Friends So, today’s Fed release and subsequent press conference with Jerome Powell delivered a message that was pretty much anticipated. The statement indicated that the Fed sees 3 quarter point rate cuts in the Fed Funds rate in the second half of the year. That is...
Friends Stocks finished the quarter strong with the market averages pushing new all-time highs. We’ve said that conditions have been right for higher stock prices and that was certainly true in the first quarter of 2024. We have also worried that valuation is...
Friends As we have seen time and time again lately, stocks just can’t stay down for long. After a few days of lackluster interest, the bulls seemed to have rediscovered their appetite for stocks. Nothing has really changed with regards to the investing environment...
Friends As the market waits for new inflation data and a holiday released jobs report on Friday, stock buyers seemed to be biding their time. The market averages were lower but not in any meaningful way. We might just be in a spot where we drift into the quarter...
Friends Stocks were mixed today with the Dow faltering while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq mainly held serve. If you are a long-term bull (and I hope you are) days like this are needed. We continue to be concerned about valuation and one way to deal with that is to...
Friends Even the Department of Justice couldn’t kill this bull market run. Yes, their anti-trust case against Apple took a bite out of the tech giant’s shares but it wasn’t enough to stop the bullish momentum of the market averages. For the day, the Dow Jones...
Friends Just when this market looks like it is running out of steam it seems to find another gear. Tomorrow, we get the results of this week’s Fed FOMC meeting, but the bulls didn’t appear to be too concerned. No, the Fed won’t change the Fed Funds rate but...
Friends Stocks moved higher in today’s trading session despite interest rates continuing to inch higher and the uncertainty of a Fed meeting this week. I say uncertainty in that it is known that the Fed won’t change the Fed Funds rate this week, but what messaging...
Friends It was another difficult day for stocks, as rates creeping higher after this week’s inflation data is providing a formidable headwind. The market averages spent the entire session in the red as buyers appear to be tentative to put new money to work. By the...
Friends Another hotter than expected inflation number poses a problem for the “Fed is going to lower rates soon” crowd. Today it was the Producer Price Index which measures prices at the wholesale level. All of a sudden, we aren’t seeing the level of inflation fall...
Friends The determined move higher for stocks took a pause today as the big growth names saw a little profit taking among market participants. These pauses that we have seen along the way appear to have kept the overall bull market rather healthy. We have pointed...
Friends The CPI number which measures inflation at the consumer level came in a little hotter than expected this morning, but evidently not too hot for the bulls. It’s so funny because Goldman Sachs put out a piece before the number indicating what direction stocks...
Friends Today’s jobs number came in higher than expected, 275,000 new jobs created in February vs. the 198,000 expected. But, and this is actually probably good news for stocks, last month’s blowout number was revised down. Also, probably good for stocks was the...
Friends What has been impressive about the bullish market that has unfolded over the past five months is how quickly any selloff is bought. We have only seen a few down days recently and when we do the damage has been more than erased with a day or two. This week...
Friends We did see dip buyers step in this morning and move stock prices nicely higher. But as the day wore on the buying seemed to dry up and stocks, despite still posting gains, retreated from their highs of the day. So, not a bad day for the bulls in that we...
