Sugar Rush The stock market got a pre-Halloween sugar rush, with the S&P 500 3.9% higher, the Nasdaq showing a 2.2% gain, and the Russell 2000 jumping 6.0%. The rally from the previous Friday continued through Tuesday, but disappointing results from Alphabet and...
Pressure The stock market continued to be under selling pressure, as the S&P slid 1.6%, the Nasdaq dropped 3.1%, and the Russell 2000 shed 1.2%. Health care and Financials shares fared better thanks to solid earnings reports from several of the key components of...
Not So Hot Our previous commentary was titled “Bad News Bears”, but perhaps “Bad News Bulls” or “Good News Bears” would be a more appropriate description. Indeed, stock traders continued to obsess on future Fed rate hikes, with good news such as the strength in the...
A Shift Back to Dovish Against the backdrop of the Fed raising rates and a shrinking GDP, the stock market finished July with a flourish as the S&P 500 rallied 4.5%, the Nasdaq gained 4.7%, and the Russell 2000 advanced 4.3%. The Oil and Gas sector was the...
Consumer Sentiment Crash It was no surprise to anyone watching the news over the last month that the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index for May nosedived back to the lowest levels in eight-years, and approached the nadir reached in the financial crisis...
Inversion Diversion Some market prognosticators believe that the stock market climbs any "wall of worry." If that is true, then the stock market is going much, much higher. Ironically, despite all the supply-chain issues globally, so far in 2022 there have been no...
Convinced and Concerned For both the Winter Olympics and the market there were many exciting spins and twists during the week, but the stock market took a nasty spill on the slippery ice of the quad combo of geopolitics, economic reports, corporate earnings, and...
Rams Brought It Home If the trading week had ended at lunch on Thursday, then we could have cheerfully turned our attention to the Rams, Bengals, and Snoop Dogg. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, perhaps still upset that the Rams had moved to Los Angeles, threw...
Transitioning from Transitory to Tactical In our commentary from the week of June 21, 2021, we offered the following thoughts concerning Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s description of inflation as being “transitory”: Poor Jerome Powell probably listens to the opening of...
On the Up and Up Inflation looks like it is running, as the lyrics from AC/DC go, “hot” and demanding we “pay the price” for this “problem child.” The stock market finished lower for the week with those escalating inflation fears and related slumping consumer...
Last Week: We hope that everyone enjoyed their holiday weekend. One highlight at North Star was watching Joey Chestnut break his own world record at the annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest on July 4th after devouring his 76th hot dog and bun in front of a packed...
Last Week: The S&P 500 crossed over the 4,000 threshold on April Fools’ Day to set another record, finishing up +1.14%. Small caps were not joking around, with the Russell 2000 gaining +1.46%, and the Tech sector pranked its detractors by bouncing +3.15%. Trading...
Last Week: On Monday all 11 sectors rallied and the S&P posted its biggest daily gain since June, as the combination over the previous weekend of the positive vaccine news from Johnson & Johnson, the approval of the stimulus plan by the House, and a decline of...
Last Week: We were often reminded during the recent challenging economic period that the market climbs the wall of worry. The inverse proposition might caution that the market can slide down the chute of good cheer. Following up on our most recent commentary, the...
Last Week: In the Kuby’s Commentary version of “Rally, Rinse, Repeat,” we once again report that the market set new record highs, the economic data was mixed, the battle with COVID-19 raged on, and the politicians were mired in debate over the size and scope of...
Last Week: It was a mixed bag of tricks and treats for stocks, with the S&P 500 suffering its worst decline since Halloween at -1.5%, while the Russell 2000 gained 1.5%, and 1827 advancing issues outnumbered 1402 decliners. The dollar, gold, and interest rates...
Last Week: Welcome to the last week of 2020. One might say it done come and gone, and my oh my what a long strange trip it has been indeed. The fiscal stimulus saga, which first grabbed headlines in June, took another twist as Congress finally passed a $900 billion...
Markets: Monday morning Pfizer announced that early data from its coronavirus vaccine shows it is more than 90% effective with no serious side effects. The study should be concluded by the end of the month with the likelihood of emergency FDA approval to follow post...
Last Week: The last six months have certainly been “interesting”. A dramatic rally in January and February recovered about most of the horrific losses of October- December, followed by a brief nasty sell-off to kick off March which quickly reversed into a Mad March...
Last Week: The temperature of the global economic data porridge was cold enough to nudge the stock market pendulum towards risk-off, as the ECB and China both reduced growth forecasts while the U.S. jobs report was downright frigid. Concerns shifted from monetary...
Error: Contact form not found.