Friends The stock market showed a lot of resilience today. After a 50 point drop in early morning trading in the Dow, stocks rallied in the afternoon to post gains by the close. Without much news to trade on, investors seemed uninterested as the day began, but became...
Friends Well, the non-farm payroll number that we received this morning was dreadful. Remember, the markets were expecting somewhere around 200,000 new jobs to have been created in March, but the number came in at only 88,000. Yes, both the January and February...
Friends Once again, we continue the pattern of one day up and then the next day down. This week we have seen a down Monday followed by an up Tuesday, a down Wednesday and today an up Thursday. Underneath the seesawing action, though, we have seen some deterioration in...
Friends Stocks had a lot of headwinds to deal with today, beginning with the weaker than expected ADP private sector job report. The market had been looking for about 170,000 new jobs created in March (some estimates were as high as 240,000), but the report indicated...
Friends For the first time in a while we had a down day on the first day of a quarter. Fueled by a weak ISM Manufacturing Index number and weak numbers out of China, traders set the negative tone early and stocks remained in negative territory all day long....
Friends Despite a plethora of uninspiring economic news, including a disappointing weekly jobless claims number, a final look at 4th quarter GDP and a lousy Chicago PMI number, stocks held a positive bias all day long. A relatively calm situation developed in Cypress...
Friends Stocks continued the recent seesaw type action today as an early morning 100 point plus drop in the Dow Jones IndustrialAverage gave way to a relentless climb back towards positive territory. As it turns out the Dow couldn’t finish the deal and ended with a...
Friends Stocks seemed determined today to set a new high for the Dow and establish a new closing high for the S&P 500. Traders had to sort through a bevy of economic reports as the durable goods orders soared led by aircraft orders (the underlying core was weak...
Friends Wow! The non-farm payroll number was better than expected. Again, consensus expectations were for about 170,000 new jobs, but today’s number came in at 236,000 new jobs created last month. The unemployment rate fell to 7.7%. All in all, a very pleasant report....
Friends As traders wait for tomorrow’s all-important non-farm payroll number (economists are looking for about 170,000 new jobs), stocks drifted in positive territory for most of the session. Today’s weekly jobless claims number continued to show slight improvement...
Friends After all the excitement yesterday about reaching new highs in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, it would not have been surprising to see stocks take a pause today, but though trading was quiet, stocks remained in positive territory for the entire trading...
Friends Stocks rocketed to the upside right from the beginning of trading this morning to take out the 2007 high in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The bulls had the record high in their sights for days now, so it wasn’t a real surprise that the old high was going...
Friends Before we talk about the market, I want to announce that CHJ has partnered with the Breast Cancer Charities of America and will sponsor the I Go Pink Golf Classic on May 6th at The Woodlands Country Club. If you are a golfer, we would love to have you join us...
Friends Happy Sequester Day! Yes, I know the world is supposed to end because of $85 billion in budget cuts, but somehow I suspect we will survive those cuts. No, that is not a comment on stock market direction. A whole lot of other factors go into that one. I just...
Friends Despite a strong Chicago PMI number, an upwardly revised 4th quarter GDP number (though barely), and a decent weekly jobless claims number, the quick ramping up of prices over the past two trading session simply ran out of steam today. Traders seemed content...
