Friends Well, 2024 is now officially in the books. We thought the conditions for stocks were going to be good for 2024 and they were. The market averages all moved higher, but not all market averages are created equal. The S&P was up over 23%, but the equal...
Friends Stocks continue to sputter into year end. We have now given back the gains achieved after the election in November and are simply limping into year end. In my 40 years of observing markets the sell-off at year end has become more and more common,...
Friends On Tuesday (Christmas Eve) we had a nice rally in a shortened trading session but today Santa had difficulties getting his sleigh off the ground. It was a very quiet trading session, and I suspect it will be quiet tomorrow too. By the close, the...
Friends Today’s PCE (personal consumption expenditures) index number came in a little better than expected which helped calm things down in the bond market a bit and subsequently helped fuel a bounce back rally in stocks. The inflation index showed a 2.4% year...
Friends Stocks tried to rally several times during today’s trading session, but the action in the bond market was a huge headwind for stocks. The selloff in bonds continues to move yields higher and stocks are having a difficult time reconciling with the...
Friends The Fed Chair turned into the Grinch that is trying to steal the bulls’ Christmas. Though, as expected, the Fed lowered the Fed Funds rate a quarter of a point to 4.25% to 4.50%, the takeaway from today’s Fed statement and subsequent Fed Chair press...
Friends Stocks tried to move higher today ahead of this week’s FOMC meeting. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were successful, while the Dow, being held back by weakness in United Healthcare, continues to struggle. As mentioned, market participants will be...
Friends The tug of war between the fear of missing out (FOMO) and the fear of buying high continues as stocks simply continue to meander into the holiday season. Despite the mixed inflation and employment data recently, it is still almost certain that the Fed...
Friends Today’s PPI inflation data came in a little hotter than expected. Remember, the Producer Price Index measured prices at the wholesale level. Today’s number won’t likely change the Fed’s propensity to cut rates next week, but it is a concern that inflation is...
Friends Today’s CPI number came in about as expected, with inflation growing at 2.7% year over year. That is still stubbornly above the Fed’s 2% target but given that a big chunk of the monthly increase was from shelter and many think that will turn lower soon,...
Friends It was a difficult day for stocks with all of the market averages in negative territory for the trading session. Buyers simply seemed to be uninterested as there really wasn’t any catalyst to help move stock prices higher. By the close, the Dow Jones...
Friends Today’s jobs number came in a little hotter than expected, but not so much as to deter the Fed from lowering rates at December’s FOMC meeting in a couple of weeks (at least in the minds of market participants). 227,000 new jobs were created in November....
Friends The first week of December continues to be somewhat of a wash with regards to the markets and any significant moves. Stocks were lower today as buyers were basically nowhere to be found. Market participants will be focused on tomorrow's non-farm payroll...
Friends Though a little bit narrow in structure, stocks once again moved higher during today's trading session. Big Tech stocks were the biggest winners, while energy shares were the day’s biggest losers. The Dow hit a new record high over 45,000 but oddly only 15...
Friends Market participants are wading into the December trading waters with a bit of caution after the rise in stock prices that we have seen for the past 11 months. That doesn’t mean that they won’t get used to the water temperature soon enough and begin a rally...
