One Down One To Go

Last night, President Obama gave his State of the Union speech to the American people. The speech was more like a high school football coach talking to his team at half time. President Obama referenced the strong stock market rally as a major accomplishment. However, he never referenced that the money that is propping the stock market higher must be paid back with interest and the U.S. debt is becoming unsustainable. He never mentioned that the United States needs to borrow money just to pay its debt service. President Obama never mentioned the food riots that are taking place in various nations around the world due to the inflation that is being caused by the Federal Reserve Bank. If he only knew the cost of artificial growth. Most Americans voted for change and simply got more of the same. I think the American people want their change back. The major stock market indexes are all trading slightly higher this morning. This small gap higher open in the market is common after all State of the Union speeches. Last night the Chinese government made a new rule that requires all citizens that want to buy a second home must put a 60 percent down payment on the home in order to qualify to buy the property. Wow, it is amazing how much the Chinese have learned from the mistakes made by the United States. The Shanghai Index actually rallied higher last night by 1.17% on the news. The iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index ETFFXI is trading higher by 0.5 percent this morning. Recently, China, India, and most other emerging countries have began to increase interest rates to curb the high inflation that these countries are experiencing. This afternoon the Federal Reserve Bank will announce their interest rate policy. Really this FOMC meeting looks to be a waste of time since they are not expected to make any changes to the current Fed funds rate which is at zero percent. The Fed funds rate is the overnight lending rate to the large major banks such as J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.JPM, Bank of America Corp.BAC, Wells Fargo & Co.WFC, and Citigroup Inc.C. Most other banks that borrow from the Federal Reserve Bank must borrow from the Fed discount window which is 0.75 percent. In any case the Federal Reserve is not expected to say anything negative about the economy. The State of the Union address is over and next up is the FOMC announcement this afternoon. The stock market in the United States continues to trade higher nearly everyday as the Federal Reserve Bank continues to pump billions into the market everyday via it's $600 billion quantitative easing program. Stay tunes as markets usually get very volatile and interesting after these meetings. Nicholas Santiago InTheMoneyStocks.com