Friends Unfortunately, somewhat as predicted, September was not a good month for stocks. For that matter, August wasn’t very good either making the 3rd quarter of 2023 very challenging for the bulls. If you take out the magnificent seven stocks (Apple, Microsoft,...
Friends There was a valiant effort by the bulls to reverse a sizable early day selloff, but in the end higher oil prices and higher interest rates were just too much of a headwind to stocks. Oil prices have moved up for weeks now and $100 per barrel WTI appears to be...
Friends Comments from Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari and JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon both indicating that the Fed may need to raise interest rates quite a bit higher if inflation persists added fuel to the fire already burning down stocks at the moment....
Friends Higher long-term interest rates and higher energy prices have been kryptonite for stocks recently, but the bulls were able to squeeze out a small gain in the market averages today despite bond yields rising on the long end of the yield curve. All in all,...
Friends Stocks have been very much reacting to the bond market lately, and as rates have moved higher, stocks have moved lower. Yesterday afternoon and today we saw rates move back down slightly and that seemed to settle stocks a bit for the moment (although there...
Friends As expected, the Federal Reserve did not raise interest rates today leaving the Fed Funds rate at 5.25% -5.50%. Also, as expected, Chair Powell indicated that there is a possibility of one more quarter point rate hike before year end (from either the...
Friends What a sleepy day in the markets. The FOMC meeting begins tomorrow, and it appears market participants are waiting for the outcome before making any new moves. Remember, the consensus is that the Fed will pause at this meeting and not raise rates at this...
Friends An auto workers strike and a new narrative around the thought the market is prematurely pricing in rate cuts (we talked about this at our lunch on Wednesday-they probably are) sent stocks lower today as market participants prepare for next week’s FOMC...
Friends I’ll admit it. I am a little surprised at the strength in equities today and this week for that matter. The inflation picture is surely better than a year ago, but recent data indicates, to me at least, that the Fed might still have some work to do. Just...
Friends Stocks basically gave back what they gained on Monday as market participants continue to attempt to decipher what is next for the economy, the Fed and interest rates. We get the all-important CPI number tomorrow morning and that will likely give traders...
Friends Stocks basically gave back what they gained on Monday as market participants continue to attempt to decipher what is next for the economy, the Fed and interest rates. We get the all-important CPI number tomorrow morning and that will likely give traders...
Friends We were right. It was a very quiet week with regards to stock action. Yes, we had a minor storm cloud that appeared over market leader, Apple, but for the most part there was little news and little action. Given that we are in September, a month that has...
Friends Another trading session with Apple leading tech names lower didn’t end up doing too much damage to the market overall, but still provided the bears with confidence that they have wounded a major general and hold the high ground for the moment. It is...
Friends When the most heavily weighted stock in the market indices sells off it is not a surprise that it pulls the rest of the market down with it. That is what we saw with Apple today. The shares of the consumer tech giant fell more than 4% at one point in today's...
Friends It appeared that the bulls had yet to return from their holiday weekend given today’s lack of buying interest by market participants. Nasdaq tried to squeeze out a small gain but ultimately failed, while the other market averages faltered for most of the...
