Cheap Stocks May Not be the Best Buys. Is Steve Jobs' Medical Record a Shareholder concern?

MARKET SYPNOPSIS

For all the market watchers, make sure not to fix your sight on the price of the stock, it will prove to be a mistake. Instead look for stability and slow recovery. As a CEO and more importantly a public icon, Steve Jobs must disclose his medical conditions; but the U.S medical privacy law states otherwise. Also, long term interest rates for houses might be slowing down real estate recovery.

Buying based on price

Investors are buying stocks based on price, and it has proven to be a bad idea. When the market makes a straight up move, investors feel like they must have that stock or else they will miss out on a good thing. As a result of investors buying stocks based on price will result in selling the stock at a loss. The prolong pullback depends on the outlook of how the global economy is going to get out of excess debt. The market recovering at a slow pace, this current trend is one that we are going to have to get use to. Investors should not seek for cheap stocks; instead they need to look for sustainable growth.  Another way to look at the market when interested in buying stocks is looking at the market not as recovering, but looking at it as less worst. A good place to start looking for stocks is health care and information technology.

Transparency versus medical privacy laws

Apple is in the news, and we are not talking about their 1 million iPhone 3G S triumphant weekend sale. It is rumored that Steve Jobs had a liver transplant, thus causing turmoil in the responsibility the Apple Board of Directors have to the public and shareholders. Under the U.S. medical privacy law, Steve Jobs medical condition does not need to be disclosed. However, Steve Jobs plays a vital role in the future of Apple, and he is the face and public speaker of Apple. As a public icon he must disclose his medical conditions, because if he cannot return to Apple, then the public must know. Steve Jobs is expected to make a full recovery and return by the end of June, therefore Apple won't need to reveal his medical conditions at this time. In the end it seems like Apple is using the strategy of "no news, is good news."

The real estate markets recovery depends on interest rates.

Christopher Mayer, the senior vice dean of real estate at Columbia University's business school, said that reasonably priced credit will be key to restoring the real estate market health. Nationwide housing process have fallen more than 30%, and prices will continue to fall. The biggest issue with the sudden downturn of the housing market is that it all happens at once nationally. Consequently the Federal Reserve reacted by pushing down mortgage rates, but the increase in long term interest rates makes it harder for house prices to recover. Expect a slow recovery for the commercial real estate market, because unemployment continues to be a problem and higher interest rates is another factor that slows groth.  The real estate market will see foreclosures and defaults on credit cards rise by the end of the year, once again. The thing we need most is getting the lending markets back on track. Good news for Californians, for the past 60 years house prices have risen up to 2% a year faster than the rest of the nation, meaning that the California real estate market is generally expected to outperform other states in the long term.

MARKET INDEXES

Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJIA)	dropped   200.72	to close at	8,339.01
NASDAQ Industrial Average  (.NCOMP)	dropped   61.28	to close at	1,766.19
S&P 500 INDEX (.SPX )	dropped   28.19	to close at	893.04
Russell 3000	dropped   17.00	to close at	519.38
Dow Jones Wilshire 5000	dropped   298.90	to close at	9,129.60

MOST ACTIVE

TOP ADVANCERS

COMPANY	LAST SALE	CHANGE NET	VOLUME
SUAI	$6.17	2.21  55.81%	1,174,755
ONTY	$3.03	.75   32.89%	1,607,180
ACFC	$2.40	.47   24.36%	9,663
MNTG	$2.70	.47   21.08%	251,646
HOVNP	$2.10	.36   20.69%	17,223

TOP LOSERS

COMPANY	LAST SALE	CHANGE NET	VOLUME
LNET	$3.55	.99     21.81%	1,361,852
REXX	$4.70	1.14   19.52%	1,962,295
CMED	$20.27	4.66   18.69%	2,764,716
FIG	$3.16	.72     18.69%	5,131,305
SBCF	$2.59	.59     18.55%	131,301