Daily State of the Markets
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 …
Friday Quick Take: Jobs, France, Buffett and Oil
There are several items in focus this morning including Warren Buffett's big meeting (as well as his take on both IBM and Apple), the election in France on Sunday (Macron continues to hold a 20-point lead - but strange things have been happening at voting booths around the world lately), …
My Take: Fed Will Stay The Course
Although nobody in the game expected Janet Yellen to make any moves regarding rates yesterday and the changes to the Fed's post-announcement statement required a microscope to identify, this week's meeting of the FOMC was important nonetheless.
After spending nine years pulling ra…
One of These Doesn't Look Like the Others
As I have written a time or two over the last few years, I'm of the opinion that the much of near-term machinations in the stock market are now mostly noise. Humans making judgement calls about what they see in a company or the economy are no longer the driving factor of intraday activity…
How To Build Modern Portfolios: Putting It All Together
While we wait on the Trump administration's proposal for reforming the tax code - a proposal that is likely to include a dramatic reduction in corporate tax rates - we might as well continue the discussion on how to build what I call "modern portfolio diversification" into portfolios.…