Friends With a lack of any real market catalyst, traders seemed content to sit on the gains that they were able to accrue over the past couple of days as stocks drifted aimlessly for most of today’s trading session. The weekly jobless claims number was strong, and/but...

Friends For the second day in a row stocks got off to a good start and were able to hold onto the gains throughout the trading session. The spark appeared to be the earnings report from JP Morgan Chase which propelled shares of financial institutions (you know, the...

Friends We finally held on to one today. After days of failed rallies it appeared that a pattern was beginning to develop-up in the morning only to sell off in the afternoon. As you may know, that is a pattern we do not want to see become the norm. Failed rallies are...

Friends The last couple of trading sessions, stocks are finding it difficult to hold on to early gains. After a nice triple digit Dow advance in early morning trading, stocks drifted into negative territory by the last half hour of trading. Earnings season officially...

Friends It is amazing how quickly sentiment can turn. Today’s trading action is the kind that wakes up the bears. Oil prices falling, interest rates continuing to decline (bond prices rise), central banks around the globe in full accommodative/panic mode, fuel a...

Friends The FOMC minutes were released this afternoon from last month’s meeting, and despite the urging of a few of the hawks on the committee to raise rates now, and actually a couple of the voting members, it was apparent that the doves (the majority) were having...

Friends The hangover from the multi week advance in stocks continues to linger as share prices once again sell decisively into negative territory. As mentioned yesterday, we’re in somewhat of a data and news vacuum at the moment and until earnings season gets going...

Friends Stocks got off to a sluggish start as trading began for the week, and the malaise continued throughout the trading session. Remember, we are just embarking on the journey that will be earnings season, and perhaps market participants are a bit hesitant to push...

Friends All eyes were on the employment report this morning and there were really no surprises. 215,000 new jobs were created in March and the unemployment rate ticked back up to 5% (more job availability is bringing more unemployed off of the sidelines to start...

Friends How can you blame traders, investors and market participants in general for simply being exhausted? The ride that we all experienced in the first quarter of 2016 was one for the books. As you well know, stock indexes tumbled 10% to the downside by the time we...

Friends The bulls continued to display their enthusiasm for Fed Chair Yellen’s dovish comments yesterday, and drove stocks higher from today’s opening bell. After the first hour of trading, though, stocks drifted for the remainder of the trading session. The ADP...

Friends Fed Chair Janet Yellen spoke before the Economic Club of New York today and delivered the goods for those who were hoping for a more dovish stance from the Fed. Despite some hawkish comments from Regional Fed Officials over the past week or two, Ms. Yellen...

Friends It appeared that traders were still feeling the effects of the holiday weekend, as trading volume was very light and volatility very modest. Yes, after drifting higher in early afternoon trading, stocks fell slightly with news of gunshots at the Capital...