  Daily Market Update -January 6, 2015 (9:00 AM) While world markets, with the exception of Shanghai overnight, may be distressed over the news that North Korea has likely successfully tested a hydrogen bomb, I don’t think that is really sending the S&P futures so harshly lower, as they also did to open the New Year on Monday. Sure, the news is worrisome, but then there’s also the news that Apple iPhone orders are dropping and those shares may be poised to dip below $100, adding to the woes of Carl Icahn, who would join other mega hedge fund people, like Bill Ackman in bemoaning their recent fates. I think, though, that the real kiss of death this morning is that so much money has been reported to have flowed into mutual funds in 2015 and especially the past 2 months. When people start thinking it’s a good thing to put money into those vehicles, I think that’s a bad sign for what awaits. The mutual fund investor hasn’t exactly timed things very well for the past couple of generations, so I wouldn’t get too encouraged by money pouring into those accounts. One possibility, though, is that more money is pouring in, not because of investor confidence, but because maybe more are now at work and able to contribute to 401k plans. I’ll leave it to someone else to figure out the details. The morning’s futures were down about another 1.7% with about 30 minutes to go until the bell rings, so there’s not too much reason to think that things are going to suddenly turn around. On days like this, just as was the case on Monday, sometimes the best you can hope for is that the market doesn’t close the day with selling into weakness. On Monday there was buying going on into the close and that at least offered a glimmer of hope for Tuesday. Maybe all that we can ask is for a glimmer of hope for tomorrow. With the constellation of concerning news this morning and this week, in general, there aren’t many good reasons to feel any optimism, although with earnings season soon ready to start, maybe some companies will be able to pull rabbits out of their hats and get us all concentrating on such fundamentals as real earnings. That would be a nice diversion from the train wrecks going on in the rest of the world. |