Topic: How To Invest

What is Pat's commentary for the week of July 3, 2012?

Article Excerpt

Sometimes, the market’s reaction to a news item can tell you something about the importance of the news item. It may also tell you something about the market’s underlying direction. For instance, on June 6, the Dow industrials moved up by 125 points after a two-month decline. Many investors assumed the gain was due to some European crisis development they missed that day. I assumed the rise came about because of political news from Wisconsin, and from the second- and third-largest California cities, San Jose and San Diego. I saw it that way because of today’s key investor concern: can governments around the world manage to tame their debts and their budget deficits without raising taxes to economically crippling levels? To do this, governments will have to break out of the stranglehold that pressure groups and entrenched special interests seem to have on them. These pressure groups include business interests that want to fight any change in tax arrangements and subsidies that benefit…