Morning Journal - Defense appropriations as source of budget cuts

Economics
This Week’s Data

Existing home sales fell fractionally in February, although January was revised up--more than offsetting the decline. http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2012/03/existing-home-sales-inventory-and-nsa.html

A broader view of the housing sector:
http://blog.stocktradersalmanac.com/post/What-Housing-Recovery-Only-Foundation-Laid-Housing-Yet-to-Recover-

Weekly jobless claims fell 3,000 versus expectations of a 4,000 increase.
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2012/03/weekly-initial-unemployment-claims_22.html

Overnight Chinese and EU PMI’s were released and showed contraction.

Other

A not very promising outlook for world trade (long):
http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2012/03/the-japan-debt-disaster-and-chinas-nonrebalancing.html

But for the moment, all appears okay (short):
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2012/03/world-trade-and-output-set-new-records.html

High interest rates aren’t bad news (unless, of course, you’re the government):
http://scottgrannis.blogspot.com/2012/03/why-higher-interest-rates-are-not-bad.html

And:
http://www.capitalspectator.com/archives/2012/03/expecting_growt.html#more

Lest we forget: Greece (medium):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/16/greece-on-breadline-cashless-currency?newsfeed=true

JP Morgan CIO is worried about the budget deficit (medium):
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/sesame-street-jobs-recovery

Politics

Domestic

Is there a growing case for federalism? (I hope so) medium:
http://www.nationalreview.com/author/56454/latest

Another ‘green’ flimflam (medium):
http://michellemalkin.com/2012/03/21/obamas-algae-racket/

Defense appropriations as a source of budget cuts (medium):
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/03/military-balance-2012/

More government shenanigans; this time the Fed (medium):
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/03/21/federal-reserve-stress-test-inflated-grades/

News on Stocks in Our Portfolios

Some details on the Abbott Labs spin off (medium):
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2012/03/21/abbotts-drug-spin-off-gets-a-name/

Steve Cook received his education in investments from Harvard, where he earned an MBA, New York University, where he did post graduate work in economics and financial analysis and the CFA Institute, where he earned the Chartered Financial Analysts designation in 1973. His 40 years of investment experience includes institutional portfolio management at Scudder, Stevens and Clark and Bear Stearns. Steve's goal at Strategic Stock Investments is to help other investors build wealth and benefit from the investing lessons he learned the hard way.