Prelude to a mushroom cloud?


'ISLAMABAD,Pakistan — A suicide bomber attacked a suspected nuclear-weapons site Friday in Pakistan,raising fears about the security of the nuclear arsenal,while two other terrorist blasts made it another bloody day in the country’s struggle against extremism.

Increasingly daring and sophisticated attacks by terrorists allied with al Qaida on some of Pakistan’s most sensitive and best-protected installations have led to warnings that extremists could damage a nuclear facility or seize nuclear material....'

Read more:

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/77650.html

Please review the NSE 20 Share Index chart here: http://tinyurl.com/yjhuea9 . I have used trend lines to map out inflection or turning points.

A tug of war between bonds and common stocks has seen the former carry the day as investors are still nursing wounds from the bear market of 2006 - 2009. Fear rules the market with investors concocting a thousand and one reasons not to invest in common stocks. During the bull market heydays,there were a thousand and one reasons to invest in common stocks.

A common valuation metric is the Price-to-Earnings ratio or P/E. This ratio is akin to a pulse rate,swinging from a subdued state at market lows to a racing heartbeat during booms. It captures the amount in earnings per unit invested. The lower the market P/E the greater the discounts on stocks.

At present the market P/E (Price to Earnings) ratio is 12.78,50% lower than that of December 2006 which was 24. Further down memory lane,market P/E ratio in September 2002 was 10.84. Back then,investing in stocks was not the 'in thing'.

A Price to Earnings ratio of 1 - 7 is considered cheap,8 - 14 fair,15 - 21 expensive,+ 21 bubbly.

Interestingly,March 2009's P/E ratio was 7.98. Therefore,the seven ensuing months from the stock market lows of March have provided a Buyers' Paradise to investors. The Great NSE Sale is on!

Our Investment Coaching sessions (catered to individual investors) are dedicated to exploring metrics such as the P/E ratio,crucial in an investor’s toolbox. Please inbox me for more information.

During this second phase of the 2001 - 2016 gold bull market,institutional money is embracing gold as a hedge against loss of confidence in the financial management of the U.S. and its common stock,the Dollar. The last phase will grip Joe and Jacky Investor in a true global gold rush.

'Gold bugs of the world,unite! You have nothing to lose but your exposure to fiat currencies.

Or so says leading hedgie and Wall Street throw back Paul Tudor Jones,who in his latest missive to investors has gone soft at the knees for the yellow metal:

I have never been a gold bug. It is just an asset that,like everything else in life,has is time and place. And now is that time....'

Read more:

http://ftalphaville.ft.c...6/paul-tudor-jones-gold/

'Dear CIGAs,

The so called quick surgical bankruptcy of CIT will result in a company that will only be able to provide 20% of its previous level of financial services to Middle America according to Friday’s Wall Street Journal.

Any institutions replacing these services will have:

1. Higher levels of credit worthiness to be met by small business.

2. Less funds committed to these loans.

Further,the assets of CIT in bankruptcy are the middle American loans outstanding that will be brutally attacked by the bankruptcy process.

That is going to result in a flood of middle American businesses declaring bankruptcy.'

Read more:

http://jsmineset.com/200...ddle-american-business/


CIT Group Files Bankruptcy,Seeks to Cut $10 Billion in Debt

Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) CIT Group Inc.,the 101-year-old commercial lender that saw its funding dry up in the credit crunch,filed for bankruptcy in an effort to cut $10 billion in debt following a failed debt exchange and U.S. taxpayer bailout.

CIT listed $71 billion in assets and $64.9 billion in liabilities in a Chapter 11 petition yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. The Treasury Department said the government probably won’t recover much,if any,of the $2.3 billion in taxpayer money that went to CIT.

Read more:

http://www.bloomberg.com...=aKmvIUy3V8QY&pos=1

'They’re off and away on China’s newest rollercoaster ride stock exchange,first soaring up and up — and then plunging down.

With surprisingly little fanfare but an utter trading frenzy,China on Friday launched its Nasdaq-style stock exchange,the Growth Enterprise Market (yes,really,GEM),also known as ChiNext,in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen.

So intense was the buying that regulators moved to temporarily suspend trading in the shares of all 28-newly listed companies at different times on Friday,as analysts warned about the risks posed by excessive speculation and inflated stock prices....'

Read more:

http://ftalphaville.ft.c...or-the-latest-wild-ride/