My top ten reasons to be scared.
Tim Seymour
1. Terrorism of the home grown variety in a post 9-11 USA will have a major cost to the psyche and wallets of Americans and investors
2. Yesterdays global bounce was hardly resounding and on small volume after massive 93% down day on Monday on NYSE with heavy volume. Metals still no love and Europe today dealing with French and German downgrade rumors.
3. IMF downgraded global growth yesterday only solidifying fresh growth fears. European Union (EU) is contracting again and every CEO I have spoken to tells me that they expect nothing out of EU for 5 years.
4. Earnings coming through are beating bottom line but missing top line.
5. Korea in a word and if you think Korea is creating tension, the Middle East is a mess (again) and Palestinian prime minister resignation is overlooked as a destabilizing force. Israel bombing last night, not saying they are related.
6. Volatility is still too low
7. Bank of America (BAC, quote) misses on mortgage income at a time when U.S. banks should be minting money and at least getting a ” dead cat bounce” in US Housing…yesterday’s housing numbers were not as impressive as they appeared
8. Italian elections this week…German elections in September are the big event
9. Risk reward for markets at these levels is very questionable, even for emerging markets which have largely missed this rally other than Turkey, Mexico, Philippines, etc.
10. The US Dollar is lurking.