Friends   Stocks finally took a breather today after a torrid rally saw the market averages basically erase the early August decline. Investors appear to be focused on what the Fed Chair is going to say during his speech tomorrow morning at Jackson Hole. We would...

Friends   Despite a government revision to the overall jobs numbers which saw a downward revision of 818,000 new jobs created this year, stocks were still able to scratch out gains during today’s trading session. Actually, revealing that the labor market has actually...

Friends   Today marks our 14th anniversary here at CHJ. Fourteen years ago today, we opened our office here in The Woodlands. Our mission was to create a firm that delivered the best service in the industry and make sure our clients were able to put their heads on...

Friends   It was a good start the new week as the bulls continue to ride the momentum that has built from two weeks ago today. All of the market averages moved higher while interest rates remained steady. Investors will be focused on what the Fed Chair says later in...

Friends   The bulls were able to put a tidy bow on top of a wonderful week for stocks. On the economic front we got a good mix of lower inflation and stronger economy data which found a sweet spot for market participants. Remember, less than 2 weeks ago the narrative...

Friends   Wow, today’s retail sales number was much better than expected. In addition, we saw a very good earnings release from Walmart, who indicated that the consumer was actually doing pretty well. Add all of that to this week’s positive inflation data and you had...

Friends   Today’s CPI report was as expected. We saw a .2% monthly increase in inflation at the retail level and 2.9% year over year. That is a little better than the 3% that economists expected. The takeaway is that it appears that the coast is clear for the Fed to...

Friends   As an appetizer for tomorrow’s CPI number, today we got a look at prices at the wholesale level via the Producer Price Index (PPI). Economists were expecting a gain of 0.2% but the number came in lighter at 0.1%. We’ll see if tomorrow’s CPI data confirms the...

Friends   We have a busy economic calendar this week with the all-important Consumer Price Index release on Wednesday and then on Thursday we get a look at retail sales. Ideally, the inflation data will continue to show improvement while at the same time the consumer...

Friends   What a week. After all was said and done stocks were mostly unchanged for the week. I bet you didn’t think you’d be reading that on Monday morning. We are still lower for the month because remember, we were down at the end of last week also. But given the...

Friends   Stocks didn’t give up their gains today. Instead, the bulls were able to move the market averages higher as the trading session wore on. Interestingly it’s not just really the magnificent seven carrying the water on this rebound. It seems that the move is...

Friends   As expected, volatility is heightened as we are seeing some rather larger intraday swings. Earlier in the day the market averages were up 1% to 2% with the Dow itself up several hundred points. But after a weak 10-year Treasury Note auction, stocks sold off...

Friends   Was that it? Probably not. Violent market disruptions are kind of like earthquakes-it’s likely we’ll feel some aftershocks. What is interesting is that we keep getting corporate earnings reports and for the most part they have been very good (see Caterpillar...

Friends   I mentioned in our June 28th email that it is common during a calendar year for the market to experience a 5% to 10% pullback in stocks and that we wouldn’t be surprised, given all that is happening, to see something like that in the second half of 2024....

Friends   We mentioned that this week would likely be one to remember with regards to economic data and volatility. It was. On the economic front we got a jobs number that was weaker than expected, 114,000 new jobs created in July vs. the 185,000 expected. The...