The Drought Continues

I have been moving my offices yesterday and today (and all weekend), which is why my blogging has been disrupted a bit. This morning, I am officially in mourning for my beloved Cavaliers, who once again disappointed the Cleveland faithful by posted the best regular season record in the NBA but not making it past the second round of the playoffs. I'm sure LeBron will be leaving this summer (he is a free agent), and the drought for a Cleveland championship will continue. Such is life.

The markets look to be equally upset this morning, although I'm not sure the consternation emanating from Europe surrounds whether or not LeBron is leaving for another team. It appears that the enthusiasm that began on Monday over the Euro-TARP plan is slowly morphing into lingering concern about how it will truly cure what ails those countries.

European bourses are all lower, and Asian markets were lower overnight as well. The Euro is breaking down to fresh lows, which is boosting the dollar. The flight to safety trade is on, into the dollar, into Treasuries, and into gold.

Gold nearly hit $1250 this morning, but has since pulled back; The 10-year yield is lower to 3.43%; and the VIX is spiking +21% to 32.35.

Trading comment: I mentioned earlier this week that the major indexes had rallied back up to their overhead 50-day moving averages, but that those levels would likely act as resistance for now. This appears to be exactly what happened. I probably could have taken further profits around those levels, but I have already raised quite a bit of cash in our accounts, and I am watching this next leg of the pullback to see where I would like to add some exposure.

Last Friday's adds worked well, although we were quite a bit more oversold. I will most likely sit on my hands today, in terms of trading.

Have a good weekend.

long GLD