Category: General

U.S. medicine spending shows rare dip in 2012

Posted on by The INO.com Team

Spending on prescription medicines in the U.S. fell for the first time in decades last year, slipping as cash-strapped consumers continued to cut back on use of health care services.

Patients also benefited from a surge of new, inexpensive generic versions of widely used drugs for chronic conditions like high cholesterol, according to a new report.

Total spending on medications dropped to $325.8 billion last year from $329.2 billion in 2011. Likewise, average spending per person on medicines fell by $33, to $898 last year, according to the report from the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics.

"That's the first time IMS has ever measured the decline in the 58 years we've been monitoring drugs," Michael Kleinrock, director of research development at the institute, told The Associated Press. Continue reading "U.S. medicine spending shows rare dip in 2012" →

Young FrankenMarket Lives

Posted on by The INO.com Team

In failing to take a “healthy” correction to the equivalent of SPX 1350 to 1450 from the upside target zone of 1550 to 1590, the market is now running on policy and momentum. Hence we now dub thee Young FrankenMarket; Ben Bernanke’s creation, sustained by government and legacy MBA debt, following Alan Greenspan’s monster that was stitched together with artificially low interest rates that ultimately manifested in a huge commercial credit bubble.

Payrolls came in at 165,000 and an over bought, over loved* market popped its cork and exploded into blue sky. It had to be more than an okay ‘jobs’ report that did the trick. It was likely the combination of a still inflating Fed (and ECB, Europe popped hard as well) with some data that was good enough, but not so good as to call into question the Fed’s systematic inflation regime. This is Bernanke’s FrankenMarket, created by policy.

After making bearish patterns and/or negatively diverging from the Dow and S&P 500, the Russell 2000, Nasdaq 100 and Semiconductors all broke to new all-time (RUT) or recovery (NDX, SOX) highs on Friday. This left one notable holdout, the often-watched Transports. Since I normally do not give much weight to Dow Theory, I’ll not do so now. But it should be noted that the Trannies are not at new highs… yet [edit: They are now].

So it appears that recent writing I have done about a topping process may have been incorrect or at least, early. The current period reminds me a lot of Greenspan’s monster that emerged from the credit bubble early last decade, FrankenMarket as I called it in the first public article I ever wrote. Continue reading "Young FrankenMarket Lives" →

5 Crucial Things Every Income Investor Needs To Know

Posted on by admin

From: Street Authority

We're just past the edge. The "tipping point" is here.

Don't worry -- it's not dangerous. In fact, if you're an income investor, then this might be the start of a very prosperous trend.

Between now and 2030, roughly 10,000 Americans will turn 65 every day. You might be among them. This marks a major shift that will play out for millions of people in the next years and decades. And I think it could lead to a surge in popularity for income investing.

Think about it. There's currently $13 trillion sitting in U.S. mutual funds, with most of those assets held by soon-to-be retirees, according to the Investment Company Institute research group.

Regarding where that money may go, I think my colleague Amy Calistri put it best: "As baby boomers wind down their working years, they're going to do what retirees before them have done -- shift from riskier stocks and commodities into more buttoned-down income investments. In fact, given the rocky market in the past decade and disappearing pensions, the shift could be larger than most people think." Continue reading "5 Crucial Things Every Income Investor Needs To Know" →

Morning Energy Commentary

Posted on by The INO.com Team

June crude oil was lower due to profit taking overnight as it consolidates some of the rally off April's low. Stochastics and the RSI are overbought but remain neutral to bullish signaling that sideways to higher prices are possible near-term. If June extends the rally off April's low, April's high crossing at 98.06 is the next upside target. Multiple closes below the 20-day moving average crossing at 91.93 would confirm that a short-term top has been posted. First resistance is April's high crossing at 98.06. Second resistance is February's high crossing at 99.52. First support is the 10-day moving average crossing at 93.85. Second support is the 20-day moving average crossing at 91.93.

June heating oil was lower overnight as it consolidates some of the rally off April's low. Stochastics and the RSI remain bullish signaling that sideways to higher prices are possible near-term. If June extends the aforementioned rally, the February-April uptrend line crossing near 295.58 is the next upside target. Closes below the 20-day moving average crossing at 284.23 would confirm that a short-term top has been posted. Continue reading "Morning Energy Commentary" →

Macro Sleight of Hand is Working, for Now

Posted on by The INO.com Team

Right in plain site, the Federal Reserve is doing this to the US money supply. It is a hockey stick with the blade pointing up, but will one day turn into a big, bloated chicken and come home to roost. The Fed’s global counterparts continue apace with inflation as well.

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Meanwhile, economic data like M2′s velocity would give out of control monetarists free license to provide more of what they say is good for us, because newly printed money is not getting out into the economy to a sufficient degree. ‘If we can just inflate a little more’ think our myopic bureaucrats, ‘maybe that will finally do it. Continue reading "Macro Sleight of Hand is Working, for Now" →