30/04/2003
Potters euro rant of yesterday has taken the wind out of my sails. He has been gagging to do that for ages and I am hoping he will now stop sending letters to the Elysee Palace, telling Chirac how to run his country; the words "into the ground" come to mind.
The markets remain nervous. The dollar is weak, equities relatively firm and the bond market doesn't know what it wants to do. HSBC is holding up well and our old favourite AstraZeneca is strong after better than expected figures. On the latter, there is massive resistance between 2500 and 2550. A break and close above this will see the move extend towards the 3000 that we targeted when we first went long at 1859. I would be careful of being long at this level, 2458, as it has had a strong move and we could see some profit taking.
I have long thought that the american addiction to litigation was over the top. Who can ever forget the woman who sued Macdonalds for $6 million because she burnt herself eating an apple pie. But now a warm glow of schadenfreude is coursing through my body as the tort lawyers start to attack the stalwarts of the banking industry. Citicorp, Merril Lynch and CSFB are the main targets.Adverts from lawyers are all over the TV channels exhorting anyone who lost money in the stock market to call 1.800. I AM A MUPPET WHO IS NOT PREPARED TO ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR MY ACTIONS.
Fortunately stupidity has never been a hurdle to receiving large amounts of compensation and these institutions can now expect the kicking they so richly deserve. It should be noted that HSBC is not involved in this mess and so will be considered a safe haven within the sector.
Harry