Friends Traders appeared tentative before the "State of the Union" address tonight, as stocks drifted slightly in negative territory, with very little conviction. Interestingly, the economic data was decidedly positive as the Chicago PMI, the Richmond Fed...
Friends We are back to a full week of trading with February ending tomorrow and The President's "State of the Union" speech on Tuesday evening. That should be must see TV. On the economic front we get our second look at 4th quarter 2016 GDP tomorrow, along with...
Friends Stocks lingered in negative territory for just about the entire trading session, but the bulls came with a final push to move the market averages slightly into positive territory and register another record close. After the run that we have had to the upside,...
Friends It was a very quiet day here in investment land. Volatility was virtually non-existent, while participation was muted. Some doubt about the realization of tax reform is beginning to creep into the equation. The Treasury Secretary is shooting for August and the...
Friends Today's FOMC minutes seemed to indicate that the Fed members may not have been quite as confident in the economy as had been disseminated by the Fed Chair and subsequent reports. From reading the minutes the FOMC does, indeed, want to raise rates this year,...
Friends Stocks went up today. I know it's a shock, but they really did. Of course, I am having a little fun, but this rally seems it's not easily going to be thwarted. Yes, market participants are expecting/hoping that deregulation and tax reform will help spur...
Friends Despite a raucous Presidential press conference, stocks had an extremely quiet day. Even an amazingly strong report out of the Philly Fed couldn't spur any buying interest, as market participants simply might be out of gas after a week of rising stock prices....
Friends Stocks continue to push higher today despite or because of a hotter than expected CPI number and a better than expected retail sales number. It was curious why retail sales had been soft given the increase in consumer confidence lately, but perhaps today's...
Friends Despite some tumult coming from the White House today, stocks continued to ascend to higher levels, as any selling over the past several trading sessions has been met with buyers. Janet Yellen's testimony before the Senate Banking Committee seemed to give...
Friends Stocks continued their recent surge as the bulls appear to hold all the cards at the moment. Earnings season has been good enough, the economy is just strong enough (but not too strong as to cause the Fed to become overly hawkish), and tis the season when...
Friends Stocks added to yesterday's gains as we might be entering a void created by earnings season winding down, the next FOMC meeting being a month away, and the Presidents tax plan a couple of weeks away from being unveiled. The bulls seems to have the upper hand...
Friends Stocks enjoyed a nice rally that seemed to be helped by an early morning comment from the President that he'll be unveiling a tax reform plan within the next few weeks. This is good news to market participants who had worried that tax reform had taken a back...
Friends As expected, the news cycle is being dominated by politics, but it doesn't seem to be having a lot of effect on the markets - so far. Stocks opened in positive territory and fought to hold onto the gains for the bulk of the trading session. There are still...
Friends Maybe it was a hangover from a crazy Super Bowl, but trading today was uninspired as stocks drifted in negative territory for most of the session. With earnings season mostly behind us, traders will now begin to focus on the economy, which has been providing...
Friends Just as with Wednesday's ADP private payroll number, today's government non-farm payroll number was much better than originally expected (though analysts had upped their predictions after the ADP release). 227,000 new jobs were created in January which beat...
