Hot Stock Profiles

The Westpac-Melbourne Institute Leading Index suggests the economy is on the rebound as commodity and equity prices rally.

The index grew by 4.2 per cent in February up from 2.7 per cent recorded in September and much higher than the long term trend rate of 2.8 per cent.

The index estimates the pace of economic activity for the next one to three quarters.

Matthew Hassan senior economist at Westpac says the results suggest economic momentum has clearly lifted since June 2012.

(It) points to moderately above trend growth in the first half of 2013. Our chief concern though is how well this will be sustained through the year, especially as the peak in mining investment approaches.

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  Above is a daily chart of gold (GLD) over the past 20 months and as you can see this market appears to be bouncing off of major support (green line). In the lower panel is the Gold/S&P ratio which has just broken its 4 month down trendline suggesting that money is now moving into gold and out of stocks.   You’ll notice red vertical lines on the chart which are exactly the same distance apart. As you can see there seems to be a major change of sentiment that takes place in gold every 4 1/2 months. The reason I consider this significant is because gold appears to be reacting to this time cycle once again making a turning point precisely on schedule.

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Been rejected for a credit card? Don’t know why?

So many individuals these days are denied access to a credit card due to various reasons.

Such circumstances make it very difficult for them to know whether there is anything that they can do to be accepted by that particular credit card provider in the future. It also leaves them wondering whether other providers will accept their applications. A huge problem that this creates is that consumers will often make numerous applications following an initial rejection, and as more applications are made, their credit rating may suffer. This is because a check is made of their credit report every time that a provider sees their application, and each time that check is made, a note is made on the credit report. I

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A quick examination of any job board will highlight one evident truth: Hiring in the financial sector has slowed to a near crawl. One exception is in the mortgage industry, where banks such as Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Fifth Third Bank have been adding to their head count to process the recent flood of refinancing requests.

Citigroup has hired several thousand people in its mortgage business this year and said it anticipates continued growth into a more normalized market when interest rates return to prerecession levels, said Mark Rodgers, director of public affairs at Citi.

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