Bill Fleckenstein's Contributions

Overnight markets were nonevents; even the downgrade of France's debt by Moody's had no real impact, though French bonds did decline in value just a bit. As for the market here, it traded mostly unchanged in a small range before closing flattish.

Stocks here gained about 0.5% in the first couple of hours despite a preannouncement from Caterpillar, which has been impacted by cutbacks in spending, most specifically in the base metals, as a consequence of economic weakness in China and the world over.

Today's market action is a tale of Before-and-After-Mario-Draghi, a.k.a. "B.D." and "P.D." After the ECB basically said it wouldn't do anything new, Draghi in his press conference uttered a lot of brave words, not the least of which was the phrase, "it is pointless to bet against the euro."

I think at this point it is worth discussing the worldwide central bank response to the macro deterioration. As all longtime readers know, I have absolutely no respect for any of these idiots who run central banks. They are always wrong. Repeat: they are always wrong.

Overnight markets were higher, with European equities gaining ground, both before and after the ECB basically did nothing, to the tune of a couple percent (debt markets were a little bit heavier).

Overnight equity markets in Europe were a little bit soft, but didn't really turn ugly until after New York opened. The headline culprit for the angst appeared to be plunging stocks in Greece (which lost 4%) and all the associated problems with uncertainty over the lack of a new government there.

Overnight markets were a nonevent, although the same can't be said for Apple, as the white-hot speculation in its shares continues to intensify. To wit, preopening the stock traded north of $600 per share on no particular news that I could see.

Today was like so many days we've seen recently, with overnight markets on the quiet side. It is worth noting, though, that Moody's downgrade of a handful of European countries' debt literally had no negative impact on those bond markets. In fact, many of them rallied, while equity markets in Europe were plus or minus a small amount.

Turning to the problem continent of Europe, Italy and Spain saw decent-sized bond market rallies. Thus, the news from late Friday night of the debt downgrades in essence was met with a giant yawn.

Today began as so many have over the last group of months, with bond yields of the current problem trio rising: notably Italy, to around 6.80%, Spain, to 6.55%-ish and France, to 3.50%.

In his most recent newsletter, Jim Stack—someone I have the utmost respect for—made some comments on gold that I believe are worth looking into.

Overnight markets were aggressively higher, gaining 3-5%. The proximate cause for all of that joy was the belief that somehow Europe would find a way to unleash giant amounts of money from the ECB printing press by leveraging up the EFSF and possibly creating a new vehicle as well. I am hazy on the details, as is everyone else, and it is not at all clear that such steps are even possible yet, but for the moment hope has trumped reality once again.

Overnight markets were weaker, especially in Europe, where most lost a percent or more, with the leader to the downside today being Switzerland, which was off by 3%. Over here, the bulls put on a brave face again in the early going, and the loss was about 0.5% for the Dow and S&P, with the Nasdaq doing a bit better.

Over the July 4th holiday world markets were mixed and rather uneventful. The early going today in America was essentially a complete snooze, as the indices drifted around unchanged for the first half of the day. Beneath the surface, many of the high-flyers were strong, but other than that there wasn't a whole lot going on.

Overnight markets were a bit of a nonevent, though stocks here got the bit in their teeth early and managed to gain about 0.5% in the first couple of hours. The proximate cause for the rally appeared to be the fact that our illustrious Fed chairman would be making a speech later in the day and folks were hoping to hear dovish sweet nothings emanate from his lips. Whether that will happen, I don't know, but one can be fairly certain that, given that the real estate and job markets are both a mess, combined with deterioration in the economy, QE3 is a high-probability bet.

World markets were higher as financial anti-gravity forces -- a.k.a., the residual effects of money printing -- continue to trump most problems, which saw the indices here in the U.S. higher by about 0.5% through midday. The afternoon saw another surge to the upside, with the indices gaining roughly 0.75% for the session.

Overnight markets were mixed, with Asia slightly lower and Europe higher, as the Europeans were once again able to shrug off the consequences of the PIIGS debt fiasco. Likewise, the stock market here was modestly higher, with yesterday's bit of angst regarding the potential for an S&P downgrade quickly forgotten, as folks turned their attention to earnings season. (I don't mean to imply that I think S&P or Moody's are very insightful or useful, and thus should garner respect, but they did state the obvious for all to hear.)

Japan's market opened under pressure, and when prime minister Kan suggested that the radiation problem was not contained, all hell broke loose. The Tokyo Stock Exchange has various kinds of circuit breakers and, as a consequence, that market quickly reached the point where it was not trading, with all the action spilling over into the futures market in Singapore

After the close yesterday, FedEx preannounced that this quarter's results were going to be negatively impacted by the weather and fuel costs. However, the stock was not badly affected after hours, nor were the futures. And, lo and behold today, FDX was higher on that news. It's not like FDX was necessarily a sale on that announcement, but I don't see why folks would be racing into it, either. Then again, we are in a crazy environment.