Friends The stock market seems determined to give back all the hard earned gains from October and early November. Indeed, since the surprisingly good jobs report, we have experienced nothing but falling share prices. One might almost conclude that market participants...
Friends With the banks being closed today (and thus the bond market), the stock market was somewhat quiet other than the bloodbath in retail shares (led by a difficult earnings report from Macy’s). Analysts seem to think that the consumer is strapped. I think it’s...
Friends Market participants had time over the weekend to consider Friday’s jobs report, the recent earnings season and the possibility/likelihood that the Fed begins to raise rates in December. It seems that they have some concerns. Stocks were down right from the...
Friends This morning’s job report was a stunner. The non-farm payroll number came in much higher than expected with 271,000 new jobs created in October. The unemployment rate fell to 5% which was about as expected, but most importantly the average hourly earnings...
Friends Market participants seemed content to sit on their hands today while waiting for tomorrow’s non-farm payroll number. Stocks drifted aimlessly for most of the trading session, never really showing any real propensity to rise or fall. Jobs reports are always...
Friends The ADP private sector payroll number came in just about as expected as 182,000 jobs were added in October. Consensus for the non-farm payroll number that comes out Friday is 190,000 new jobs as measured by the government. A good number could go a long way in...
Friends The new month continued on a positive note as stocks rallied for the second day in a row. We did come off the highs a bit by the close, nevertheless the bulls have had their way in the early days of November. For the second day in a row oil stocks led the way...
Friends As we were wrapping up trading for the month of October last Friday, stocks had a strange close-falling some 90 Dow points seemingly in just minutes. It didn’t do a whole lot of damage to the month because the bulls had already seen to it that October was a...
Friends It was quite a month, despite the late sell off this afternoon. After a summer of discontent, the market averages entered the fourth quarter bruised and battered, confused about just what the Federal Reserve was going to do with interest rates, and staring...
Friends Stocks drifted into negative territory around the mid-point of the trading session, then spent the rest of the afternoon easing slightly lower. Today’s economic data was less than inspiring as the Chicago PMI was awful, showing contraction in November. The...
Friends It appeared that that stock market had a bit of a hangover today after yesterday’s fireworks. The GDP number was weak as expected as the economy only grew by 1.5% in the third quarter (of course there will be revisions to that number). No, it was not a...
Friends Ok, I’m not buying it. Today’s FOMC statement stated that at this time the Fed wasn’t going to raise interest rates (that was no surprise), but they might be on board for lift off in December (yeah, sure). That’s right, today’s statement certainly seemed more...
Friends Stocks once again, drifted in negative territory for most of the trading session as the continued drum beat of negative economic data, falling oil prices, and a deteriorating situation in the industrial sector overshadowed some good earnings from the big...
Friends Market participants seemed to be bracing themselves for a week full of economic data and earnings reports. Oh, and of course a two day Fed meeting which begins tomorrow. Stocks drifted mainly in negative territory for most of the trading session, but it never...
Friends Fueled by some tasty earnings reports form tech giants Microsoft, Amazon and Google (Alphabet), stocks added to yesterday’s surprising gains and pushed market averages towards positive territory for the year. The Dow still has some work to do, but the S&P...
