Can it Get Any Better than This?

We'll be gone for a few days - off to the mountains to play in the snow and scout out our new neighborhood in California's Gold Country (there's a certain irony in that).

Look for the next post sometime early next week.

As for the week just concluded - can it get any better than this?

New all-time records for the Dow (ho-hum), the S&P500 within shouting distance of its all-time high, and the Nasdaq up 3.4 percent after just seven weeks in the new year - it was a good week for stocks (especially uranium stocks).

Somebody pinch me.

It wasn't much of a week for commodities, which is why it's a good idea to own shares in companies whose primary business is commodities. The price of oil changed little this week, even though the problems in Nigeria are not going away.


The big oil companies ended the week almost exactly where they began. The Houston shindig known as CERA Week appears to have calmed some frazzled nerves, except over at The Oil Drum (it's a good thing that someone is worried about oil - CERA certainly isn't).


Gold took the week off and deservedly so - it's been working pretty hard so far this year and is gathering strength for what could be an exciting spring. This is the quietest bull market in recent memory, but that's likely to change as $700 and new multi-year highs get closer.


The gold miners rose with the broad equity markets and appear to be getting ready for something. Who knows what that might be, but the world's biggest gold miner Barrick (NYSE:ABX) was told to dump it's hedge book (i.e., get rid of its loser deals to sell its gold production below current market rates) - a bullish sign to be sure.


The dollar had a little problem this week - a widening trade deficit, weak economic reports, and a stronger Yen all worked against it.


The model portfolio at the companion website Iacono Research was up 1.5 percent for the week, 3.1 percent for the month, and 4.2 percent for the year.

Somebody pinch me.

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Full Disclosure: No position in ABX at time of writing.