Friends The 1st quarter GDP was revised downward about as expected, with the number coming in at a negative 0.7% (the negative revision in the final sales component being the most disturbing). So just like last year's first quarter, the economy starts the year in the...
Friends After yesterday's nice snapback rally, a bad overnight session in China lead to a soft opening as trading got underway. Stocks stayed in negative territory for the rest of the day as yesterday's rally was quickly forgotten. Traders seem to be bracing...
Friends Have I mentioned that the stock market in 2015 seems to have amnesia? Once again, the bears could do nothing with the decline in share prices yesterday, as the bulls took control of the situation right from the start of trading today and held onto the gains...
Friends The downward move in stocks today prompted somewhat of a multiple choice quiz for determining the cause of today's pullback. Was the cause for the downturn weak economic news, or was the data actually too strong? Was it fear of a rate hike coming sooner than...
Friends As expected, the markets were very quiet today, despite semi-hawkish comments from Fed Chair Yellen and a little hotter than expected CPI number (the core is where the inflation is showing, and admittedly it's not really that much). As unlikely as a June rate...
Friends By the looks of this week's trading action, one might think that we were in the dog days of summer. There has been almost no movement in prices this week and bonds seem to have settled down a bit also. Today saw the market averages hug the flat line for most...
Friends For the third day in a row, trading was quiet and stocks had little movement. Even the Fed minutes were unable to stir animal spirits. Speaking of those Fed minutes, it appears that the FOMC has moved on from any possibility of a June rate hike (no one really...
Friends Another very quiet day for the stock market. Despite the mix of some good and not so good earnings from selected retailers, in addition to some distinctly positive housing data, traders seemed unable to generate any interest on the buy or sell side of the...
Friends The week kicked off with a very quiet day of trading. Yes, there was an upward bias and new highs in market averages, but participation was light and volatility was non-existent. It is scheduled to be a somewhat light week for economic data, despite the Fed...
Friends Another day, another plethora of weak economic data. The Empire State number showed softness in manufacturing, the Industrial Production number was negative and the Consumer Sentiment number was much worse than expected. Understandably, bonds rallied (rates...
Friends If Fed officials are having second thoughts about an interest rate hike sometime this year, the often mentioned economic data points are providing plenty of cover. After yesterday's dismal retail sales number, we got a very weak PPI number today, confirming...
Friends With another weak retail sales number released this morning, market participants and economists are asking themselves why aren't consumers spending? It seems like economists have complained forever that the U. S. is full of profligate spenders, and now that it...
Friends Although stocks ended the day on the negative side of the ledger, it could have been worse. In early morning trading stocks were down considerably more than where they ended up and, with yesterday's slump, had basically erased the gains that had been garnered...
Friends After Friday's rally, it didn't come as a big surprise that stocks might cool off some on the first day of the new trading week. Yes, there was a little bit of hawkish talk from a Fed governor on television, but today's biggest story might have been the...
Friends With the jobs number coming in about where expected (223,000 new jobs created in April), and the unemployment rate falling to 5.4% (I know the participation rate is ridiculously low), there seemed to be enough of "whatever they were looking for" for the bulls...
