Amid Stock Market Turmoil, Investors Cling to Hope. Why?

By: Elliott Wave International

I was watching financial television as the Dow Industrials fell 400-plus points on Sept. 1.

Two market professionals were interviewed: Both said the big decline in recent weeks represented a buying opportunity.

Optimism is so entrenched that even the worst month (August) for the Dow in five years didn't faze them.

Other market observers have also shrugged off the volatility. Here are just a few headlines:

  • 10 oversold stocks ready to pop (CNBC, August 26)
  • Why I'm throwing money at the stock market (Marketwatch, August 26)
  • Why this bull market is not dead (CNBC, August 25)
  • Buy the Dip Becomes Buy the Correction ... (Bloomberg, August 25)
  • Is Stock Market's 'Black Monday' Time to Buy? Some Analysts Think So (NBC News, August 25)
  • Relax, we're about to hit the bottom in stocks (CNBC, August 21)

This is an amazing display of optimism. Yet there is an explanation for this persistent hope in higher stock prices, namely: Continue reading "Amid Stock Market Turmoil, Investors Cling to Hope. Why?"

The Currency War Has Expanded to New Fronts

By: Elliott Wave International

Editor's note: This article was adapted, with permission, from the February issue of The Elliott Wave Financial Forecast, a publication of Elliott Wave International. All data is as of Jan. 30, 2015. Click here to read the complete version of the article, including specific near-term forecasts, for free.

The "Currency War" we discussed in our October issue of The Elliott Wave Financial Forecast and again in the January issue has expanded to new fronts, as world central banks fought to remain economically competitive by trying to push down the value of their currencies.

Singapore became at least the ninth nation to "jump on the easing bandwagon" in January, employing loose monetary measures designed to reduce the value of the Singapore dollar.

Our long term bullish forecast for the U.S. dollar remains on track, and this month the Dollar Index jumped to 95.527, retracing 50% of its decline from 121.020 in July 2011 to 70.700 in March 2008. Continue reading "The Currency War Has Expanded to New Fronts"

Snapchat and the Disappearing Bears in the Stock Market

See what happens in the financial markets when the bears vanish

By Elliott Wave International

If Inspector Gadget or Maxwell Smart had lived in the digital age, their bosses would have used the smartphone app Snapchat to deliver their secret missions.

Snapchat is a popular app with about 8 million users that lets your smartphone send a photo that self-destructs seconds after your recipient views it. As of September 2013, users were sending about 350-400 million vanishing messages a day -- which compares with the 127.5 million shares that changed hands in the Dow on Jan. 27, 2014.

But when Evan Spiegel, the Stanford student who came up with the idea, unveiled it to his product design class in 2011, his classmates gave it a thumbs-down. Disappearing photos? Who will use it? Little did his classmates know how the app, originally called Picaboo, would go on to capture the attention of teenagers and young adults. And even a few older folks who want to connect with them, such as 51-year-old Senator Rand Paul, who recently signed up to woo younger voters.

The idea of the disappearing photo applies beautifully to the situation in the stock market today. Pessimists on stocks are disappearing quickly. And so are bearish analysts. Not in 10 seconds, but they are still doing a version of a Snapchat disappearing act. Here's how The Elliott Wave Financial Forecast describes it (emphasis added) in this excerpt from our just-released 2014 State of the Global Markets report: Continue reading "Snapchat and the Disappearing Bears in the Stock Market"