Tale of two markets

I will keep this post short and sweet....when you were a kid you either loved or hated the rollercoaster and inevitably when you rode one, your opposite tended to sit next to, or behind you. To use the analogy, the overall market is the rollercoaster and you and your opposite are the bond and equity markets respectively. While one of you is having the time of his/her life, the other is coming to terms with a miserable experience.

To say stocks this week haven't worn the dunce hat would be an understatement. At one point yesterday(Thursday), the Djia was down over 1000 pts trading at levels under 10,000 while the bond market was skyrocketing in price(remember price and yield are inverse). The movement was so great that even some of the major news outlets were reporting that it may have been a glitch. Alas that was not the case. It appears it was more of a spasmatic reaction to investor gauge of the market, think Greece and Company...(PIIGS). While my stock portfolio looks like the aftermath of the Bikini Island atoll tests, Interest rates on offer have approached those lows we spoke about earlier in the week. Needless to say this author is a bag of mixed emotions.

I said earlier this week that all eyes were on Friday(today) with Non Farms Payroll information released(thank you Europe for proving me wrong). As it turns out, this was a real non-event in terms of affecting the market. The results were better than expected, but until the EU enacts a firm policy in response to the growing crisis of confidence, equity markets are going to stay deflated with bonds staying the favorite investment vehicle. See below for the breakdown of numbers.