Stocks mixed as U.S. blockade of Strait of Hormuz goes into effect

The best thing to do, or at least what I’m going to do, is bypass gambling on what the market does, or does not. Much better, at least in my experience, is to back companies that are building out their future. WARNING! There’s a market strategist that appears in the AFR from time to time….

I used to watch CHIPS… Nas, Illmatic, Half-Time Markets remain rough out there. And all eyes are on the Nvidia earnings to come on Wednesday, US time Word on the street is that it’ll be another earnings beat for the monolithic chip-maker. That might be enough to give a sliding market a brief sugar hit….

All shorter moving averages (red lines) are rising above the longer term averages (blue lines) with the closing daily prices (dotted line) leading them all higher. This is a RWB (red/white/blue) up-trend and is the case for all major indexes. This is a wonderful time to be long stocks. We should see a great earnings…

MUNICH (Reuters) – Allianz (ETR:) and Amundi have paused discussions about combining their asset management businesses into a European investment giant that would manage nearly 2.8 trillion euros ($3 trillion) in assets, a source close to Allianz said. Germany’s Allianz has been examining options for its Allianz Global Investors unit, including a possible merger or…

Some off beat reads for the weekend: The Indo-US Trade deal (Niti Shastra) Origins of Trump’s Greenland pursuit (Time) Bahrain on the frontline (Cradle) Rivalry in the Horn of Africa (Al Majalla) Why Bangladesh is wary of Jamaat (Strat News) Balochistan, Pakistan’s bleeding sore (Tribune) Inferno in Iran (ForPol) Why Iran is witnessing a gold…