A Pair of Pivots Worth Watching image

A Pair of Pivots Worth Watching

The primary purpose of my oftentimes meandering market missive is to identify the primary drivers of the near-term market action. As I've stated a time or twenty, I'm of the mind that if I can understand what markets are doing and why, staying opinion agnostic in the process, I feel I sho…
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Sigh of Relief

Time is running short on this lovely Monday morning in La Quinta, CA, so I'm going to keep this brief. Cutting to the chase, after enduring several weeks of intense selling, stocks enjoyed a bounce last week. Deeply oversold conditions combined with some good news, for a change, created a…
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How Much Is Enough?

The current market is being driven by the headlines. More specifically, the stock market is moving to and fro based on any/all headlines about the state of Putin's unprovoked, unconscionable, indefensible, and completely inhumane invasion of Ukraine. Yet, as we discussed last week…
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Blame It On Putin?

It would be easy blame the recent volatile (or, shall I say, violent) price action in both the stock and bond markets on Putin's war. On the topic, I'm of the mind that what is happening in Eastern Europe is almost unfathomable in this day and age. A country being attacked on all sides. T…
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Happy Twosday

Good morning, and Happy "Twosday." As in 2/22/22, which is not only a palindrome because it reads the same forward as backwards, but today's date also consists of all the same digits. The ultimate freakiness for such dates occurs at 2:22 am and pm, so brace yourself for that this afternoo…
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Working Through The Issues

Make no mistake about it; there is no shortage of issues to work through in this market. In short, this is what corrective phases are all about - dealing with the "new normal" when things change. Remember, the stock market is a discounting mechanism of future expectations. And I think we …
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Are We Having Fun Yet?

It's been a very busy start to the new year and there are a great many pieces to the puzzle that make up this market. While I am short on time this morning, let's see if we can't run through the host of issues that investors are attempting to deal with at the present time. Let's s…
Two Thoughts Before You Panic image

Two Thoughts Before You Panic

Unless you've been living in a cave, you are likely aware that markets are in the midst of a rather violent "reset" as traders/investors reprice things for the changing environment in fast fashion. To be sure, Friday's option expiry and corresponding record day for options trading, as wel…
Markets Rethinking The Outlook image

Markets Rethinking The Outlook

From my seat, the key driver to the current action in the stock market remains the spike in bond yields. This morning's early dance to the downside represents an exclamation point on this concept. In short, yields are breaking out to new highs for the current cycle, and stocks are followi…
Higher, Sooner image

Higher, Sooner

One need look no further than the bond market to understand the current correction happening in the major stock indices. As is often the case, traders appeared to flip the switch the moment the calendar turned to 2022. Gone is the steady march higher based on earnings expectations. Gone i…