Daily State of the Markets

My Take: Stay The Course

From my seat, it is clear that the stock market continues to consolidate the gains enjoyed post-tax reform. Yes, it is true that things may have gotten a bit exuberant during January. And as a chart of the S&P 500 clearly shows, those gains have been "taken back" over the past two mon…

Positioning For The Parade?

Although the major stock market averages failed to rise or fall by 1% or more on Wednesday (which has been the trend recently), the volatile, news-driven environment remained. In the early going, it appeared that traders might be able to shake off the news that geopolitical tensio…

Moving On...

The stock market reacted positively Tuesday as everyone in the spotlight seemed to say all the right stuff. However, today is another day and traders appear to be moving on. Tuesday began on an upbeat note following remarks by Xi Jingping regarding China's willingness to open its …

Add It To The List

In case you missed it; Wall Street's wild ride continued unabated yesterday. So, while things look pretty good in the early going on this fine Tuesday morning, I could have said the same thing yesterday. And we all know how that turned out. At this time Monday, stocks were looking…

Best to "Ride it Out" (For Now)

There can be no denying that there are issues for traders to wring their hands over here. The possibility of a trade war with China is front and center, which, most assuredly, will go beyond tariffs and include items such as currency devaluation, a reduction in U.S. bond buying, etc. …

A Lot to Consider Here

As expected, the insanely wild ride on Wall Street continues unabated this morning. Just about the time it looked like the stock market action was improving, Mr. Trump decided to drop another bombshell. In case you missed it, last night at about 7:00 pm, the President tossed out t…

Well That Was Interesting

Well, that was interesting! The market cynic in me says that yesterday's wild ride is fairly easy to explain... What the algos take away, the algos can give back - at any time - and vice versa. While I have little doubt that the vast majority of the intraday action these days is b…

Tit-for-Tat Fear Trumps Fundamental Backdrop

Here we go again. The market's biggest fear - a trade war with China (and others) - appears to be taking shape. At least that's what the 550-point dive in U.S. stock futures tell us this morning. Some might have been encouraged by yesterday's rather surprising rebound of nearly 40…

Let's Keep This In Perspective

My how the game has changed. Hand wringing has turned into teeth gnashing. Concern has turned into worry. And confidence has turned to out-and-out fear. All in 44 trading days. Yes fans, in a span of just over two months, the mood of this market has changed - completely. We've gon…

The Question Of The Day Is...

From my seat, the question of the day is whether or not we've seen the lows for the current corrective phase. I can actually argue both sides of this one as the indicator evidence has been and continues to be mixed. For example, the bulls argue that the declines seen since February's emot…