Skip to main content

OIl:$80, DOW:10000: What's next ?

As predicted exactly 2 months ago oil has reached $80 and DOW has crossed 10000. So what is next prediction over next 3 to 6 months ?Also as 2009 is coming to end, it is time to make some year end macro predictions and then identify if any investments worth considering at this point:

So here are some macro predictions for next 3-6 months:
  • Oil would continue to trade around $65 to $90 with more bias towards $90 due to upcoming world GDP growth prospects. I won't be surprised if oil crosses $90 at least once in 2009. Natural gas also doubled since it reached 7 and 1/2 year low of $2.50. NG could also cross $6 in next 3 months
  • DOW would continue trading waters around 10000 and S&P around 1100. Once investors digest all Q3 results, they would be looking forward to how all important shopping season shapes up. Companies would have to start showing top-line revenue growth in Q42009 and Q12010. If Q4 also turns out to be as good as Q3, we could see DOW touching 11000 in next 6 months. If not, be ready to wild ride back to 9000 or even below 9000
  • Tech companies keep on surprising market with excellent results from Amazon, Microsoft. They should benefit from long-pending upgrade cycle and holiday shopping season
  • Energy and commodity sector would continue its upward trend due to BRIC growth alone. Looking at some of deals in last week (HTE getting acquired - this was one of my weekly recommendation)
  • Now that most of the world stock indices have gone up by 60-100% in last 7 month, it is time to move some of the gains in fixed income mutual funds. e.g total bond index ETF from Vanguard (BND) could offer good way to protect gains and earn some income along the way
  • Regional banks - they get hammered due to heavy exposure to real estate loans especially in Atlanta and Florida areas. Is it good time to bet against the market and make some "survival" investments. I think YES. My this week's recommendation is one such regional bank:
Company: Synovus Financial Corp (SNV)
Buy Price: $2.60 to 2.80
Target price in 12 months: $ 4 (50% return)
Background: Check Google Finance for all financial details
It got 20% hair-cut on Friday due to its loss in Q3. Management has been very aggressive in writing down value of its
loans which should be good in future if company survives. It recently raised $600 M at $4 per share. People who
invested $600 M must have done their due diligence about survival of company in long-run. I see this as almost
repeat of Regions Financial (RF) which also raised capital at $4 per share and now it is near $6. I won't be surprised if
we hear news that someone like John Paulson (hedge fund manager) starts looking at this
Disclosure: I have investment in SNV

Last week I could not post weekly blog due to Diwali festival. We had party at our place with fire-works and all.

Have a great weekend !

/Shyam

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Clicks to Tokens: Will 2026 Echo 1998's Boom or 2000's Bust?

My "blogging" was in hibernation last 8 months due to my self-imposed restraint given the environment as well as built-in inertia to get started despite so many interesting events and markets reaching all time highs after taking a big dump around "Liberation Day" in Apr...Around that time I had the blog ready that it would be repeat of Mar/Apr 2020 panic and recovery during onset of Covid Pandemic. The hunch happened to be correct and I was glad that I could keep and take some positions which I am still holding especially around AI theme. But that was then...as 2025 is about to wrap up in 10+ weeks, let's look at what's in store for rest of 2025 and 2026. And what's better time than to start writing again just before one of the most important week on the calendar with multiple key events coming up next week... Fed meeting to decide the course of interest rates - it's almost guaranteed that Fed will cut rates by 25 basis points (2nd time in 2025) and...

2026: The Year of Convergence – Melt-up, Moonshots, or Mid-cycle Correction?

Happy New Year! After another period of self-imposed hibernation from the blog—partly due to the festivals, travel, intertia and partly to watch the dust settle on a chaotic 2025—I decided to use the quiet of this New Year’s morning to finally reboot.  Looking back at my October post,  “Clicks to Tokens,”  the hunch about the AI theme held firm. We spent much of 2025 debating whether we were in 1998 or 2000. As we enter 2026, the answer seems to be "neither and both." We have the roaring optimism of the 1920s fueled by "Silicon Spirits," but with the high-speed volatility of the 2020s. So, as the calendar flips, what is in store for 2026? Markets may experience melt-up (S&P touching 8000),  with some moonshots (like SpaceX and OpenAI) IPOs or even see mid-cycle correction bringing down S&P to 6000. That's a wide range and will be decided by Four R's... Here are my thoughts on the " Four R’s ":  Rates, Robots, Rotations, and Real Assets. 1. ...

Rockets, Relics & Roaring Markets: The $4 Trillion Crossroads of 1927 and 1999

Happy (almost) Summer! After watching Kevin Warsh get sworn in at a White House ceremony two days ago, tracking three S-1 filings that could collectively hoover up more capital than every U.S. IPO since 2022 combined, and watching 26-year-old stock charts finally break to new highs — it felt like the right moment to ask the uncomfortable question out loud. Are we at a party that ends gracefully, or one that ends with the furniture on fire? The market is simultaneously flashing the neon signs of 1999  and  the orchestral excess of 1927. Most commentators reach for the dot-com playbook. I think the original Roaring Twenties is the better map. Here's why... Assembly Lines to AI Clusters Ford's River Rouge complex was the largest industrial facility on earth in the 1920s — raw iron in one end, a Model T out the other. Steel, rubber, and oil became the picks-and-shovels of the age. GE and Westinghouse were electrifying factories and homes. The infrastructure buildout  was ...