Friends Despite or maybe because of today’s better than expected first look at 2nd quarter GDP, stocks finally suffered a decisively losing day. Things were due to cool off a bit, at the very least, and given the Fed move happened yesterday and today’s rosier than...

Friends As expected, the Federal Reserve raised the discount rate another quarter of a point bringing the rate to 5.25%-5.50%. Chair Powell continues to insist that the Fed’s work is not done until they see the rate of inflation running at 2%, which he guesses won’t...

Friends Stocks were modestly higher as market participants wait for the Fed decision tomorrow afternoon. In the meantime, earnings continue to roll out and we are seeing companies mainly beat estimates. Whether their shares go up or down after the release seems to...

Friends   It’s going to be a busy week of earnings and Fed news. The FOMC meeting begins tomorrow with the statement and the press conference on Wednesday. It’s believed that the Fed will raise the Fed Funds rate another quarter of a point at this meeting despite the...

Friends   As we expected, earnings releases are shaking things up a bit. When’s the last time we saw Nasdaq down 2% while the sleepy Dow Jones Industrial Average was up? Netflix and Tesla led the Nasdaq lower after their earnings releases while Johnson & Johnson...

Friends   The bulls continue to run wild and free. As legendary Wall Street Executive Art Cashin said the other day, “the only concern the bulls have right now is the possibility of running out of champagne”. But, seriously, the strength in the market averages is...

Friends   Stocks moved higher today as we wade headfirst into earnings season in the next few weeks. To this point in 2023, negativity has provided a sturdy wall of worry for stocks to climb. On a daily basis a consistent stream of negative analysts filled the...

Friends   We had good earnings from some major banks, but after an initial pop the shares of these behemoths deteriorated with only JP Morgan holding onto to a small gain. It will be interesting to see if this is a pattern that could develop over the next few...

Friends   More positive news on the inflation front today as the Producer Price Index (prices at the wholesale level) came in below expectations. Big banks JP Morgan Chase, Citi, and Wells Fargo kick off earnings season tomorrow, but we got a look at a couple of early...

Friends   Today’s inflation report helped fuel stocks, as what most expected was confirmed. The Consumer Price Index was up .2%. for the month and 3% year over year. Both of those numbers are slightly better than expected. That’s right just a year ago inflation was...

Friends   Stocks moved higher again today with the sleepy Dow Jones Industrial Average leading the way. Given that we are going to see a very important Consumer Price Index report tomorrow, market participants seem to be quite comfortable at the moment (well at least...

Friends   Stocks were mostly higher today, but it was a different mix than we have seen for most of the year. Instead of Apple and Microsoft leading the way (they were actually down today), the sleepy Dow Jones Industrial Average was today’s winner. This year’s...

Friends   After yesterday’s ridiculously hot ADP private payroll number, all eyes were on today’s non-farm payroll release. Expectations were that about 240,000 new jobs were created in June, but the number came in a little light of that and actually 209,000 new...

Friends   Today’s release of the Fed minutes appeared to strengthen the position of those who were betting that the Fed would raise interest rates by a quarter of point at the late July FOMC meeting. Fed officials don’t believe they have finished the inflation fight...

Friends   Well, the bulls brought it strong to the finish line. The final trading day of the first half of the year saw stocks move higher across the board. It had the feel of positioning at quarter end, nevertheless the market averages had a really good day, and a...