Commodity OnlineMUMBAI: Everyone in the market is panicky. Equity and commodity analysts who have been talking non-stop of fundamentals that have boosted global markets for so long have stopped talking positive.
They now talk the language of the bears. Some commentators say the world economy is overheated thanks to surging oil prices and inflation, and it would take some years for a decent recovery.
Others argue that it is a passing phase, and the global markets will come to bull phase in six months. We do not know, who is wrong and who is right. The investor is paranoid listening and reading to all the arguments and analysis thrust up on them.
But in a lucide article below, Justice Litle, Editorial Director, Taipan Publishing Group, makes some valid points that will help you beat the bears and stay healthy invested. They are some lessons in how to fight the global bear market.
Read it here:
"Welcome to the bear market. It’s now official, says the Wall Street Journal: “Stocks fizzled [yesterday], ending in bear-market territory for the first time in more than 5-1/2 years as oil jumped and fears about the financial health of General Motors mounted.”
This is bad news for all “buy and hold” investors whose best hope for a happy ending is retiring on a market upswing. For those of us who know markets can go down as well as up -- and who aren’t afraid to buck convention – there are plenty of ways to “beat the bear.” And remember, too, that no matter how bad the headline indexes get, that time-tested old adage still holds: There’s always a bull market somewhere.
By the why, look who else has been grizzly-bit. None other than the great one himself, Warren Buffett, is struggling. According to Bloomberg data, Berkshire Hathaway is now down 20% from December of last year -- the official threshold for bear territory. It’s Berk’s worst first half since 1990.
No one need shed a tear for Buffett, though. Chances are, he and his investors will come through this just fine.
What to make of the news from Starbucks? The relentless expansion of the Seattle coffee chain was once a potent symbol of American consumer might; an old article from The Onion caught the zeitgeist with a mock headline that read, “New Starbucks Opens in Rest Room of Existing Starbucks.”
But that was then, this is now. Here in 2008, the mighty SBUX is closing 600 stores and laying off as many as 12,000 employees. “Perhaps this is a sign of the apocalypse,” your humble editor mused. “Or better yet, make that a venti chai nonfat triple mochocalypse.”
Irwin Greenstein, our emerging markets blogger, thinks the news just highlights where the growth is... outside the USA. “The company operates in about 45 countries,” he observes, “and is still expanding its presence in most of them. They can’t all be in Europe.”
Has it really come to this? A woman in Kentucky has been nabbed on prostitution charges... in an attempt to trade “sex for gasoline.” According to Thesmokinggun.com, Angela Eversole “trysted” with a Mr. Kenneth Novak and took a $100 Speedway gas card as payment. The Gun reports, “A local prosecutor noted that it was sad to see someone selling their body for gas, in this case about 25 gallons worth.” Sad isn’t the right word.
Say it ain’t Sur! California is being overrun by wild fires. More than 1,100 fires have burned 680 square miles as of this point, most of them caused by lightning and dry conditions. Now the idyllic coastal town of Big Sur has been evacuated.
Local officials have called the fire -- one of many -- “just a big raging animal right now.” It looks like we’re in need of regional sayings these days. For the Midwest: “When it rains, it pours.” For the West: “When it burns, it rages.”
Millions of Americans are losing their retirement dreams every year, thanks to the greatest economic conspiracy in history."
