Daily State of the Markets
Fears Fading Away As Santa Loads His Sleigh
Unless you've been living in a cave or don't have access to a TV, computer, smart phone, or even a newspaper, you likely know that Presidents Xi Jingping and Donald Trump laid the groundwork for a trade deal Saturday night in Buenos Aires. Generally referred to as a "truce" or cease fire …
One Worry Removed
It didn't take the news-reading algos long to find what they were looking for in Jerome Powell's speech yesterday. And to his credit, the Fed Chairman didn't make it difficult for either the computers or mere mortal analysts to understand what he was trying to communicate.
The bot…
Is Some Hope Creeping Into The Stock Market?
Don't look now fans, but there might be some hope creeping into the stock market. With just 23 trading days left in the year, there seems to be some hope that we've seen the bottom of the recent pullback.
To be sure, two consecutive green bars on the charts of the major indices do…
2018: A Tough Row To Hoe
For most investors, 2018 is turning out to be a tough row to hoe. Suddenly, nobody is talking about global synchronized growth, low inflation, the benefits of tax cuts, and 20% earnings growth. No, all that is now so 2017. Now investors are focused on slowing global growth, rising rates, …
Near-Term: It's All About The Headlines. Longer-Term: It's About...
A busy few days of entertaining family in Colorado provided a reprieve from the keyboard and the markets over the weekend. Thus, I'm going to let the indicators do most of the talking to start this holiday-shortened week.
Briefly, the question of the day in my mind continues to be…
The Straws Breaking The Market's Back
Monday was another volatile day on Wall Street as the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 602 points. Granted, problems at Apple (AAPL) and Goldman Sachs (GS) accounted for 170 of those points. And yes, the machines were clearly at work again yesterday - especially in the afternoon where…
Understanding the Current Earnings Game
When stocks enter a corrective phase, the main question investors need to ask themselves is, has anything changed from a macro point of view?
One of the problems with trying to answer this question is that corrections generally are born out of a period of high confidence and/or co…
Garden-Variety So Far, But...
I've got an early meeting (who's idea was it to schedule a board meeting for 7:00am on a Monday??) and I am traveling the rest of the week, so I'm up early and would like to apologize in advance if this morning's market missive meanders more than normal!
From my seat, the key ques…
Of Jobs, Apple, and Trade
It's the first Friday of the month, which means it is time for the Big Kahuna of economic data - the jobs report. So, without further ado, let's get to the report and review the bevy of numbers.
The headline everyone focuses on new job creation for the month. The Bureau of Labor S…