Liferep.net

Wednesday August 19, 2015

// August 19th, 2015 // Comments Off on Wednesday August 19, 2015 // Daily News

Market is at ‘historical extremes’: Technician

CNBC.com
Stock market bulls and bears are in the ultimate game of tug of war—and the market isn’t budging.
The S&P 500 is in a virtual deadlock, flat for the last six months and up less than 2 percent for the year. And according to one technician, if the market continues to trade in this narrow range, it will mark an event so rare it’s only happened once in the past 50 years.
“There hasn’t been a 5 percent pullback in the S&P 500 since December,” Jonathan Krinsky said Tuesday on CNBC’s “Futures Now.” Krinsky noted that while the occurrence isn’t unprecedented, the last time the S&P 500 went a full year without a 5 percent decline was 20 years ago in 1995, and there were only four times before that in 1964, 1961, 1958 and 1954. In each of those years, the market posted an average return of 30 percent.
But despite the positive returns, Krinsky doesn’t see the same thing happening this year. “It would be extremely rare to get through the last four months of the year without a correction of at least 5 percent,” said Krinsky, chief market technician at MKM Partners. “We are at pretty historical extremes here, but I think a 5 percent pullback in the next month or two would not be that surprising or out of character,” he added.
Confirming Krinsky’s thesis is the tightening of the S&P 500’s Bollinger Bands. This is a tool technicians use to measure the level of volatility in the market—as bands begin to tighten, the markets are less volatile. “There are only two other periods in history where the Bollinger Bands have been this tight,” said Krinsky. “One of those times in 1966, which was the end of a secular and cyclical bull market and the other was in 1994.” Both instances were followed up with a time of elevated volatility.
Krinsky sees the S&P 500 ending the year around 2,130, less than 2 percent higher than current levels.

Today’s Inspiration

Choosing the Right Church

by Joyce Meyer – posted August 19, 2015

But [as for] you, teach what is fitting and becoming to sound (wholesome) doctrine [the character and right living that identify true Christians].
– Titus 2:1

I went to church for years and years and never heard a message about the power my words had on my life. I may have heard something about my thoughts; but if so, it wasn’t enough to make any impact on my life because it did not change my thinking.

I heard about grace and salvation and other good things. But it wasn’t everything I needed to know in order to live in the righteousness, peace, and joy God offers to all who believe (see Romans 14:17).

There are many wonderful churches that teach God’s Word in its entirety; and I encourage you to make sure that wherever you choose to go to church, it is a place where you are learning and growing spiritually. We should not go to church just to fulfill an obligation we may think we have to God. We should go to church to fellowship with other believers in Jesus Christ, to worship God, and to learn how to live the life Jesus died for us to have and enjoy.

Wednesday August 12, 2015

// August 12th, 2015 // Comments Off on Wednesday August 12, 2015 // Daily News

Wall Street in the red after China’s second move

CNBC.com
U.S. stock index futures indicated another sharply lower open on Wednesday, with Dow futures down by around 165 points after China moved to devalue its currency for a second day in a row.
The People’s Bank of China set the yuan fixing at 6.3306 against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday, 1.6 percent weaker than the previous day’s level.
The move signaled Beijing’s new commitment to set the daily fixings according to the previous day’s closing spot prices and market-moves of other major currencies.
A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
The yuan extended losses, to trade around 6.42 per dollar, its weakest level in four years, fueling expectations of more sustained weakness and a feared “currency war” – where countries artificially weaken their currencies to gain a competitive advantage.
“The Chinese renminbi has now fallen by 3.6 percent since the end of last week against the U.S. dollar. We’re not much wiser than we were about how far the Chinese authorities will let the currency fall (much closer to 7 yuan against the dollar in due course is an opening guess) but after letting it weaken again today the PBoC has been seen intervening to calm the market,” said Kit Juckes, global head of foreign exchange strategy at Societe Generale.
Traders on Wednesday may be busier watching market signals than the few earnings and data on the calendar. On Tuesday, a negative technical sign appeared in the chart of the Dow, after its 50-day moving average crossed below its 200-day moving average, a bearish sign known as the “death cross”.
European equities slumped after a yuan-related selloff in Asian stocks weighed on investor sentiment, with auto stocks coming under significant pressure.

Today’s Inspiration

Amazing Grace

by Joyce Meyer – posted August 12, 2015

I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.
– Galatians 2:21 NKJV

In today’s scripture, the apostle Paul said that if he did not receive the grace of God, he would be treating His gift as insignificant. In the Amplified Bible, the first part of this verse says, I do not treat God’s gracious gift as something of minor importance and defeat its very pur¬pose. I do not set aside and invalidate and frustrate the grace (unmerited favor) of God. In other words, the grace of God is so awesome and so wonderful that we need to highly esteem it, deeply appreciate it, and allow it to work in our lives.

I discovered years ago that every time I became frustrated, the rea¬son was that I was trying to do something in my own strength instead of putting my faith in God and receiving His grace (help). I was frus¬trated and struggling with something most of the time in the early years of my walk with the Lord. Receiving a revelation of God’s grace was a major breakthrough for me.

Maybe now is a time when you need to embrace God’s grace in your life. He wants you to stop trying to do things in your own strength and simply rest in Him, trusting that He will handle everything in the best possible way.

God will not permit us to succeed in life without His help. If He did, we would take the credit that is due Him. Because He loves us, He wants to pour out His grace in our lives. When we receive it, we will be thankful, joyful, and amazed by what He accomplishes on our behalf.

Love God Today: Have you been frustrating the grace of God that is available to you? Relax, receive it, and let God’s grace do for you what you cannot do for yourself.