Friends   As suspected this morning’s jobs number came in very light. Only 12,000 new jobs were created in October. Hurricanes and company strikes certainly affected the number, but the longer- term trend has been softer for employment for a while. Yes, there has...

Friends   As we expected, earnings reports from the big growth companies are helping to fuel some volatility in the markets. After the close yesterday we saw earnings from Microsoft and Meta. Both had really good reports but the shares of both sold off. We get...

Friends   The first of the big five to report earnings this week was Alphabet, and the results were good. By most measures, the company did better than expected and the stock moved higher at the open. Unfortunately, there were others like Eli Lilly, AMD and...

Friends   Well, here we go. We get earnings from Alphabet (Google) today after the closing bell, then we get Microsoft tomorrow and Amazon and Apple on Thursday. Amazingly the Nasdaq Composite Index is hitting an all-time high right as we get these earnings releases....

Friends   Stocks got off to a good start for the week, but remember we have a lot of corporate earnings reports to sort though and a jobs report on Friday. As I mentioned last week, we will see earnings from Alphabet, Microsoft, Apple, and Meta this week along with...

Friends   Well, mixed results could basically define the whole week. Once again today we had mixed results for the market averages. We have also had mixed results in economic data, and mixed earnings results from corporate America. The stock market had a downward tilt...

Friends   We had another mixed session for the market averages as the Dow struggled while the S&P and the Nasdaq were able to register positive results. IBM and Honeywell were the biggest drags on the Dow 30 after both reported earnings. Besides that, stocks seem...

Friends   As the 10-year Treasury Note yield hit 4.25% stocks were opening lower this morning. The yield on the 10-year has now moved up from around 3.60% the day the Federal Reserve lowered the Fed Funds rate .50% to near 4.25%. That is quite a move and is presenting...

Friends   Stocks were lower in early trading but recovered nicely as the trading session wore on with the market indexes just slightly lower by the close. Interest rates moving higher are still a concern, but the economy continues to be resilient helping to maintain a...

Friends   Higher bond yields and a rather ho hum beginning to earnings season helped send stocks lower today (except for the Nasdaq which was buoyed by Apple and Nvidia). I’ve been saying given a challenging earnings season, a challenging bond market, seasonality, and...

Friends   Well, so much for my wish that the stock market would cool off a little. The market averages pushed higher today as the bulls continue to buy any weakness that they see. Even the possibility of a lackluster earnings season doesn’t seem to be a deterrent at...

Friends   The bulls are still charging as the market averages continue to set new highs. The bond market was closed today for the Columbus Day observance, so stock buyers were on their own. Earnings season begins to swing into action this week as we will hear from the...

Friends   The bulls are still charging as the market averages continue to set new highs. The bond market was closed today for the Columbus Day observance, so stock buyers were on their own. Earnings season begins to swing into action this week as we will hear from the...

Friends   The bulls were back in attack mode again today as stock prices moved to new all-time highs once again. As we have talked about, it is difficult to develop a bear case for stocks at the moment (of course, that’s usually when something comes out of the blue to...

Friends   The bulls appear to be fearless at the moment, despite Fed minutes that revealed that FOMC participants were mostly in favor of the half point rate cut last month (worried that the labor market was weakening enough to justify it). Of course, last week’s...