Friends While impeachment and phone call transcripts were occupying the headlines, stocks reversed an initial selloff to post nice gains, as market participants are seemingly becoming numb to political machinations. Obviously, no one knows for sure what the results of...

Friends   Ok, I get back in the saddle today, and it's UN speeches ,calls for impeachment, whistleblowers, phone calls with Ukraine, and slipping consumer confidence numbers- and that was all before lunch.  Needless to say, stocks were all over the place with the...

Friends Since I left for the week the Saudis were drone bombed, the Fed cut the Fed Funds rate but left market participants a bit confused and dissatisfied, and the President has rifled out 437 tweets (OK, I made that up, but I'll bet I'm close), yet stocks are about...

Friends It was another rather quiet day of trading for stocks despite the selloff in bonds. Once again interest rates were on the rise (I know 1.90% doesn’t sound like much, but considering the 10 year Treasury note was at 1.45% just a couple of weeks ago, that is...

Friends There were reports of easing of tensions between China and the United States which sent stocks on a little rally early in the trading session, then a denial from the White House, sent stocks back into negative territory. But a selloff in the bond market (rates...

Friends Stocks enjoyed a nice rally today, perhaps fueled by continuing weakness in the bond market. The drift higher of interest rates seems to have helped alleviate the “recession is looming” fears, and today’s PPI number was meek enough to keep the Fed firmly on...

Friends It was another very quiet day for stocks, but bond yields continued to rise as they have for the past few trading sessions. Today the 10 year Treasury Note dipped in price as the yield climbed to 1.72%. That may not sound like a lot, but those yields were less...

Friends It was a very quiet first trading day of the week. Stocks got off to a decent start at the open, but as the trading session wore on it appeared that neither the bulls nor the bears had much interest in participating. The Fed meeting next week will be a major...

Friends This morning’s jobs report had a little something for everyone. For those who are desperately hoping for a Fed rate cut in September, the 130,000 new jobs created in August was just disappointing enough to pretty much assure the Fed will accommodate in a...

Friends Word overnight that trade talks with China will occur in October was enough of a match to light the fuse of a nice rally in stocks. The early surge in share prices was able to be maintained throughout the trading session and by the close the S&P was within...

Friends Easing tensions in Hong Kong overnight helped stocks get off to a good start this morning and the bulls were able to hold serve as the trading session wore on. The Fed’s beige book release this afternoon added to worries that trade tensions are causing...

Friends   Seasonably, September has a bad reputation when it comes to stock performance. Add that to new tariffs going into effect over the weekend and we got a good recipe for a down market on the first trading day of the month. The tone of the market is very...

Friends A perceived cooling of trade tensions with China mixed in with a slight tick up in interest rates was the right recipe for a nice rally in stocks. Again, these headlines are day to day, and not to be acted upon, but for market watchers they are nothing less...

Friends   Yields on bonds fell this morning which spooked the stock market at the open, but the bulls rallied the troops and stock buyers appeared and drove sticks higher by midday. Trading was quiet in the afternoon, but the bulls can be encouraged that they...

Friends The President and folks in his administration spent the weekend attempting to do some damage control with regard to Friday’s developments in the market. By the reaction in stocks, it appears that they were at least marginally successful- for a day anyway....