Market comments for Aug. 27th (UPDATE)

While I was waiting for the GDP numbers to be released this morning and knowing September was just around the corner, I was wondering how this Sept. markets were going to be compared to other years. Then I got the Chart of the Day from chartoftheday.com and see they have answered my question with today's chart. It isn't looking pretty is it.

The GDP number came in at +1.6% Revised from 2.4% previous estimates and they had expected the number to come in at +1.3%. Before the release of the number the Dow Futures were up +27 and after the release of the data it is at +68. There is a definite upward bias going into the open this morning. European markets are mixed with not much movement up or down at this point. Think about this for a moment. When is a 1.6% revised GDP worth it for the markets to go up? Answer: When they thought it would be much worse! That's where we really are in this economy!

Only 3 trading days left in August. As you can see from the chart above that August usually is barely over +0.2% gains for the month. The Dow closed July at 10,466, so we are significantly down form that going into today's trading. We started off the year at a Dow of 10,428, so we are definitely down for the entire year so far and I don't see any recovery in the market before the end of the year and as I have stated many times I see us going a lot lower into the next year. So hang on to your hats today as it is difficult to guess whether the market will be pumped up or trashed. VIX should be something to watch today. Yesterday it closed at 27.37 and for the past it has stayed above its 50 day Moving Average for the first time in about a month and a half.

Fed Chairman, Bernanke, will be speaking today in the Jackson Hole, WY gathering of business leaders and is expected to take questions from them. His comments will move the markets.

With the Dow set to move back up today, expect Gold to also go up so that the net Dow to Gold ratio stays low. It has been recently in an 8.1 to 8.3 range and I don't see this ratio going higher any time soon. In fact I see it going lower. The net is that when the Dow does rise, its real value as measured by Gold is less.

UPDATE: 7:00am PST
While the Fed Chairman was releasing his speech to the press, the Univ. of Michigan Consumer Sentiment number was released and it came in lower than expected at 68.9 vs an expectation of 69.6 for August. Last month the data came in at 69.6, so this is even lower and marks a number of months it has slipped.