Daily State of the Markets

Bulls In Charge, But Where's The Beef?

Good Monday morning and welcome back. A third terror attack in London in as many months, Wednesday's general election in the U.K., this week's meeting of the ECB, the isolation of Qatar (and the corresponding impact on oil), next week's Fed meeting, and this week's testimony of former FBI…

Quick Take: Jobs Disappoint, Bulls Need To Hold The Line

Stocks broke to fresh all-time highs yesterday as the bears were once again unable to get anything going with the overbought condition and concerns over politics in Washington. The onus is now on the bulls to make the move stick and to avoid the dreaded "breakout fake out." Until …

How Bad Will The Big, Bad, Bond Bear Get?

In yesterday's meandering morning market missive, we talked about the possibility of the bond market entering a big, bad bear cycle and how a great many analysts expect things to get ugly in the coming years for bond investors. The thinking is actually quite logical. The economy i…

Are You Prepared For The Big, Bad Bond Bear? (Should You Be?)

Most market analysts will concur that interest rates bottomed out in the summer of 2016. More specifically, after trending lower for approximately 35 years, the yield on the U.S. Gov't 10-year Treasury Note hit an all-time low of 1.367% on July 5, 2016. And most every bond guru on the pla…

Positive - But Just Barely

Good Monday - err, Tuesday morning and welcome back. Since it's the start of a new week, let's get right to our objective review the key market models and indicators. The primary goal of this exercise is to remove any subjective notions and ensure that we stay in line with what "is" happe…

My Song Remains The Same

Good Monday morning and welcome back. Since it's Monday, let's get right to our objective review the key market models and indicators. The primary goal of this exercise is to remove any subjective notions about the markets and ensure that we stay in line with what "is" happening in the ma…

Time To Celebrate?

Having been the proprietor of various financial websites for many years, I will admit that headlines about boring, sideways market action doesn't sell a lot of ads on the internet. However, the thinking is that big, bold, declarative headlines about new all-time highs for the stock market…

Quick Take: Data, Drama and the Lines in the Sand

It's "quick take" Friday (meaning you won't have to plow through 1,000 words to get to the keys to the session) and my take is that two economic reports, the ongoing FBI drama (which may or may not turn into something meaningful for traders - so far, it appears not), and the near-term lin…

My Back-of-the-Napkin Take

In yesterday's missive, I began a back-of-the-napkin review of market conditions. For me, the question at hand is whether the bulls will be able to break out of the trading range that has been in place for the past two and one-half months. I stated that in situations like these, I like to…

Leadership Is Clearly Narrowing

Good Monday morning and welcome back. The election in France, Warren Buffett wisdom, and oil are in focus this morning. On the election front, there was no big populist surprise in France on Sunday after Emmanuel Macron ran away with the Presidential election. As for Berkshire Hathaway's …