAC 40	+1.9%	S&P/ASX 200	+0.3%
FTSE 100	+0.8%	Korean KOSPI	+0.2%
Bloomberg GCC 200 Mideast	+3.3%	BSE India SENSEX	+3.8%

International markets rallied on the day as the Russian proposal for Syria to deliver its chemical weapons store to their ally was accepted by Syria. I’m not quite sure why the world’s traders believe this is an acceptable or probable result. Obviously, Syria will not turn over its entire store, and obviously the Russians are not trustworthy enough to safe-keep them. President Obama is due to address the American public Tuesday evening at 9:00 PM ET, so we will get an idea about how strong and bright our leadership is, or isn’t.

Commodity Markets (CLOSE)

WTI Crude	-0.2%
Brent Crude	-2.2%
NYMEX Natural Gas	+0.3%
RBOB Gasoline	-2.4%
Gold Spot	+0.2%
Silver Spot	+0.4%
COMEX Copper	+0.4%
CBOT Corn	-0.4%
CBOT Wheat	+0.1%
CBOT Soybeans	+0.2%
ICE Cocoa	+0.6%
ICE Sugar	+1.0%
ICE Orange Juice Conc.	-0.3%
CME Lumber	-0.3%
CME Live Cattle	+0.2%

Oil prices fell back on that same geopolitical release that helped stocks higher. Curiously though, gold and silver held their ground and even gained a bit.

Corporate Events

Earnings season has officially fizzled out here at the close of summer and start of September, as evidenced by the light list of reporters this week.

REPORTING EARNINGS
Company	Ticker
TUESDAY
McDonald’s	NYSE: MCD
Christopher & Banks	NYSE: CBK
AEP Industries	Nasdaq: AEPI
Triangle Petroleum	Nasdaq: TPLM
Lannett Company	NYSE: LCI
Oxford Industries	NYSE: OXM
Unilife	Nasdaq: UNIS
Coldwater Creek	Nasdaq: CWTR
Restoration Hardware	NYSE: RH
Miller Energy Resources	NYSE: MILL

MOST ACTIVE STOCKS
BIGGEST GAINERS	% Gain
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VelicityShares Russia Select DR (Nasdaq: RUDR)	+32%
KiOR (Nasdaq: KIOR)	+25%
Prospect Global Resources (Nasdaq: PGRX)	+24%
SolarCity (Nasdaq: SCTY)	+22%
Performance Technologies (Nasdaq: PTIX)	+20%
Intelligent Systems (NYSE: INS)	+19%
YRC Worldwide (Nasdaq: YRCW)	+18%
Ceres (Nasdaq: CERE)	+17%
BIGGEST LOSERS	% Drop
iPath Long Extended Russell 100 (Nasdaq: ROLA)	-34%
Model N (Nasdaq: MODN)	-32%
Neurocrine Biosciences (Nasdaq: NBIX)	-30%
ChemoCentryx (Nasdaq: CCXI)	-24%
Orbital Corp. (NYSE: OBT)	-17%
USEC (NYSE: USU)	-16%
Associated Banc-Corp (Nasdaq: ASBCW)	-15%
NTS Realty Holdings (NYSE: NLP)	-13%
Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bull (Nasdaq: NUGT)	-12%
HD Supply Holdings (NYSE: HDS)	-11%

Please see our disclosures at the Wall Street Greek website and author bio pages found there. This article and website in no way offers or represents financial or investment advice. Information is provided for entertainment purposes only.