Obama's Cold War Rhetoric Hurts Stocks More than Putin – EXCEPT FOR THESE STOCKS

Yesterday, President Obama spoke boldly about Russia’s incursion into the Ukraine. It was a must, given that he had just allowed the Russians to trample over a Ukrainian nation we promised to protect when they turned over their nuclear weapons. Now defenseless, we did nothing but complain about it while Putin ignored us and pushed through a sovereign state to “protect” a Russian speaking population, and oh yeah, the very valuable Russian naval base located in Crimea. After the fact, our NATO friends on the Russian border are worried we might leave them hanging out in the cold as well, so the President and Vice President have traveled to Europe to reassure our friends and allies that we really do have their back (and never mind that Crimea thing).

NOTE: I just authored an article at Seeking Alpha that is a must preliminary read to this report. Don’t worry, it will open in a new window so you will not lose your place here – JUST CLICK THIS LINK: Cold War Rhetoric Threatens US Stocks More Than Russia.

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.

We took note that the US stock market actually celebrated when the West did not face up to Russian aggression, because greedy traders would rather not see their portfolios disrupted for this obviously Russian territory (as some sought to see it) due to a small majority of Russian speaking people located there; never mind the fact that it has been Ukrainian for the last 60 years! After the official annexation by Russia and abandonment by the Ukraine, the SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY), SPDR Dow Jones (NYSE: DIA) and PowerShares QQQ (Nasdaq: QQQ) all took back losses that started when the Russians first moved in under cloak of unmarked cloaks. So I authored, Risk On, the Snake in Our Garden Promises Not to Bite Anybody Else.

At this point, all the President’s bravado does is test the pride of the proud Russian leader and probably push him to consider counter-actions to current and potential US/EU sanctions. Let’s think about some of the things Russia could do shall we? The most obvious counter would be to cut off the gas to Europe that runs through Ukraine and Belarus. This would further punish Ukraine, and is possible despite the Ukraine controlling 80% of Crimea’s energy supply. I doubt Russia cares if Crimea goes dark for a few days if it can severely scare Europe by doing the same to their Western neighbors. Many EU members are reliant on Russian energy, though Germany is obviously well-served by alternative energy resources. Don’t forget that Germany is a manufacturing hub and requires significant energy, some of which it sources from Russia.

Let’s also note here that some of the President’s threats have included public statements about re-sourcing energy from other places, like say the U.S., to Europe. That’s an open threat to Russia and something that could push the powerful Russian position into action; it might test the West by showing it just how needy it is of its energy. These issues obviously support energy prices and companies, including major players like Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), Chevron (NYSE: CVX), ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) and Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX). It should also benefit natural gas and mixed producers and explorers because of the expected viability of LNG over the next decade. That means look for benefits for Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK), Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE: PXD) and Cheniere Energy (NYSE: LNG). To avoid company specific risk, buy the Energy Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLE), or the United States Oil (NYSE: USO) and the iPath Crude Oil (NYSE: OIL).

Another thing Putin could do is harm the euro and the U.S. dollar, along with Western economies. Cutting off the energy to Europe would do direct damage to the European economy and currency, but the dollar might benefit as a relative substitute. So, I expect we can expect Putin to find other means to strike against the dollar as well. Let’s not speculate about the many legal and illegal means that might be employed by the former KGB man, but you can be sure he’s been thinking about it for a long time and has plans at the ready. So that means gold and silver should find demand again, as mankind’s fall-back currency. Therefore, investors would want to look toward the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE: GLD), iShares Silver Trust (NYSE: SLV), Market Vectors Gold Miners (NYSE: GDX), Direxion Daily Gold Miners 3X Bull (NYSE: NUGT) and the physical commodity, along with many of the miners themselves like major producer Goldcorp (NYSE: GG) and Newmont Mining (NYSE: NEM). My recent write-up on this at Seeking Alpha entitled, The Asinine Gold Selloff, caught a lot of interest and debate – please feel free to comment as well.

Finally, the old defense sector plays should find some support from Congress given the reality of the dangerous world we’ve just been reminded of. Plus, we’re going to be supplying Ukraine and other weak Eastern European nations with weapons to defend against that bad neighbor. So, ideas like Alliant Techsystems (NYSE: ATK), Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC), Raytheon (NYSE: RTN), General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), Honeywell (NYSE: HON) and Boeing (NYSE: BA) all make the grade. To avoid company specific risk, buy the SPDR Aerospace & Defense ETF (NYSE: XAR), iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense (NYSE: ITA) and PowerShares Aerospace & Defense (NYSE: PPA).

Therefore, even though the market might be threatened by this geopolitical tension, there are specific sectors within the broad pool of securities which might benefit. We suggest energy, precious metals and defense for some protection.

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.

House Votes Down Libya War, then Slips Obama a Twenty to Buy a Gun

I woke up Friday morning to the sound of the television playing lightly. I had fallen asleep watching Hillary Clinton testify about the highly disputed withdrawal from Afghanistan, just announced this week by President Obama. Thus, C-SPAN was probably the cause of my rough night’s sleep, full of nonsensical complaints from Democrats, Republicans and anarchists on the Independent line at 3 AM.

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.

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House Votes Down Libya War, then Slips Obama a Twenty to Buy a Gun

I woke up to a preacher opening the House of Representatives with a prayer. That strange sight was followed by a clearly novice Congressmen reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in what seemed like a rite of passage. The politicians littering the sparsely populated hall faced the flag behind the Speaker of the House, who turned his back to me to do the same. I think it was the first time I’ve heard the pledge recited since elementary school. Thus, I had to pinch myself, because it was like some strange nightmare reminiscent of past fantastic scares caused by watching Craig Ferguson and drinking Jamaican Rum.

I woke up from the dream before I died, I suppose ahead of murder by an angry Representative. Dennis Kucinich lambasted his Democratic brother, the president, for his unconstitutional war on Libya. The Ohio little-man’s advocate surely risked a heart-attack, raising his blood pressure to its maximum so early in the morn. I remembered how he once flew in Air Force One to the Midwest, when the president needed him to back off his righteous rant for an important vote. I thought, well at least I can be sure he wasn’t brainwashed or microchipped or replaced by an alien on that day, because he was adamantly in opposition to President Obama on this day. Why he was mad was not so clear. It could have been because he couldn’t keep up his streak of running for president this coming election year, with the incumbent Obama blocking the way. Or, it could have been the same reason Congressman Pall mentioned, which was the president’s oversight of the constitution when determining to rain down rockets on Muammar Gaddafi.

You can’t blame Obama for not coming to Congress for approval, despite the fact that the declaration of war is still within the realm of the people’s house. I mean, if I were President, I would also follow the lead of Ronald Reagan and every president since when determining I needed to knock some sense into a despot. They would have to pull that whip from me kicking and screaming.

On this day, the House was voting to authorize conflict with Libya about 100 days after the start of the latest fabulously named war game - Operation Odyssey Dawn. Cool right? It’s like the Desert Storm nonsense the Pentagon designed to drum up recruits. I suppose they have PR people devising them, and like a trailer for a film it draws your support. The name of these operations also tricks twittering teens without college admission tickets into enlisting into the marines. Odyssey Dawn has a different ring to it than “I’m going to risk my life for a bunch of ragtag Libyan tribesmen.”

I wonder if the Libyan issue is not at the core of this week’s torrential trading, yet while still hidden behind the popular press’ vision. You see, Libya produces high-quality oil, the kind refined into the all important gasoline at the heart of the latest consumer concern and manufacturing mayhem. It’s no coincidence that oil spiked and fired gasoline to $4 once conflict erupted in Libya, not to mention the mess in Bahrain.

As time has passed, it’s become clear that no Libyan, not Gaddafi nor angry toothless peasant fighter-man, has interest in disrupting the nation’s sacred cash cow. And with the lip service of the Saudi’s following OPEC’s greedy grimace, we now have the IEA releasing 2 million barrels a day (over 30 days) from its emergency reserves. The U.S. is also contributing to this supply from its strategic oil reserve. You see, while it took a while, the highly touted economic Brainrust hired by the Obama Administration, finally figured out that gasoline matters to the economy and that Libya matters to gasoline. It’s sort of like a 2+2 math equation, so the Ivy Leaguers up there missed it. They were understandably spending their time with algorithms designed to determine how far the downfall would be if the debt ceiling were allowed to collapse. All in good time, or rather, all in short time… I suppose that catastrophe will cue the third horn blowing angel. I fell asleep before intermission, so forgive me if we are up to the fourth siren already.

Anyway, the House of Representatives took up two important bills Friday involving the hostilities in Libya, though the Obama Administration says they are more like a slap-fight than “hostilities,” which would have required them to cease unauthorized operations already by law. The first legislation, taken up while Kucinich was still boiling, was the authorization for the President to wage a watchamacallit - but not a war - against Libya. The House, with a ragtag group of Democrats and Republicans, voted that down. Yet, with the President’s argument that what he’s having in Libya is just a little harmless argument between friends, only employing missile firing Predator aircraft like sharp biting words, he could continue.

The second bill could have stopped him though, as it covered the appropriation of funding toward the conflict. However, those same so-called righteous representatives voted that bill down, thereby slapping the President’s hand and enjoying the solid short-takes they’ll use in their campaigning next year. Jolly good service my dear proxies.

In any event, Libya matters. Since we started on this path, we must now get the semi-catatonic Gaddafi out of office in order to secure safe passage of Libya’s special oil. We’ll design a top of the line constitution for the toothless tribesmen who take over to corruptly run their government, and everything will get back to normal. It seems the Europeans also understand the importance of winning the war in Libya, and are in it with conviction. Thus, it should be a short time now before we hear the song sung in Tripoli, the King Slug is dead, long live the new CIA implant!

Article interests investors in Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC), Raytheon (NYSE: RTN), Alliant Techsystems (NYSE: ATK), Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), Boeing (NYSE: BA), NYSE: IWM, NYSE: TWM, NYSE: IWD, Honeywell (NYSE: HON), General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), Rockwell Collins (NYSE: COL), Goodrich (NYSE: GR), L-3 Communications (NYSE: LLL), SAIC (NYSE: SAI), FLIR Systems (Nasdaq: FLIR), EMBRAER (NYSE: ERJ), Spirit Aerosystems (NYSE: SPR), BE Aerospace (Nasdaq: BEAV), TransDigm Group (NYSE: TDG), CAE (NYSE: CAE), Hexcel (NYSE: HXL), Esterline Technologies (NYSE: ESL), Teledyne Technologies (NYSE: TDY), Curtiss-Wright (NYSE: CW), HEICO (NYSE: HEI), Triumph Group (NYSE: TGI), Orbital Sciences (NYSE: ORB), AAR Corp. (NYSE: AIR), Kaman Corp. (Nasdaq: KAMN), AeroVironment (Nasdaq: AVAV), Smith & Wesson (Nasdaq: SWHC), DigitalGlobe (NYSE: DGI), GenCorp (NYSE: GY), Hawk (AMEX: HWK), LMI Aerospace (Nasdaq: LMIA), Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), BP (NYSE: BP), PetroChina (NYSE: PTR), Petrobras (NYSE: PZE), Royal Dutch Shell (OTC: RYDAF.PK), Total (NYSE: TOT), Chevron (NYSE: CVX), Repsol (OTC: REPYY.PK), ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP), Eni SpA (NYSE: E), Sasol (NYSE: SSL), Encana (NYSE: ECA), Suncor (NYSE: SU), Imperial Oil (AMEX: IMO), Statoil (NYSE: STO), Cenovus (NYSE: CVE), Transocean (NYSE: RIG), Penn West Petroleum (NYSE: PWE), Continental Resources (NYSE: CLR), Noble (NYSE: NE), Concho (NYSE: CXO), Diamond Offshore (NYSE: DO), Ensco (NYSE: ESV), Whiting Petroleum (NYSE: WLL), Nabors (NYSE: NBR), Pride International (NYSE: PDE), Helmerich & Payne (NYSE: HP), QEP Resources (NYSE: QEP), Enerplus (NYSE: ERF), Rowan (NYSE: RDC), Cobalt (NYSE: CIE), Patterson UTI (Nasdaq: PTEN), SandRidge (NYSE: SD), Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB), Halliburton (NYSE: HAL), National Oilwell Varco (NYSE: NOV), Baker Hughes (NYSE: BHI), Weatherford International (NYSE: WFT), Cameron (NYSE: CAM), FMC Tech (NYSE: FTI), Oil States International (NYSE: OIS), Superior Energy (NYSE: SPN), Carbo Ceramics (NYSE: CRR), Helix Energy (NYSE: HLX), Pioneer (NYSE: PXD), CNOOC (NYSE: CEO), China Petroleum and Chemical (NYSE: SNP), Ecopetrol (NYSE: EC), Canadian Natural Resources (NYSE: CNQ), Apache (NYSE: APA), Anadarko (NYSE: APC), Devon (NYSE: DVN), EOG (NYSE: EOG), Chesapeake (NYSE: CHK).

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.