(By Rich Bieglmeier) The Federal Reserve gave Wall Street what it wanted and then maybe some with an open-ended QE3. Ben Bernanke and the board's decision pushed the NASDAQ, Dow, and S&P 500 to yearly highs.
As daily readers know, iStock has been waiting for the indexes to declare their intentions, simultaneously breakout to new territory or backup at resistance. On Thursday, investors witnesses emphatic confirmation. There is absolutely no doubt that the triple move higher is bullish for stocks in the immediate-term.
It's going to take some oddball event to disrupt momentum, especially when you consider yesterday's volume; although, a big spike up accompanied by high volume can signal a top, but rarely. Rather, we think Wall Street is all in on taking stocks higher. Perhaps the S&P could reach 1,500, the Dow 14,00, and the NASDAQ 3,300, maybe a touch more.
The street knows Bennie and the Inkjets are all-in now. The central bank has pushed in nearly all of its chips. While the FOMC meeting minutes hint at further easing, iStock believes this could be it. It's now or never.
What's the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. If the third time isn't the charm, we aren't sure the public will have the stomach for higher food and fuel prices should inflation kick into gear. If yesterday's PPI is any indication, things could get real expensive, fast.
The rationale for easing was to help the economy to get to maximum employment. Earlier Thursday morning, Jobless Claims were much worse than expected. Blame it on the weather, no; really, it was blamed on hurricane Isaac. Maybe they'll blame ATMs next week?
Overall, it was a great week for equity and precious metals investors. All the pivotal news announcements went in the most positive direction possible; next stop, 3rd quarter earnings and GDP.
We had just one company that passed our criteria to make it on our iEstimate list, Schiff Nutrition International Inc. (SHF). The consensus view is 20 cents when they report next Tuesday. The iEstimate is 24 cents – a 4 cent upside surprise.
Here are last week's results:
| Company | Ticker | Date | EST | iEstimate | Surprise | % Surprise | ACTUAL |
| Psivida Corp | PSDV | 9/10/2012 | ($0.19) | ($0.17) | $0.02 | 10.53% | N/A |
| Globecomm Systm | GCOM | 9/11/2012 | $0.20 | $0.25 | $0.05 | 25.00% | 0.13 |
| Pmfg Inc | PMFG | 9/12/2012 | $0.06 | $0.09 | $0.03 | 50.00% | -0.03 |
| Cubic Corp | CUB | 9/14/2012 | $0.75 | $0.80 | $0.05 | 6.67% | N/A |