Market Talk / Jan. 21 - 27

[The_Technician]

"W's" speech will include a proposal to reduce gas consumption over the near future......suppose the oil companies will pay big for this one.....could be a bad omen for the market since alot of the market is currently focused on oil stocks ....:worried:

 

[Birchtree]

Buy farm machinery equipment stocks and fertilizer stocks.

 

[nnuut]

Big tax breaks for people that have to buy private health insurance, of course we will have to pay for that by paying tax on the money we pay for our govt sponsered medical insurance. What a deal!!!

 

[weatherweenie]

Big tax breaks for people that have to buy private health insurance, of course we will have to pay for that by paying tax on the money we pay for our govt sponsered medical insurance. What a deal!!!

On health care, Bush will put forth a plan to make health insurance taxable income and give families a deduction on the first $15,000 in health insurance costs ($7,500 for singles), White House spokesman Tony Snow said Monday.

Snow said Monday that Bush's "revenue-neutral" proposal on health care would boost costs for some people but would also raise the prospect that more than 100 million people "will pay less for health insurance and millions more not presently insured will have access to it." (Full story)
Democrats, however, charge that turning health benefits into taxable income will raise the taxes of millions of Americans. And Republicans with close ties to the White House are concerned the plan is so confusing that the Democratic allegations will stick.
"They're already having problems explaining it," one senior Republican strategist said of the White House. "The president is going to have to explain it very well."

 

[weatherweenie]

Today's action is looking more and more like a headfake.

 

[weatherweenie]

The major averages slide to afternoon lows as oil prices spiking to session highs into the close of trading on the NYMEX send buyers to the sidelines. Crude for March delivery is currently up nearly 5% and above $55/bbl following reports that President Bush will propose doubling the capacity of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to 1.5 bln barrels by 2027. While the news has lifted the Energy sector to its best levels of the day (+2.9%), renewed concerns about the commodity's potential to crimp spending has taken much of the steam of today's recovery efforts in Technology. In fact, the tech-heavy Composite has seen more than two-thirds of its recent advance completely erased.

 

[sugarandspice]

"W's" speech will include a proposal to reduce gas consumption over the near future....

Just like it did in last years address.

 

[Nimrod1193]

Big tax breaks for people that have to buy private health insurance, of course we will have to pay for that by paying tax on the money we pay for our govt sponsered medical insurance. What a deal!!!

From an article about the plan:

It also is designed to encourage those with generous plans to either embrace cheaper insurance or pay taxes on the part that exceeds the deduction, a Bush administration official familiar with the proposals said Saturday.

Translation: We're gonna do a little wealth-redistribution on folks that we believe are getting better insurance than we think they should have.

 

[Wheels]

On health care, Bush will put forth a plan to make health insurance taxable income and give families a deduction on the first $15,000 in health insurance costs ($7,500 for singles)

When I first heard of this idea, I became immediately suspicion that this President was (once again) targeting Federal employees. However, after reading the details above, I can't imagine too many Feds that are getting health insurance benefits exceeding those limits.

 

[nnuut]

When I first heard of this idea, I became immediately suspicion that this President was (once again) targeting Federal employees. However, after reading the details above, I can't imagine too many Feds that are getting health insurance benefits exceeding those limits.

That's true, but I've been on the wrong end of many of these great plans to make things better. Trust them? Hell no!

 

[Spaf]

Daily Yak

The Kingdom of TSP
Daily Edition
January 23, 2007 Closing ​

Yak, Doodles, Tea Leaves & The Tin Box

Kingdom Yak:
Pro-Yak....................................Q4 brightens buyers.

Con-Yak...................................Lube surges, techs lag.

Jester-Yak................................Leaders do bunny hop.

Doodles:
Socks ended up for the day.
Stops.......................................Alert (-1%)....Trail (-2%)
.....$SPX..1427.99 +5.04.............1417..............1403
.....IJR........66.06 +0.74..............66.26 broken...65.56
.....EFA.......73.97 +0.65..............73.27.............72.57

Dollar........................................84.66 -0.37 for the day.

Lube (NYMEX) Closed at...............55.04 +2.46 for the day.
Oil Markers.................................<60= ok, 60-65= worry, >65= panic.

Tea Leaves:
Yakndoodles................................Yellow.

Tin Box.
Leaders Ratio / Top 10 .................1.0 ......1.0 ......0.6 ......1.9 .....5.5 ....07 leaders
Leaders Play................................G-fund, F-fund, C-fund, S-fund, I-fund

 

[tsptalk]

Microsoft reports earnings after the close ...

Sorry - that will be on Thursday.

 

[The_Technician]

I thought that I paid for my insurance with money that is already taxed??? When does the benefit that you get from paying with taxed money become taxable ????? Isn't that "Double taxation".....hope you all like it.....I think they're nuts.....vote the incumbents out!!!!

Does this proposed taxation include a 75 year old man getting a $150000 operation, which is covered by his insurance that he got with money he paid taxes on......???? Does he owe say 35% of that already paid for benefit that he may have to call upon.....what if he don't have any means of paying for it???? :blink: Whats that become, $52,000...Guess they can throw him in jail for not paying his taxes!!! Die sucker....right here in debtors jail!!!

 

[weatherweenie]

I thought that I paid for my insurance with money that is already taxed??? When does the benefit that you get from paying with taxed money become taxable ????? Isn't that "Double taxation".....hope you all like it.....I think they're nuts.....vote the incumbents out!!!!

While it's still a stupid idea that will likely end up hitting the middle class, my FEHB premiums are paid for with pretax dollars.

 

[weatherweenie]

4:36PM Yahoo! beats by $0.03; guides slightly below consensus for Q1 & FY07 (YHOO) 26.96 -0.46 : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.16 per share, excluding non-recurring items and including stock based compenastion expense, $0.03 better than the Reuters Estimates consensus of $0.13; revenues rose 15.0% year/year to $1.23 bln vs the $1.22 bln consensus. Co issues downside guidance for Q1, sees Q1 revs of $1.12-1.23 bln vs. $1.25 bln consensus. Co issues downside guidance for FY07, sees FY07 revs of $4.95-5.45 bln vs. $5.46 bln consensus.
YHOO is up 6% after hours.

 

[weatherweenie]

4:30PM Advanced Micro misses on bottom line, guides Q1 revs below consensus (AMD) 17.51 -0.02 : Reports Q4 (Dec) loss of $0.04 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.12 worse than the Reuters Estimates consensus of $0.08; revenues rose 31.2% year/year to $1.77 bln (includes ATYT) vs the $1.74 bln consensus; revs ex-ATYT were $1.37 bln, in-line with guidance. Q4 gross margin was 40% (vs 47.3% Street expectations) compared to 52% in 3Q06 and 57% in 4Q05. The decrease from the prior qtr was due largely to significantly lower server processor average selling prices and the inclusion of the former ATYT operations. Co issues downside guidance for Q1, sees Q1 revs of $1.6-1.7 bln vs. $1.82 bln consensus. AMD is down 4.34% after hours.

 

[weatherweenie]

Sun Microsystems Inc. returned to solid profitability Tuesday after years of red ink, easily exceeding Wall Street's tepid expectations thanks to the growing popularity of its corporate computers and its newest operating system.

 

[weatherweenie]

Doesn't mean a whole lot, but I'm bored:

The S&P 500 futures, at 1435.50, are 1.5 points above fair value, while the Nasdaq 100 futures, at 1788.00, are 2 points above fair value.

 

[Show-me]

I too get suspicious when my elected officials suddenly try to change thing.

My first thought is.......Will you be paying more Social Security tax now that you no longer have the pretax benefit? I am going to say yes. Now there is a significant amount of revenue going into a black hole! Second, if you do not have you exemptions tweaked perfect. Now the gov. will have that revenue to play with until you file you tax return and get your rebate back. Nickles and dimes. Nickles and dimes.

Why not leave the pretax benefit alone and allow those who buy their own insurance to deduct it. I know, that would probably complicate the tax code beyond comprehension.

 

[James48843]

Health Insurance tax breaks?

Dead on arrival.

John Dingell oif Michigan has introduced a national health care plan that is paid for by a 5% national value added tax on good over 20K per year, and an import tax on all imports into the US.

My guess is that no health care deal will be struck in the next two years.

But at least there are ideas floating out there.