A Plague of Concern

A plague of concern came over stocks Tuesday, and affected currency, commodities and foreign securities as well. The concern is for Federal Reserve tapering of asset purchases, or more accurately, the presentation of a less accommodative Fed. However, in our founder’s report published presciently over the weekend ahead of this latest turmoil, he outlined why you should not fear the taper, at least not from an economic perspective. As is often the case, our report was referred to on CNBC by a highly respected financial market expert, but as usual, credit was not given the author for the idea. This time around it was hedge fund manager John Paulson who relayed the very argument put forth in our work, Don’t Fear the Taper. We suggest you read it, but in summary we and Paulson discussed the fact that the market will not react poorly to tapering if it comes by hand of a reasonable and responsible Federal Reserve, and is supported by strong enough evidence of economic revival.

What’s Shaking Stocks

Market ETF	November 12	Year-to-Date
SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY)	-0.2%	+24.3%
SPDR Dow Jones (NYSE: DIA)	-0.2%	+20.5%
PowerShares (Nasdaq: QQQ)	+0.2%	+26.7%

Stocks mostly declined in the U.S. on Tuesday. The market has been plagued by the weight of Fed fear for more than a week now, since economic data began contesting the Fed’s reasoning for dovishness.

Economic Events

ECONOMIC REPORT SCHEDULE
Economic Data Point	Prior Period	Expected	Actual
TUESDAY
NFIB Small Business Optimism	93.9	93.3	91.6
Chicago Fed National Activity	0.13 R		0.14
ICSC Weekly Store Sales	-0.6%		+1.2%
-Year-to-Year Pace	+1.9%		+2.3%
Redbook Store Sales	+3.8%		+3.3%
Richard Fisher Speaks
Kocherlakota Speaks
Lockhart Speaks

 -R symbolizes “revised”

It should be of no surprise that small business confidence collapsed in October, given all the political play that occurred through the month. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) reported its Small Business Optimism Index collapsed to 91.6, from 93.9 in September. The NFIB attributed the decline to reduced hiring expectations and a downgraded business conditions outlook. Those are each obvious areas small businessmen would fade on given the political chaos and uncertainty created by our government in October by way of the debt ceiling debacle and the government shutdown.

The rest of the economic data was not so bad though. The Chicago Fed National Activity Index improved. Also, the ICSC reported better weekly same-store sales growth on both a weekly and year-over-year basis. Given that sentiment measures often exaggerate real economic changes, since people are adept at complaining, investors are probably better served not overreacting to the small business data.

Overseas Markets

EUROPE	CLOSE	ASIA/PACIFIC	CLOSE
EURO STOXX 50	-0.6%	NIKKEI 225	+2.2%
German DAX	-0.3%	Hang Seng	-0.7%
CAC 40	-0.6%	S&P/ASX 200	+0.1%
FTSE 100	-0.0%	Korean KOSPI	+0.9%
Bloomberg GCC 200 Mideast	+0.4%	BSE India SENSEX	-1.0%

Asia mostly rose on the day, with Japan leading the way, while the European market declined.

Commodity Markets (CLOSE)

WTI Crude	-2.1%
Brent Crude	-0.4%
NYMEX Natural Gas	+1.4%
RBOB Gasoline	-0.4%
Gold Spot	-1.4%
Silver Spot	-3.3%
COMEX Copper	-1.2%
CBOT Corn	-0.6%
CBOT Wheat	-0.1%
CBOT Soybeans	+1.0%
ICE Cocoa	+0.8%
ICE Sugar	-0.6%
ICE Orange Juice Conc.	+1.1%
CME Lumber	-2.0%
CME Live Cattle	-0.1%

Fed taper talk gave strength to the dollar and sent commodity prices mostly lower on the day.

Corporate Events

Earnings report flow is lessening now.

HIGHLIGHTED EPS REPORTS
Company	Ticker
TUESDAY
News Corp.	Nasdaq: NWSA
NuStar Energy	NYSE: NS
South Jersey Industries	NYSE: SJI
AECOM Technology	NYSE: ACM
Dendreon	Nasdaq: DNDN
USA Technologies	Nasdaq: USAT
WhiteHorse Finance	Nasdaq: WHF
Pernix Therpeutics	NYSE: PTX
Argonaut Gold	Toronto: AR.TO
Five Star Quality	NYSE: FVE
D.R. Horton	NYSE: DHI
NRG Energy	NYSE: NRG
Scientific Learning	Nasdaq: SCIL
Hawaiian Telcom	Nasdaq: HCOM
Hilltop Holdings	NYSE: HTH
Fannie Mae	OTC: FNMA
Celsion	Nasdaq: CLSN
CorEnergy Infrastructure	NYSE: CORR
Houston Wire & Cable	Nasdaq: HWCC
Rare Element Resources	Tor: RES.TO
Verastem	Nasdaq: VSTM
RadNet	Nasdaq: RDNT
UGI Corp.	NYSE: UGI
MBIA	NYSE: MBI
Crexendo	NYSE: EXE
Tahoe Resources	NYSE: TAHO
Thompson Creek Metals	NYSE: TC
RealD	NYSE: RLD
Amerigas Partners	NYSE: APU
Xplore Technologies	Nasdaq: XPLR
BioDelivery Sciences	Nasdaq: BDSI
Rexford Industrial Realty	Nasdaq: REXR
Harris & Harris	Nasdaq: TINY
Primo Water	Nasdaq: PRMW
Engility Holdings	NYSE: EGL
Towerstream	Nasdaq: TWER
Taylor Morrison home	NYSE: TMHC
The Babcock & Wilcox	NYSE: BWC
Cvent	NYSE: CVT
Dover Saddlery	Nasdaq: DOVR
Diodes	Nasdaq: DIOD
Planet Payment	London: PPTG
NV5 Holdings	Nasdaq: NVEEU
TearLab	Nasdaq: TEAR
Midstates Petroleum	NYSE: MPO

MOST ACTIVE STOCKS
BIGGEST GAINERS	% Gain
Vanda Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: VNDA)	+96%
China HGS Real Estate (Nasdaq: HGSH)	+45%
Altair Nanotechnologies (Nasdaq: ALTI)	+26%
Motorcar Parts of America (Nasdaq: MPAA)	+26%
On Track Innovations (Nasdaq: OTIV)	+23%
Technical Communications (Nasdaq: TCCO)	+22%
Heartland Express (Nasdaq: HTLD)	+21%
Telik (Nasdaq: TELK)	+20%
InterOil (NYSE: IOC)	+20%
Fuel Tech (Nasdaq: FTEK)	+18%
BIGGEST LOSERS	% Drop
Sarepta Therapeutics (Nasdaq: SRPT)	-64%
Dolan Co. (NYSE: DM)	-50%
Harvest Natural (NYSE: HNR)	-32%
LMI Aerospace (Nasdaq: LMIA)	-26%
James River Coal (Nasdaq: JRCC)	-25%
XG Technology (Nasdaq: XGTI)	-25%
Pernix Therapeutics (NYSE: PTX)	-22%
Biolase (Nasdaq: BIOL)	-19%
Amedisys (Nasdaq: AMED)	-17%
Digital Ally (Nasdaq: DGLY)	-15%

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.