Spain’s IBEX

IBEX Apr 2012

I found it intriguing that a 3 bln. refinancing of government debt would be received by the market as a bullish event whereas last months borrowings by Spain’s central bank on behalf of it’s banking system of about 450 billion Euros (up 53% over the previous month) goes almost unnoticed. There is either a wilful blindness or an unwarranted confidence in Governments or Central Banks to repair the imbalances.

From an EW perspective this index is relatively easy to analyze. Normally, corrections of bull markets exhaust themselves more or less at the level of wave 4 of previous degree, or lower. In this case that would be roughly 5000. These corrections take the form of A-B-C in which the C should be 5 separate waves, as shown. Most often C is as large, or larger , than A. Should this happen the index will have lost at least 70% of the peak value of 16000. This is not as dramatic as it sounds as that is where the index was just 10 years ago. This begs the question what part of all this is “abnormal” , the 5-year rise from 5000 to 16000, or the 5-year drop now. Could it be that Ron Paul is onto something by advocating the abolishment of the Fed?

Until as recently as 1978 Spain was effectively a dictatorship. It has no industry worth speaking of and its main “business” is that of supplying the northerners of Europe with a place to over-indulge in all those hedonistic activities that are not done at home. In pursuit of which, the country now has many more empty homes than the US. Clearly present management got caught up in the twin blessings of Greenspan cheap money and the various convergences that were supposed to attend the creation of the Euro. No amount of olive oil or oranges and suntans will pay for an orderly exit.

SC, Shoppers Drug Mart

sc apr.2012

We have been bullish on this stock right from the lows (see previous blogs), with a potential target of, perhaps $50 or so. This rebound has the looks of an a-b-c X a-b-c, a so called double zig-zag. If so the stock probable will not trade much above $45/$47 and we would sell at those levels maintaining a tight stop in the mean time. From the lows this is about a 50% gain.

FSLR , First Solar

fslr apr 2012 

See also our previous blogs. Last time we were ambivalent about this stock. Now, that is after loosing $300 out of $320, the stock might actually be ripe for a decent , however not without a tight stop. Potentially a bounce could double the value of this stock and given the recent bad news this might just be the right time.

Natural Gas and HNU

NATGAS - apr 2012

Natural gas just keeps going. In commodity circles this is known as “trend persistent” maybe even a little obstinate. In any event a nice A-B-C down is complete and then some and both the RSI and MACD are heralding the possibility of a change. This is relatively sure bet, if for no other reason that there is only $2 of downside left. To play it one could use the HNU, or GAS ETF’s. The HNU is more sensitive to roll-over risk if the markets stay in contango. Both come from great heights (but prices are adjusted!)

HNU apr 2012GAS apr 2012

We prefer the Claymore  ETF as with a little imagination a count can be put on it. Summer is coming and that is actually the period when most gas is used (air-conditioning), so maybe this is the time. For the record, we have been wrong on this one before!