Friends Some surprisingly strong economic data and falling oil prices helped stocks recover what they lost yesterday, and then some. The ISM non-manufacturing (services) purchasing managers index showed a surprising rebound in July. June factory orders also...
Friends It was a difficult day for stocks as talk of inflation (mainly by Fed officials) worked its way back into the narrative. Indeed, bond yields moved back up a bit today after plunging lower amidst all the recession talk the last couple of weeks. The...
Friends With the Fed apparently threading the needle (of course interpretations could change by tomorrow), and some surprising reactions to better-than-expected earnings releases, stocks moved powerfully higher. As expected, the Fed raised the Fed Funds rate by...
Friends Despite a somewhat favorable mix of earnings releases, stocks struggled for most of the trading session. After the close today we get earnings from Google, Facebook, Visa and Microsoft among others. For today, by the close the Dow Jones...
Friends Market participants appear to be on pins and needles as they await the outcome of this week’s Fed meeting and the plethora of data on the economy and corporate earnings. We mentioned the big-name companies that are reporting this week, Apple, Amazon,...
Friends The weight of continued weakness in economic data has moved interest rates lower this week and finally took a toll on stocks today. While the corporate earnings picture remains relatively good, though certainly not perfect, the economy is definitely...
Friends I can’t remember going into an earnings season where analysts and market strategist were more nervous/concerned about companies disappointing and guiding estimates lower. Well, so far it has not really worked out that way. Earnings have been pretty...
Friends Market participants were wondering if today’s Consumer Price Index release would show that inflation is peaking. Well, the easy answer is no, not really. Yes, we have seen commodity prices fall in recent weeks, but headline inflation is still running...
Friends Did someone get an advanced look at tomorrow’s CPI number? Stocks were minding their own business meandering around in slightly positive territory when all of a sudden, a wave of selling hit right at 2:00 our time. The Dow fell more than 300 points in...
Friends After a decent week for stocks, it didn’t appear that any good vibes from last week were carrying over as trading began this morning. Stocks slumped throughout the trading session with Nasdaq faring the worst, and things did not improve as the day wore on. By...
Friends This morning’s jobs report came in a little bit better than expected. 372,000 new jobs were created in June while the unemployment rate remained at 3.6%. This good news was met with modest selling in both the stock and bond market. Bonds remained lower for the...
Friends The bulls are putting together a nice little winning streak this week. In these times it’s hard to attribute exactly what is giving market participants the green light. Again, is good news good news? Is bad news good news? What exactly is making bonds...
Friends As the inflation vs recession narratives wage their battle, the markets continue to be unconvinced. After the recent move lower in interest rates, today bonds sold off pushing rates back up sharply. Both oil and gold continue to tumble, but oil ended...
Friends So, what if I told you that the market narrative is no longer one of inflation but recession and even deflation. That’s right, in recent trading sessions we have seen interest rates tumbling, commodity prices plunging and market participants casting a...
Friends On what figured to be a sparsely attended trading session, stocks were directionless for most of the morning, but as the day wore on things did improve. Stocks ended up nicely for the day, but what was more interesting was, and has been, the move in...
