Futures are much higher this morning because of some decent economic date from China. Materials and copper are higher as a result.
We have spent so much time talking about the P.I.I.G. nations (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece) that we have ignored some of the good news that has been happening in the B.R.I.C. nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China).
Brazil is chugging along, but India has reported 9% growth and even Russia has kicked in 4% growth. It’s a sad reality that we are in the shape that we are in. We are clearly the red headed step child on the global stage for now.
It was the worst August for stocks since 2001, but the first day of a new month has historically been bullish. Futures are ripping this morning, but will it last through the lunch hour? This market has been finding it impossible to hold gains, and follow through days to the upside have been non existent.
The big kahuna, jobs, are on the docket for Friday, so any rally could get sold in front of that data point. We’ll see.
The ADP number is out, and as usual it is bad, what a surprise. ADP has been about as bad at predicting jobs as Bernanke has been on navigating the economy.
We’re having more fun than Congress on a field trip on my Premium Site. Some winners the last few days include: RIMM (short) +5.5%, HGSI +5.0%, CREE (short) +4.5%, TNA +4.5%, DGX (short) +3.5%. Average holding duration was a few days.