On Monday, we warned that the latest excitement over the strong market rally is reason to be cautious, a time to favor fear over greed.

Bloomberg reports that master trader, Paul Tudor Jones is in the same camp. Jones, who runs a $10 billion hedge fund, calls this a “bear market rally” and believes the equity markets are setting up for a decline. Jones says: Read the full story

Monday
Economic Report: New Home Sales

The New Home Sales report for June comes out this morning. Expectations are for a slight increase versus May. While I am still skeptical of a sustained housing recovery, I do think this report will meet expectations. This is partially based on it being the summer selling season, as well as the fact that existing home sales for June also increased.

Earnings Announcements: Honeywell (HON), Verizon (VZ), Amgen (AMGN)

Tuesday
Economic Report: Consumer Confidence, S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index

The July Consumer Confidence report is anticipated to show a slight improvement since last month. With the economy showing slightly encouraging signs of a recovery, job losses slowing, and no spike in gas prices, I think this report will meet expectations.

The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index comes out Tuesday as well, and this report will still show a significant decline, but a smaller decline than in the past.

Wednesday
Economic Report: Durable Orders, Fed Beige Book

Durable Orders for June are expected to show another decline, and I don’t see anything convincing me that I should expect otherwise.

The Fed Beige Book comes out on Wednesday, and everyone will be looking at the book to see if there are any signs anywhere of a recovery. If I had to guess, manufacturing will show a slight increase, real estate in some pockets will show improvement while others areas, like New York City, will be getting worse.

Earnings Announcement: Time Warner (TWX), Visa (V)

Thursday
Earnings Announcement: ColgatePalmolive (CL), Exxon Mobil (XOM), Mastercard (MA), Sony (SNE), Dow Chemical (DOW), Disney (DIS)

Friday
Economic Reports: GDP - Advanced

The Advanced GDP report is likely to show another decline in the second quarter. Until consumers can feel comfortable spending money, GDP is going to continue to fall.

Earnings Announcement: Chevron (CVX)

Respectfully,

Christian Hill

America is witnessing a mammoth increase in the money supply.  According to the U.S. Federal Reserve, seasonally adjusted M2 has gone from $7.25 trillion in July of 2007 – to over $8.37 trillion today.  That’s 15.44% more money circulating around the economy in just two years, a colossal $1.12 trillion increase.  Read the full story

I have been recommending ExxonMobil (XOM) to my readers since 2001.  I like the fact that they have $25 billon in the bank.  You see, with that amount of cash you can buy any new technology, including one that can replace oil as our main fuel source.  The company just announced it will team up in a $600 million bio-fuels project with Synthetic Genomics.  The goal is to use algae to develop fuels for our cars.  I hope they succeed so we can kick our addiction to fossil fuels.

Leave it to the government. It’s proposing a “tax and cap” regime for energy producers which will require fossil-fuel generating plants to pay extra.  Read the full story

Why invest in commodities? Two and a half billion people are going to live like Americans in the next 20 years and prices go up over time, that’s the nature of inflation. Read the full story

I suggest you only purchase companies that have a history of consistently raising their dividends.  These companies will survive and thrive no matter what happens in the economy. Read the full story

Monday:

Earnings Announcements: BIDU, QCOM

Tuesday:

Economic Reports: Consumer Confidence, S&P/CaseShiller Home Price Index

Consumer Confidence is expected to show an improvement in April, although by a less than impressive amount. The reading is supposed to show an uptick of 2.8 percent, however an increase of 5 percent or more is considered ‘significant’. At this point, I think the economy will take any positive move it can get, small or not. Read the full story

A new bull market is opening up for oil…  A barrel of oil cost only $50 and you have an excellent opportunity to make some superb gains by investing in the oil sector at these low levels. Read the full story