Friends Today marks the end of the 1st quarter and for stocks, it was the best 1st quarter of the year since 1998. The best performing groups of the quarter were technology and financials. The worst group of the quarter was utilities, which is no surprise after the...
Friends Traders spent most of the morning fretting over a weak close in European stocks, particularly in Spain and Italy. By mid-morning, the Dow was experiencing a nearly 100 point down move. The weekly unemployment claim number was still in the 350,000 area (no real...
Friends Weakness in oil and natural gas, and continued concerns of a slowdown in the Global economy (namely China) sent stocks lower today. The February durable goods report was a bit on the disappointing side as well. When all was said and done, the Dow Jones...
Friends, After the Dr. Bernanke fueled rally in stocks yesterday, trading was somewhat directionless today, until the last hour. By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 43 points to close at 13,197. The S&P 500 gave back 4 points to finish the day at...
Friends Dr. Bernanke provided the fuel for a nice rally in stocks and gold today as his comments this morning indicated that the Fed continues to stand at the ready. Every time you think that the Fed just has to be done providing liquidity, Dr. Bernanke assures us he...
Friends The “worst” week of the year (and first down week of the year) really did not end up being too bad. With all the concern over slowing global growth, led by a slowdown in China, the mood was sour most of the week, but in the end the averages really did not...
Friends Ok, Goldman Sachs calls for the dawn of a new era in stocks and we go down for the third day in a row. Thanks for ringing the bell Goldman (you know I love to pick on the “evil empire”). For the second day, traders were concerned over slowing global growth, as...
Friends A fairly quiet day in the markets today, until the last 5 minutes. Stocks were mixed most of the day, but at the end, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 45 points to close at 13,124. The S&P 500 was down 2.62 points to close at 1402.90 (it would be...
Friends Stocks sold off a bit today on a report from mining company BHP Billiton that iron ore sales into China have been slowing. Although not new news, traders took it as another cue that slowing growth in China may not be good for the global economy and by...
Friends Stocks had a somewhat quiet day as the only economic news of consequence was the NAHB housing index number (the higher the better) which came in at 28 (consensus estimate was 30). It broke a 5 month improving trend and signals that we are not out of the woods...
Friends With today being quadruple witching, where we get the expiration of options and futures, volume was a little heavier, but trading seemed directionless as stocks loitered around the even level all day. By the end, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 20...
Friends After a few days of weakness in bonds and gold, both held firm today as stocks continue to fight their way higher. Even without the crutch of Apple (which actually went down a little today after touching $600 per share at the open) stocks were able to advance....
Friends The Dow closed up 16 points to finish at 13,194 while the S&P fell back just 2 points to close at 1,394. Oil dropped $1.13 today to $105.58. The big move of the day was a $51 loss on gold which ended near $1643. Have a nice evening everyone.
Friends What a difference a week makes. Last Tuesday stocks suffered their first big losing day of the year with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling over 200 points for the day. Today, powered by the shorts getting squeezed and bold action from JP Morgan’s Jamie...
Friends Not much happening on this Monday, as traders wait for tomorrow’s Fed meeting to begin. In the meantime, only defensive areas such as drugs and consumer staples showed modest upside as the market in general was painfully quiet. After the adrenaline rush of...
