North Korea Leads the March into Earnings Season

I got a nice surprise after coming back from a three day Thanksgiving weekend in Canada. Although the markets were closed here, the US markets were open. Both my stocks managed nice gains despite the rhetoric and nuclear tests by North Korea. CLRK finished at $20.91; maybe people are finally getting the idea of the LED lights being a good thing and CLRK being the leader. SCUR managed to finish at $6.86. I’m hoping to watch this climb over $7.00 in the next day or two.

So I guess the topic of the week for oil, gold and the markets is going to be North Korea. Today the saber rattling is about North Korea threatening to launch a nuclear missile. I think the US should let China take the lead on this and allow China to smack North Korea around. After all China is starting to play ball and seeing that reforming their economy is starting to pay off for them. Now if they can get their human rights together then we’d see them develop into something of a good international citizen. But in the meantime, the US should allow China to walk into North Korea and put a stop to things. This accomplishes two things. First the US is telling China, we think you’re capable of handling this and trust you to put a stop to it. After all, China is a neighbor to North Korea and could be in the line of fire. Secondly, the US doesn’t have to bear the cost of invading another nation. The US needs to save its resources for Iraq, and having China take care of North Korea would save them a pile of money.

We are also on the verge of earnings season so the market may be a little nervous to move too much further up until some companies start to come out with some decent numbers. I don’t see the markets moving too much higher this week, but the potential for them to go lower is definitely there. The one thing that will propel the markets higher is if North Korea backs down.