In Search of the Perfect Investment

Are we lucky people, or not? Helicopter Ben is at it again, pushing equities even higher.

Everyone should subscribe to Business Insider’s free Money Game newsletter.  From this morning’s email called, “10 Things You Need To Know Before The Opening Bell“:

During a Q+A after his speech in Boston yesterday, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke sounded a distinctly dovish tone about the direction of monetary policy. He signaled rates would stay low for a long time, citing an unemployment rate that probably overstates the health of the labor market.

Markets were up big, led by the Shanghai Composite, which gained 3.2% on the day. The Hang Seng ticked +2.55%, and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained +1.31%. European markets are higher across the board, led by the DAX at +1.08%.

Gold futures are staging a comeback after Chairman Bernanke’s speech, and are now 2.88% higher than they were prior to 4 pm Wednesday. Mike O’Rourke of JonesTrading says gold is best-positioned to take advantage of the dovish Bernanke struck yesterday. Meanwhile the dollar is falling. The DXY dollar index was down -1.32%, and off -1% against the Swiss franc.

Initial jobless claims will be published at 8:30 am. Consensus is for 337,000 against 343,000 prior. Import/export prices and the Bloomberg consumer comfort index also come out this morning.

The Bank of Japan issued its most sunny outlook for the country’s economy since 2011, the FT’s Jonathan Soble reports, saying the economy was “starting to recover moderately.” They cited a 10.5% gain in machinery orders for May as evidence.

Greece’s unemployment situation continues to worsen as the April jobless rate hit 26.9%, a 3.8 point rise from last year and a 0.1 point increase from March.

Samsung has topped Apple for mobile web use. They now control 25.47% of that market, ahead of Apple’s 25.09%. Nokia clocks in at 22%.

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Ever need to fix something. Anything?. Search on YouTube. You’ll always find a helpful video.

If you’re a manufacturer, it’s great customer P.R. to make videos showing how your stuff works, how to fix it and, most importantly, why you designed it the way you did.Most popular: when the designer himself/herself star in the video.

And if you do good ads, you’ll get even more bang for your buck if you put them on YouTube. Here’s one from Evian, which is just plain stunning. Click here.

Fluking a serious pleasure. We travel all the way to Siena, Italy and fluke upon a fabulous exhibition by a New York photographer called Steve McCurry, whom I think of as the Henri Cartier-Bresson of today’s time — in color, not in black and white. The exhibition is at the Santa Maria della Scala and housed way underground in a sort of vault. The setting is fabulous. Best I’ve ever seen for a photo exhibit. They give you an audio device. McCurry tells the story of many of the pictures.

This is McCurry’s most famous photo — the young Afghan girl, with those ultra-piercing eyes.

Here’s Michael, my son’s favorite picture. You cannot take this picture any longer. The train tracks are gone. There are high rises everywhere.

This is my favorite photo. An Indian tailor saves his sewing machine during one of the monsoon floods.

The photo has a happy ending. The manufacturer of the sewing machine found the man and sent him a new, free sewing machine.

The Siena exhibit runs until November 3. You can see more here: Museum Information.  You can see many more of McCurry’s wonderful photos on his web site: SteveMcCurry.

The best airline seats are nearest the exit door. Apparently some seriously selfish passengers on the ill-fated Asiana flight delayed getting off the stricken plane by rummaging around for their luggage and taking it with them. What madness do we humans exhibit. That’s it. I sit in exit aisles.

The Wall Street Journal’s William Harless says some passengers from the flight that crashed at San Francisco’s airport appear to have been injured by  the standard lap-band seat belt. A business class passenger with access to a chest harness emerged relatively unscathed. How do you get one of those? Sounds like a great idea. I’m checking.

The New Yorker’s newly designed web site is stunning. I love the New Yorker as a print magazine. We get two subscriptions — one for Susan and one for myself, so we don’t fight over the issue. You get free access to the web site with a subscription. That’s how I get these great cartoons, from this week’s issue:

 
Harry Newton who’s going to have his cataracts removed and replaced with new lenses which will not give him 20-20 long distance vision, but perfect vision for reading and for computers — ’cause that’s what he does most of the time. For long distance, I’ll have to wear glasses. But since I’ve been doing that since I was six, it won’t be a burden. I’m told you see a lot better with new lenses and no cataracts. I’m looking forward to my new world. Some time this summer.