GMGMQ Halted, Finally

I very rarely blog about one particular stock, however with this instance I am making an exception. Earlier today the the self regulatory body of the brokerage industry, FINRA stepped in and halted trading on the Bankrupt General Motors company, now known as "Motors Liquidators," with ticker symbol GMGMQ.

Why did it Take so Long to Halt GMGMQ?
This is a question many people are asking. Why didn't this stock get halted weeks ago? General motors stated repeatedly that the shares of GMGMQ would be worthless once the US government, the United Auto Workers, and the company’s bondholders take their pieces of the restructured company. By allowing it to continue to trade it allowed for manipulation to occur, and traders to make quick money off of the uninformed.

What Sparked the Halt?
Earlier today the stock surged, up 38% for really no other reason then stock newsletters pumping it up. The initial jump in price caught the attention of investors who thought that maybe the GMGMQ symbol represented the new General Motors which emerged from bankruptcy just last Friday. This was not the case, thus the halt to stop the confusion.

It's pretty crazy when a company that claims their stock is worthless trades at a market cap of over $600 million, like it was at at the time of the halt earlier today. I just wonder how many investors lost big money thinking they were buying into the new General motors that is now no longer bankrupt.

General Motors Bankrupt, Household Income Up

What a start to the day! Not only is it the first day of the second half of the year, but we are also getting all kinds of news and seeing movement in various investments.

GM Bankruptcy
General Motors today filed for bankruptcy protection. The United states government, yes us tax payers, will own about 60% of the US auto maker. Although a bankruptcy is far from good news, the markets were expecting it, and now that it has happened, it's out of the way, and any uncertainty is finally lifted.


Gold Approaches $1000 Mark
For the third time in the last 18 months or so, Gold has approached the $1000 mark. Helped by rising energy costs and a lower dollar, prices could soar past that mark. Many experts predict that if Gold can hold above $1000 for a third time, and make even the slightest move above it, we could be headed for a Gold rally not seen in years.

Technology Booming
The E3 Video Game conference is today, which means we will likely see some new technological advances in the Video Game market. This along with the Fact that Microsoft's new search engine, Bing, has launched this morning, and Google announced a possible game changer of a communications setup, called Google Wave, last week, the tech sector is on a role. Expect this to continue into next weeks Apple conference.

Personal Income Rose
For the month of April, Personal income rose an unexpected 0.5%. This was well above the drop of 0.2% most economists were predicting. Yet another signal things are finally turning around. As a side note though, the saving's rate increased, meaning consumption decreased just a bit.

The rest of this week should continue to be interesting. Back in a March post I predicted that the Dow will be in the 9000-9500 range by August. That is actually looking very possible right now.