Friends With a government shutdown just hours away, and a looming debt ceiling battle, investors continued the negative trading pattern we have seen for more than a week now. No, the damage has, in no way, been catastrophic, as we have only given up a few percentage...
Friends Traders seemed focused today on the political wrangling out of Washington. With the threat of a government shutdown looming (whether that’s a good thing or not, insert your own joke here), market participants seemed to just want to get out of the way, as...
Friends Stocks seemed to be just meandering along, when a report that Wal-Mart might be having a difficult quarter on the retail front sent stocks firmly into negative territory, where they languished for the remainder of the day. On the economic front, Durable Goods...
Friends As we wait for the political theater to play out over the next couple of weeks, traders seem non-committal when it comes to the stock market. The bulls seem to have lost their mojo for the moment, but the bears can’t seem to get any real pullback engineered...
Friends As you may have noticed lately, we have tried very hard not to talk about politics with regards to what we do, manage your money. Regardless of one’s political leanings (and we are well aware which way most of our clients lean), it is just too painful to watch...
Friends It seems like, after some careful consideration, market participants have decided that the Fed decision not to taper just might have been based on a somewhat less than favorable view of the domestic economic and political condition. Remember, on Wednesday...
Friends After yesterday’s “no taper” party in financial assets, the stock and bond market looked like they were both suffering the effects of a hangover. As we mentioned yesterday, the Fed’s surprising decision not to begin tapering the monthly bond buying program...
Friends As the late great Harry Caray used to say- “Holy Cow”. In a shocker, the FOMC announced today that there will be no change to the amount of punch that is poured into the punch bowl on a monthly basis, just yet. That’s right folks, no taper. What does this...
Friends As market participants await the announcement from the Fed’s FOMC meeting tomorrow, stocks drifted calmly in positive territory for the entire trading session. Other than a benign CPI number, traders are squarely focused on the Fed’s decision. Will the...
Friends Of course the main story of interest today is the tragic shootings at the Navy Yard in Washington D.C. Once again our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of another senseless shooting in our country. As for the markets, the news overnight that Larry...
Friends On the economic front, the PPI number was a non-event, retail sales were positive, but barely, and consumer sentiment was quite a bit worse than expected. Nevertheless, stocks enjoyed another day of gains, but noticeable is that not all stocks are rising and...
Friends On the economic front, we had a great weekly jobless claims number this morning. Or did we? The Labor Department first reported that those filing for first time unemployment claims fell below 300,000 (292,000) for the first time since 2006. Unfortunately, it...
Friends Traders seem to be putting the Syrian situation on the back burner for now, and for the most part, the bulls have taken charge of the situation. For the third trading session in a row the Dow has sported a triple digit gain. The S&P was not as fortunate,...
Friends Stocks rallied today on the hopes that the U.S. may not have to get involved in the Syria conflict, at least for the moment. The President will fill us in tonight, but the feeling among traders seems to be that the President may have been presented an out with...
Friends So far, despite the potential dust up in Syria, September has been a pretty good month for stocks. I know it’s early, but market participants always seem to brace for the worst this time of year, and so far, the path of least resistance seems to be up. Perhaps...
