Friends We got our first look at second quarter GDP this morning, and it wasn’t a pleasant site. Economist and Strategists were looking for growth in the area of 2.6% for the second quarter. What they got was only 1.2%, which basically was not even close. Of course,...
Friends Remember, we had that two day pullback after the Brexit vote but quickly followed that up with a nice rally. But for the last couple of weeks we have seen stocks pretty much running in place. We continue to alternate between up and down days, but basically...
Friends Despite the plethora of news and earnings reports, stocks were mainly quiet with little volatility. Not even an FOMC statement after the Fed meeting could light a fire under the market averages. Sure, there were some movers, in both directions, as the flood of...
Friends Political theater, an FOMC meeting and a whole lot of earnings reports. We knew this was going to be a busy week, and it sure is. Once again, on the earnings front, lowered expectations are often being beaten by the reporting companies, but the shares of these...
Friends Stocks began this very busy week on the negative side of the ledger, and once again, given the extended rally we have seen lately, it is really no surprise. Besides the political theater, which just gets crazier by the day, we have a major week of earnings...
Friends Another very quiet trading day, but with an upward bias as the session wore on. We have had a plethora of earnings releases this week and we’ve seen shares of the companies reporting have different reactions. Today, for instance, despite a somewhat lukewarm...
Friends The nine day winning streak that the Dow Jones Industrial Average was on finally came to a close today, and that may not be a bad thing. After a run like we’ve been on, it is often a good thing that the markets experience a pause that hopefully refreshes....
Friends Another quiet day of trading resulted in another gain for the market averages. Stocks held onto early gains and basically coasted during the afternoon portion of the trading session. Again, earnings have been better than expected, notably Microsoft enjoying an...
Friends Stocks were quiet once again today as market participants appear to have hit the pause button temporarily, and most likely for good reason. It wouldn’t hurt if we took a moment to digest the recent surge since the aftermath of the Brexit vote. Also, we are now...
Friends Stocks were having a nice day to begin with, after yesterday’s sell off and the announcement of a good housing starts number early this morning, but when the President appeared midday to announce that the “gang of six” senators might have a budget deal, the...
Friends Well, stocks didn’t go up much today but at least they didn’t go down. Given the headlines around the world, the fact that markets remained calm is somewhat surprising. With coup attempts and social unrest domestically one might think that market participants...
Friends After a day of rest, the bulls were back at it today driving stock prices higher despite the fact that “experts” are scratching their heads wondering why. Whether the argument is that there is no other alternative, or that central banks are going to continue...
"If you had been on a deserted island for the past six months and just now had a chance to look at what the stock market did for the first half of 2016 you might conclude that is was a quiet period for stocks with modest gains. But as we know, the last six months have...
Friends We always like to wait until the jobs data on the first Friday of the month comes out before we write our quarterly outlook, and glad we did because today’s job data was a pleasant surprise (by the way you should receive the quarterly piece early next week)....
Friends Stocks experienced seesaw like action today as an early rally turned into a midday downturn, only to recover most of the losses by the close. The June ADP private payroll number came in better than expected which has market participants hopeful (I think) that...
