Happy New Year and Hello from annual leave status
I am off, on leave status “New Years week” and what a better way to start the New Year then with a market rally. The markets welcomed the Fiscal Cliff deal passage, and rallied strongly this morning. Current time is 10:10 AM Central Time, with the SP 500 up 1.77 %, Nasdaq up 2.3%, and Dow up 1.7%.
This rally is accompanied by high volume (even at this time of the day, I can determine that the volume is above average), giving a lot more credibility to the fact that it is “for real” and with institutional money behind it.
With the Fiscal Cliff issue resolved, I see no major speed bumps ahead. I think everyone is sick of Greece’s economic issues (yes remember Greece, I almost forgot about them…) and is simply just moving forward at this point. We have some other issues ahead, such as the fact that on Dec-31, US hit the debt ceiling, and if it is not raised, our credit rating as a nation may be downgraded. The date to raise this is approximately Mid-March 2013.
However, I am not worried too much about that right now, as all indications are that the markets are resuming an uptrend. Also, historical studies have shown that the performance of the markets during the first few trading days of each new calendar year “set the tone” for how the rest of the year will be, performance-wise, so it looks like we got started in a positive manner.
In summary, I am returning my TSP to the stock funds and will be 100% S-Fund starting today Jan 2 2013. Thank You
Bill
