Friends The weakness in tech/AI stocks continues and the market averages, especially the Nasdaq, continue to lose ground as we get closer to year end. Instead of taking a victory lap the stocks that have been the leaders all year long are now cowering nervously in the...

Friends This morning’s release of the November non-farm payroll number showed that 64,000 new jobs were added, which was better than analysts had expected. The unemployment rate did tick up to 4.6%, which was actually more than expected. It’s hard to determine if this...

Friends Today was pretty much the same script we have seen over the past couple of weeks. The AI/big tech names came under selling pressure enough to take the market averages into negative territory. It’s hard to read too much into recent market action as we are so...

Friends The tech sector continues to come under selling pressure and given the weighting of the magnificent seven, the market averages are simply unable to avoid the drawdown. Big chip maker Broadcom led the way lower on the Nasdaq and as mentioned, the selling...

Friends It was all about the stodgy old Dow Jones Industrial Average today as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq sat out most of the action. Yep, that stodgy old Dow hit a new all-time high today. To think when I placed my first trade in this business the Dow was trading...

Friends As we expected, the Federal Reserve cut the Fed Funds rate by a quarter of a point today to 3.50%- 3.75%. The other interesting news from the release and subsequent press conference was the introduction of buying T-bills by the Fed at a rate of $40 billion a...

Friends It was pretty quiet on the Western Front as market participants await the conclusion of the FOMC meeting tomorrow. Unfortunately, the JP Morgan CFO told the world the consumer seems to be weakening and that took what little steam the market had out of it. But...

Friends Stocks didn’t like the action in the 10-year Treasury Note as the market averages moved lower while the longer-term yields moved higher. Again, market participants are expecting a Fed Funds rate cut by the Fed on Wednesday, but as we have pointed out for a...

Friends Today’s inflation data wasn’t as bad as feared giving market participants confidence that the Fed will have an all-clear signal to lower the Fed Funds rate next week. Stocks have definitely been strong this week as the market averages near all-time highs...

Friends This morning’s weekly jobless claims number showed a continuing dip in applications for unemployment insurance. So, it appears we have a labor situation where firms are not hiring but also aren’t firing. Market participants wondered if this could possibly...

Friends This morning’s private payroll number from ADP came in worse than expected as the report showed that payrolls declined by 32,000 in November. This was music to the ears of market participants hoping for a Fed rate cut next week. Stocks rallied from the open of...

Friends Bitcoin bounced back today and so did stocks. While the direction of cryptocurrencies may not be the only factor determining stock prices day to day, it sure is a factor. The other big driver of market action right now is the belief that the Fed is likely to...

Friends Falling crypto currency prices seemed to spill over to the stock market today, sending the market averages lower from the open of trading. Bitcoin was down more than 6% overnight and as I have mentioned, I really don't have any conviction on cryptocurrencies...

Friends Stocks continued higher today as we move into the Thanksgiving holiday. Economic data continues to provide enough weakness for the Fed to go ahead with a cut in the Fed Funds rate next month. In the meantime, the bulls are trying to erase the downturn of the...

Friends As the odds of a Fed rate cut in December go back up, so does the stock market. Market participants are now betting that labor market softness will give the Fed ammunition they need to raise the Fed Funds rate at the December FOMC meeting. The bulls are...