Consumer Confidence Hits Record Low; JPMorgan Slashes Dividend; Bernanke Urges Strong Action for 2010 Recovery; Target Profit Tumbles; Oil Pushing Back to $40; Home Depot Beats Estimates

• U.S. consumer confidence fell to a record low in February, according to the Conference Board index. “Just when you think confidence can’t go any lower, the bottom falls out of it, and you can be sure the rest of the economy is not far behind,” Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York, told Bloomberg.

• JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) slashed its common-stock dividend by 87% Monday, a move that will save the company about $5 billion of common equity annually. “Extraordinary times must call for extraordinary measures,” Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said on a conference call, Reuters reported.

• Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned the recession could last into 2010 “only if” lawmakers are successful in restoring stability to the financial system. Speaking to the Senate Banking Committee, Bernanke said the U.S. economy is in a severe contraction, Bloomberg reported.

• Quarterly profits for Target Corp. (TGT) fell almost 41%, below Wall Street estimates, marking the sixth consecutive quarterly drop, Reuters reported. “The company faces a number of challenges on many different fronts – merchandising, how to utilize square footage, how to compete, how to increase sales incentives,” said Richard Hastings, consumer strategist with Global Hunter Securities. “The current fiscal year should be viewed very cautiously.”

• Light, sweet crude for April delivery rose $1.52, or 4%, yesterday (Tuesday) to settle at $39.96 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil prices have failed to settle above $40 for more than two weeks.

• Home Depot Inc. (HD) posted stronger-than-expected results yesterday (Tuesday). The hardware company posted a net loss of $54 million, or 3 cents a share, for the quarter ended February 1, compared with earnings of $671 million, or 40 cents a share, a year earlier. The latest results included a pretax charge of $387 million tied to the elimination of 7,000 jobs from the closure of the Expo Design Center chain and other corporate cuts. There was also a $163 million writedown of an investment. Excluding those items, profit from continuing operations was 19 cents a share, exceeding the analysts’ average forecast of 15 cents, according to Reuters Estimates.

Money Morning

P.S. I have to start out by stating that “I love the forex markets.”

But what’s this? Here we are going to hell in a handbasket in the US, yet everybody wants to own dollars. Go figure.

I have to say that the dollar may be the lesser of all evils in the financial world. Here’s what I mean by that statement: I heard that a Chinese businessman who lives in Hong Kong said that the stimulus plan would not work in China, simply because there is so much corruption.

I guess in the US we only have a few bad applies, while China it’s almost like they have orchards full of bad apples.

But I digress…

Let’s take a look at the US Dollar versus the Japanese Yen (USDJPY). A few weeks ago, I did a video outlining my predictions for this very cross.

Well, after being stopped out of our first position for a small loss, we had another signal based on our daily “Trade Triangle” technology, which issued
another entry signal at a very good level. The level is clearly indicated on the chart and you’ll see this level in my new video for this cross.

The video, as always, is free of charge and there’s no need to register. This is an educational trading video to show you one of the most important technical chart formations and how to incorporate our “Trade Triangle” technology to
come up with big winners.

Click HERE for free video

For as long as I’ve been in the investment game (over 3 decades), this simple formation continues to show itself year after year.

Enjoy the video, and please feel free to make your comments known on our blog. Before I forget, here’s the link to the first video we did on the USD/YEN cross a few weeks ago.

Click HERE to watch the video

All the best,

Adam Hewison
President, INO.com
Co-creator, MarketClub