Blog Posts by Aaron Task

The stock market is having a bad day Friday but the recent trend has been strength in equities while commodities have broadly slumped.

The Dow (DJI) had its best first quarter since 1998, rising over 11%, while the Dow Jones Commodities Index fell 1.1%, its worst first quarter since 2010. And while the Dow continued to flirt with all-time highs earlier this week, silver fell into bear market territory while gold’s spot price fell below the price of the S&P 500’s (GSPC) for the first time since 2010.

One explanation for the disconnect between commodities and stocks is that the global economy isn't nearly as strong as the stock market would otherwise indicate. Friday’s dismal U.S. jobs report certainly supports this view.

Related: March Jobs Disaster: It’s a Bad Report But Don’t Panic, Brusca Says

Sarat Sethi, portfolio manager at Douglas C. Lane & Associates, has another view and a different explanation for the recent weakness in commodities: A lot of “hot money” is getting out of what

Dear Readers,

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for making Yahoo! Finance one of your daily habits. I also wanted to introduce myself: Last year I became Editor-in-Chief of Yahoo! Finance in addition to my ongoing role as a host of The Daily Ticker.

One of my first priorities as Editor-in-Chief was to recruit outstanding editorial talent. With that in mind, in October we brought on Michael Santoli as our senior columnist. A former Barron’s writer and frequent guest on CNBC, Michael is an award-winning reporter whose work can be found in his blog Unexpected Returns.

The staff of Yahoo Finance are also producing top-quality original content that’s housed in our blog The Exchange. The Exchange is updated daily and has a rich mix of news coverage and op-ed-style offerings from outside contributors such as PIMCO’s Mohamed El-Erian and other experts.

In addition, we’ve worked with our premiere partners at CNBC to develop some exclusive web programming, including Off the Cuff,

A robust first quarter brought the Dow and S&P 500 to all-time closing highs heading into the long holiday weekend. (U.S. markets are closed today in observance of Good Friday.)

But any celebration of the market’s gains is being tempered by memories of the past three years of “Spring Swoons” which, coincidentally or not, all began in April.

Specifically, the S&P peaked on April 2, 2012, April 29, 2011 and April 23, 2010 -- peaks that were followed by losses of 10-19%.

Related: April Showers: Another Springtime Correction Ahead?

Brian Sozzi, an independent analyst, says investors should definitely be aware of the “creepy demons of April.”

He notes several of the same catalysts for the sell-offs of the prior three years are readily evident today, including:

• Worries about destabilization in Europe.
• Concerns about a slowdown in China.
• Weaker-than-expected earnings. FedEx, Oracle and Caterpillar being obvious examples but Sozzi also notes there was some underlying weakness to Dollar

In his new book, The End of Power, former World Bank executive director Moises Naim argues that being in charge isn’t what it used to be.

“Power was once concentrated at the top and those who held it erected careful barriers to keep challengers away,” Naim says. “Today, insurgent forces dismantle those barriers more easily than ever, only to find that they themselves become vulnerable in the process.”

Naim’s thesis is certainly controversial when you consider the apparent growth in power of major global corporations, centralized governments like China’s and even the rise of Super PACs in American politics. But Naim argues that those in power are much less likely to stay there today vs. in prior generations. For example, a company in the top tier of its industry in 1980 only had a 20% chance of falling out of league tables; today, that risk has risen to 40%, he claims.

Contrary to popular belief, Naim explains that it’s not just the Internet and other technological innovations that are

Monday’s stock selloff is largely being attributed to the drama in Cyprus, which is potentially a big deal and certainly weighed on global markets overnight. But U.S. proxies weren’t down nearly as much as international bourses – or as initially indicated.

Related: Why Cyprus Is a Bigger Deal Than You Think

In fact, U.S. stocks might be solidly in the green now if it weren’t for another development that bears watching: Weakness in financials.

Monday's slide is also being attributed to Cyprus, which has revived fears of "contagion" emanating from Europe and the related counterparty risk faced by banks. But bank stocks were under pressure before the Cyprus "bail in" hit the headlines.

Starting late Thursday, the financials had a really bad weekend when a Senate report found JPMorgan had misled regulators (and investors) in its disclosures surrounding the now infamous London Whale trade.

Related: 'London Whale' Isn't Dead Yet: JPMorgan Is Out of Control, Rosner Says

The bank’s

Editor's Note (5:35 pm): The report is out and can be viewed here.

On Friday, a Senate subcommittee will hold a hearing to discuss its findings on JPMorgan’s infamous “London Whale” trade. To many on Wall Street, the Senate is “beating a dead whale,” as former Bank of America executive Sally Krawcheck told Bloomberg.

But “this isn’t about the [London Whale] trade. This is about a breakdown of oversight and internal controls,” counters Josh Rosner, managing director at Graham Fisher and co-author of Reckless Endangerment. “And internal control problems [and] lack of oversight can turn into massive losses to shareholders.”

Shareholders would be forgiven for feeling as if they’ve already suffered enough: After revelations of the trade broke last spring, JPMorgan shares fell by about 33%, shaving around $51 billion off the firm’s market value. JPMorgan shares have since recouped those losses (and then some) but the firm has lost $6.2 billion to date from the trader and the hit to its

In one of the dumbest, most counter-productive, anti-free market moves in recent history (which is saying a lot), the U.S. government is considering a bailout of the sugar industry.

In an effort to prop up sugar prices, which have fallen 18% since October, the USDA is considering buying 400,000 tons of sugar -- or enough to make 142 billion Hersey’s Kisses -- The WSJ reports.

Of course, there’s nothing new about government support for the sugar industry: The government has been lending money to sugar producers since the 1934 Sugar Act.

But reports of this latest bailout are particularly galling considering the backdrop of a debate in Washington over how to address the nation’s long-term deficit and the ongoing “War on Obesity” being waged by policymakers.

Related: Obesity to Cost Taxpayers ‘Billions of Dollars’: Weight Watchers CEO

As Lauren Lyster and I discuss in the accompanying video, there’s a lot to be outraged about when it comes to the sugar bailout. Consider the following…

The big political news in America last week was the House vote to avoid a total government shutdown while President Obama broke bread with several GOP Senators (POTUS paid…with his own money!)

Meanwhile, China continued its once-a-decade leadership transition and efforts to fine-tune its economy proving a glaring contrast to the ongoing and long-running story of D.C. dysfunction.

From Xi Jinping on down, China’s new leadership is trying to cool off the nation’s red-hot real estate sector, stem overall inflation, tackle rising income equality, curb corruption and make the economy more driven by domestic demand -- all while managing China’s ever-important role in a still-sluggish global economy.

“China is holding up pretty well despite what’s happening in the rest of the word,” Cornell professor and Brookings Institution senior fellow Eswar Prasad tells Henry Blodget in the accompanying clip. “Growth has slowed from the red-hot pace before the final crisis but [GDP] is now growing 7.5%