Friends   Good news on the employment front (the ADP private payroll number was much hotter than expected) was bad news for stocks today. Add to that comments from Fed officials confirming the higher for longer stance with regards to interest rates and the bulls...

Friends   2023 started off with somewhat of a whimper today as stocks were lower throughout the trading session but closed well off the lows of the day. Big names Apple and Tesla struggled mightily and weighed on the market averages. It wasn’t all bad as...

  Friends The bulls were able to crank up a little rally music today, but it did seem somewhat half-hearted. Despite the push higher stocks are still down nearly 20% as measured by the S&P 500 and nearly 34% as measured by the Nasdaq year-to-date. Bonds are...

Friends It appears that the bulls are taking 2022 in for somewhat of a crash landing. No, the guy in the red suit is not involved. As a matter of fact, he is nowhere to be found at the moment. Instead, relentless selling into year end seems to be the plan of action...

Friends Hopes and dreams of a spirited Santa Clause rally fell to earth today as the bulls could never really get anything going that even resembled enthusiasm for stocks. Retail sales jumped nearly 8% for the holiday season but a lot of that increase was reflected in...

Friends,   Stocks did move higher today in a very quiet fashion. Being that Monday, the markets are closed, this was the first day of the potential Santa Claus rally. Let’s hope the man in the red suit brings some presents for the bulls to open next week.  ...

Friends   The bulls thought they had Santa all dialed into their GPS system yesterday, but a negative view from a hedge fund behemoth and the continuing collapsed of Tesla shares really took the wind out of their sails. Stocks opened lower and by midday were...

Friends   The bulls are trying. They really are. It was a somewhat quiet day of trading as the bulls were able to keep the market averages in the green (barely) most of the session. But after the shellacking that stocks have taken the last couple of weeks,...

Friends   It was another difficult trading session for the bulls. Any hopes that a Santa Claus rally might begin to take shape this week were dashed. Sentiment is awful as recessionary indications are everywhere and as we know the Fed is still firmly in their...

Friends Although stocks did finish well off their lows, it was another bad day and bad week for the bulls. Negativity, as we move into the holidays is at a peak with the narrative being that there is really no way that we avoid a painful recession in 2023. Indeed,...

Friends First, I just want to remind you that we said it was likely to be a wild ride for stocks this week, and it certainly has. Traders decided today that the Fed is simply going to stay too restrictive in their monetary policy for too long and the result will be a...

Friends   As expected, the Federal Reserve raised the Fed Funds rate another 50 basis points today bringing the rate to 4.25-4.5%. And as expected, both in the Fed statement itself and in the 45-minute press conference the Fed remains steadfast that they are...

Friends Today’s Producer Price Index number came in a little hotter than expected and market participants were none too happy about it. Consumer sentiment numbers were better than expected though, but nevertheless the market averages finished a lousy week and one of...

Friends Pessimism still prevails, but stocks didn’t fall as much today as they had the two previous sessions. That’s about the best I got for you today. As we wait for the “inevitable” recession, economic data continues to muddy the waters. On Friday we get the...

Friends It was another difficult trading session for stocks although the market averages did at least finish off the lows of the day. Market analysts and pundits continue to be very pessimistic in their outlooks for 2023 and it feels like market participants are...