Good Evening,

My, what a difference a day makes. It seems like we’ve been saying that a bunch lately!  The Dow and the S&P were flat. Actually, our TSP allotment posted a small loss. However, the defensive AMP allocation regained some of the ground it lost yesterday as most defensive investments had a nice day. That’s two days of mild weakness in the overall market. Highlighting the struggle within, is the fact that one day was terrible for defensive investments and one day was good. There are a lot of factors involved in that. Most notably the ECB meeting on Thursday which may bring quantitative easing to Europe. With out getting too technical, that stimulus would could make both stocks and bonds in Europe more attractive to foreign investors that are currently invested in the US because quite frankly there is no place else to go. The net result would be funds flowing out of US stocks and bonds and back into Europe. There is one play on this, however: such action will strengthen the Euro which has strongly contributed to a rising Dollar as it (the Euro) weakened in recent months. Also, contributing to a weaker dollar to a lesser extent would be a strengthening ruble. The ruble rose 5% against the dollar today on the news that Russia and Ukraine have reached an agreement that will lead to a lasting cease fire in that troublesome (both for the market and for the world) conflict, but we’ll hold the phone on that one. Anyway, getting back on track, the play would be precious metals in particular gold which will strengthen as the dollar weakens. There’s always a place to go and with a little work and God’s guidance it can be found… The picture should be clearer by tomorrow afternoon. I am still expecting a market pullback/correction some time in the next 6 weeks and will be surprised if one doesn’t come. We’ll watch and see what happens on the charts and make adjustments accordingly. 

Tech Sector Weighs on Stocks

Scott