What Will Your Verse Be?  This is now the second time I am endorsing an Apple commercial…what can I say, they make great commercials. I suppose there are two compelling reasons why I love this particular commercial: (1) I’m a big fan of the movie Dead Poets Society. I’ve written about it before in my post O Captain My Captain!  (2) I read Walt Whitman when I was in college…I had a copy of his Leaves of Grass on my end table. I got the book because I thought it would be cool to read it for girls, and it was. But I also fell in love with his unique way of looking at the world…his style is seductive and captivating.  The commercial is taken from one of several call to action scenes by Robin Williams’ character in the Dead Poet’s Society. Here is the text of the commercial:

We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering – these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love – these are what we stay alive for. To quote from [Walt] Whitman,

“O me, O life of the questions of these recurring. Of the endless trains of the faithless. Of cities filled with the foolish. What good amid these, O me, O life? Answer: that you are here. That life exists and identity. That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.”

That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.  What will your verse be?

My Market Watch:  Bonds Up Again and Prices Improved Again.  This morning the 30-year Fannie Mae bond is up +23bps so far. Conversely and not surprisingly these gains are a direct result of the triple digit losses of the stock market.

The big reason for the flailing stock market is poor economic data coming out of China which has a big impact on global economies. Moreover, its logical to assume that many U.S. traders have been looking at overseas investments since the Fed announced QE tapering last year. If true, then bad news coming from foreign countries will have a bigger impact on stock market trading in general.

There is usually an inverse relationship between the stock market and the bond market. It’s not always true, but most of the time this analysis is trustworthy.

When the stock market is doing well investors pull money out of bonds to invest in stocks and when that happens our rates/pricing get worse. When the stock market is doing poorly investors sell off their stocks and invest in bonds instead and when that happens our rates/pricing improve.

I’d be cautious to watch the stock market carefully. Remember, an investor’s job is to buy low and sell high and buy low again. Although stocks are being sold off for now, at some point investor’s will see low stock prices attractive and start buying again and when that happens…….. Let me know if you want to discuss.