Market Sentiment Remains Weak

Major indexes have fallen 2 weeks in a row recently. It’s just not the summer doldrums, it’s the faltering recovery. The economic data have been worsening and market sentiment has been dropping. However, due to recent mergers and acquisitions activity we might get a light boost early this week. We had Intel bidding for McAfee for 7.7 billion, BHP’s hostile takeover Potash Corp and Campbell Soup Co considering making a $2.3 billion break-up bid for Britain’s United Biscuits.

As we enter this week, earnings from major companies are drying up. With that, the spotlight will be focused squarely on the upcoming economic data, Existing and New home sales numbers on Tuesday and Wednesday, Unemployment claims on Thursday and Prelim GDP on Friday.

All is not doom and gloom, the Ceridian-UCLA Pulse of Commerce Index, which measures the strength of the U.S. economy by looking at trucking activity, flashed positive last month: freight rail traffic increased 4.1% for July and trucking activity 1.7%. In a sea of negative economic data, there is still hope the US economy will stabilize. Obviously, we need more time to confirm where we’re heading as these numbers are no guarantee the economy is booming.

My First Guest Post

Today, Money.Smarts.Blog published my first guest post: 6 Reasons Canadians Should Invest In Oil Stocks.

Money Smarts Blog is one of the first sites I subscribed to when I started visiting blogs. It was natural for me to submit my first guest post there, thank you Mike for giving me the opportunity to publish on one of the top blogs in personal finance.

I hope that through the guest post I get to meet some new comers around here with a baggage of opinions. For this is what makes blogging interesting, the resulting interaction. It’s just like the differences in perception that constitutes a market of buyers and sellers.

For those of you visiting for the first time, here are a few of my favorite posts written lately:

How To Prepare For Higher Mortgage Rates

Financial Decisions With Long Term Consequences

Investing In Oil: My Personal Take

Investing In Oil: The Fundamentals

Alberta’s Cardium Formation : Oil Play Overview

Alberta’s Cardium Formation: The Players

Alberta’s Cardium Formation: Dividend Paying Stocks

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