The Fed is expected to raise interest rates another 25 basis points, and analysts expect they'll pause for a while after that. I'm also pretty confident that's the case, but I'm not taking it as the stellar news for the market that many media outlets are, because things are complicated out there.
Case in point: Apple Inc (AAPL), which has been one of the main stocks driving the overall rally we've seen in markets the past few weeks, is set to report earnings on Thursday. Stuart Varney, on his Fox Business show Varney & Co., asked me if an estimate-beating report from AAPL could move markets higher. And of course, it could - sentiment is optimistic right now because overall earnings this season have come in higher than estimates.
But just because it could, doesn't mean it will. You have to remember, consensus estimates for AAPL have been knocked down, so they're going to have to clear those estimates by a wide margin in order to create real confidence. For me, it's still very much up in the air.
Also, there are still headwinds for the market that I wasn't able to talk about on the air, but I wanted to make sure you knew about them, because they could keep markets down no matter how rosy the earnings picture is.
I'm talking about banks. The banking crisis kind of got swept into the rearview mirror after leaving the news cycle, but it's very much a prominent issue in my mind still, and I think it's one of the major reasons we haven't seen more institutional money come off the sidelines.
We're not out of the woods yet on that, and there's a particular ticker I've been watching that's acting as a bellwether for the state of the banking crisis. And right now, it's signaling caution.
Check out this short video for that ticker, what signs you need to look for, and why ignoring the continuing issues with banks is a bad move for investors and traders alike:
The thing to keep in mind about following headlines is that the news cycle has a really short attention span. You have to follow what's under the radar to find the best opportunities.
Here's an example: one of the biggest land rushes in American history is going on. Major oil and gas companies are fighting tooth and nail to secure drilling rights on thousands of new locations across the Permian Basin, and that makes smaller companies who already have access to the region prime targets for acquisition. Mainstream media is barely talking about it even though there are trillions of dollars in assets on the line.
Money Morning LIVE's executive producer, Garrett Baldwin, has identified five small firms that are leading candidates to get swallowed up in the frenzy... and all of them have the potential to double or triple your money in a month or less.
The post This One Ticker Will Tell You When the Banking Crisis Is Really Over appeared first on Total Wealth.
About the Author
Shah Gilani boasts a financial pedigree unlike any other. He ran his first hedge fund in 1982 from his seat on the floor of the Chicago Board of Options Exchange. When options on the Standard & Poor's 100 began trading on March 11, 1983, Shah worked in "the pit" as a market maker.
The work he did laid the foundation for what would later become the VIX - to this day one of the most widely used indicators worldwide. After leaving Chicago to run the futures and options division of the British banking giant Lloyd's TSB, Shah moved up to Roosevelt & Cross Inc., an old-line New York boutique firm. There he originated and ran a packaged fixed-income trading desk, and established that company's "listed" and OTC trading desks.
Shah founded a second hedge fund in 1999, which he ran until 2003.
Shah's vast network of contacts includes the biggest players on Wall Street and in international finance. These contacts give him the real story - when others only get what the investment banks want them to see.
Today, as editor of Hyperdrive Portfolio, Shah presents his legion of subscribers with massive profit opportunities that result from paradigm shifts in the way we work, play, and live.
Shah is a frequent guest on CNBC, Forbes, and MarketWatch, and you can catch him every week on Fox Business's Varney & Co.