Piper Jaffray Predicts S&P 500 Will Hit 2,100 This Year

Piper Jaffray strategists reportedly have issued a study predicting that the Standard & Poor's 500 Index will reach 2,100 this year. That would represent a 13 percent increase from 1,851, where the index stood at midday Friday.

The report says that in mid-term election years, the stock market is typically weak in the second and third quarters and then strengthens in the fourth quarter, according to 24/7 Wall Street.

The securities firm recommends overweighting the healthcare, consumer cyclical and technology sectors.

Piper Jaffray's specific stock picks include Eli Lilly, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries, Altera, Oracle, Riverbed Technology, Goodyear Tire & Rubber and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide.

As for Eli Lilly, Piper Jaffray expects good things from its ramucirumab cancer drug. Piper Jaffray forecasts $200 million of sales for ramucirumab in 2015 and $2 billion in 2020. And the stock has a 3.3 percent dividend.

When it comes to Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Piper Jaffray thinks its wide product pipeline will help it become one of the top companies in the biotechnology sector.

Not everyone shares Piper Jaffray's bullish take on stocks. "I would say it's a better time to get out of stocks than into stocks," Marc Faber, publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom Report, told CNBC.

"This bull market has gone on longer than the average bull market for the last 80 years. The economic expansion will be five years old this June."
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China’s Credit Nightmare Explained In One Chart

zerohedge.com / by Tyler Durden
Everyone knows that after years of kicking the can and resolutely sticking its head in the sand, China is finally on the verge, if hasn’t already crossed it, of a major credit event, confirmed by the first ever corporate bond default which took place a week ago. Few, however, know just why China is in this untenable position. If we had to select one data point with which to explain it all, it would be the following: just in the fourth quarter of 2013, Chinese bank assets rose from CNY147 trillion to CNY151.4 trillion, or, in dollar terms, an increase of almost exactly $1 trillion!
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Don Coxe Webcast

Topics:

• How the leading central bankers are struggling with facing up to the inevitable: how can they extricate themselves from these nonstop injections of financial heroin into the global economy?
• How the publicity about the upcoming Quebec election affects global investors’ views of Canada;
• How this election year in the USA will affect that country’s economic and financial outlooks; and
• How the Ukrainian crisis affects your investments.

We’ll try to give you the ideas you need to protect and grow your wealth in your personal accounts and retirement accounts.
We hope you will find these remarks helpful as you adjust to a world with new kinds of risks, which means indistinct rewards.
Don Coxe  
click here to listen
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US Stock Market – More Bubble Evidence

Below we show a few stock market related charts that indicate that the recent rebound may well have been part and parcel of at least some sort of corrective period, in spite of several indexes attaining new highs. Note here that we don’t care why the market reportedly fell on Thursday. No-one knows for sure whether the reasons cited in the financial press were really the culprit (allegedly, a worsening of the  Russian/Ukrainian situation was to blame; but very often the excuse doesn’t really matter. After all, the Ukraine situation was completely ignored so far).
First, a chart of the DJIA and the SPX for comparison purposes. The interesting thing is that the two measures have diverged at the most recent peak. Note in this context that divergences in the performance of various indexes have been increasing since the beginning of the year. That is usually a negative sign.

The DJIA turned back down before reaching a new high, contrary to the SPX, which did (most other popular indexes also reached new highs, but performance divergences have opened up further between all of them) 

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Russia Crashes Into Bear Market As Europe Drops Most In 9 Months

zerohedge.com / by Tyler Durden
Broad European stocks dropped 3.3% on the week – the biggest fall since June of last year. Despite a late-day surge on the back of surprising relief from Lavrov’s comments on not invading Ukraine (well, he’s hardly going to pre-announce) Germany has seen its worst 2-week drop in 28 months. Sovereign bondspreads rose 10-13bps on the week for the peripheral nations (which is actually notable given how tight they trade now). Russian stocks have plunged 22% from Feb 18th highs and Russian 10Y bond yields surged to near 10% yields. Ukraine’s short-date bonds remain at yields around 50% and the Hyrvnia is losing ground.
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Breakout In Gold And Gold Miners!

Lately we’ve been writing about why we expected the rebound in precious metals to continue without any serious setbacks. After a major low, sentiment can remain muted for several months even in contrast to the improving market action. Yet, a look at history shows that rebounds from major lows can continue unabated and unscathed for more than a year. The rebound in precious metals thus far appears to be following this script. It has received a further boost with the breakout in Gold yesterday and as of now, the breakout in the gold miners.
First, let’s take a look at Gold. The chart below highlights the importance of $1350-$1360 which was major trendline resistance since April 2013 and November 2012. With the breakout past $1360, the next key target is $1420. Gold has weekly resistance at $1400 so keep that in mind as well. If Gold can takeout $1420 convincingly on a weekly basis then it could have legs to $1500.
Today we have the gold miners, both GDX and GDXJ breaking out of their consolidations. For several weeks both markets held in tight consolidations which appear to bullish flag continuation patterns. GDX’s upside target is $31 while GDXJ could reach $53. The 400-day moving averages could intersect with these targets to form strong resistance.
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SHTF Top 5 Signs of ECONOMIC COLLAPSE - WARNING pay attention/they are happening now

This zombie economy has been dead for quite some time now and is only afloat because of continuous "stimulus". The commodities market is nothing more than a shell game, it's all paper. Gold and silver prices are heavily manipulated. Once the real CPI is out (when China refuses to buy bonds and sell us cheap disposable junk), the masses will see just how little those Benjamins are worth. Wall street indices will be absolutely meaningless when you've got nothing to eat. The newest bill design will come in a roll of 1000 with a two ply absorbent texture.
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