A Dedication to Mickey Lefton “As my memory restsBut never forgets what I lostWake me up when September ends.” Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong penned those lyrics inspired by the grief he felt over the death of his father when he was a young boy....
Walmart Sales Up, Gas Prices Down The stock market rally ran out of steam, as the S&P dropped 1.2%, the Nasdaq declined 2.6%, and the Russell 2000 slid 2.9%. Most of the damage was on Friday, without any specific news to account for the mood swing. Of note, the...
Historical Impacts of Military Conflicts on Equity Markets While recognizing that the future of humanity has been permanently altered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, our commentary will remain focused on the stock market and economy during this crisis rather than on...
Growth Stocks Slip Growth investors have enjoyed a terrific party for the last five years, with the punch bowl spiked with zero percent interest rates and ultra-accommodative fiscal and monetary policy. During that period, the return on the S&P 500 Growth Index...
531,000 Jobs In 1929, just prior to the Great Crash of the New York Stock Market, Milton Ager, and Jack Yellen recorded, “Happy Days Are Here Again.” Happy days are here again The skies above are clear again So let's sing a song of cheer again Happy days are here...
Never-Ending Rally Back on Track Despite the scary headlines, the “Fear Index” continues to falter. We concluded last week’s commentary noting that “U.S. stock futures followed the global markets lower over the weekend, and the “Fear Index” (VIX) jumped 6% going into...
Last Week: Equity markets ground higher, fueled by (1) good earnings from economy re-opening companies and from several residential real estate-related companies; (2) a benign bond market that seems comfortable with the Fed’s ‘inflation is transitory’ party line; (3)...
Last Week: Mr. Market, like Disneyland’s Mr. Toad, had a wild ride. Toad, borrowed from “The Wind in the Willows”, regularly becomes obsessed with current fads, only to abandon them abruptly. That sounds like a reasonably good description of most of the trading...
Last Week: The employment report for April released on Friday indicated that there were 266,000 new jobs added, versus the approximately one million that was forecasted. Additionally, March’s number was reduced by 246,000 jobs, suggesting that there are approximately...
Last Week: The Stock market seems to have become comfortably numb to good news, as equities essentially treaded water despite a plethora of good news from economic data, monetary policy, and corporate earnings. The S&P 500 reached another record high on Thursday...
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: 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: Trading was extremely volatile with the VIX surging over 50% to 33.09 and the S&P 500 shedding 3.31%. It seems worth noting that these spikes in volatility and sell-offs in equities occur regularly and should not be alarming. What is alarming is the...
Last Week: The glass is half empty: For Q2 2020, the blended earnings decline for the S&P 500 is -35.7%. If -35.7% is the actual decline for the quarter, it will mark the largest year-over-year decline in earnings reported by the index since Q4 2008 (-69.1%). The...
Last Week: It was a pretty quiet news week, as the Wall Street Bears remained in hibernation, while the Chicago Bears emerged (a win is a win). As we moved into the ninth inning of earnings season, the blended (combines actual results for companies that have reported...
Last Week: The market rallied towards record highs as the corporate earnings, trade, and Fed headlines were all somewhat sanguine. Corporate earnings continued to modestly exceed the low bar that was set for the third quarter, as the blended (combines actual results...
Last Week: Ouch. The previous week’s sideways bottoming action gave way to a nasty sell-off, with the S&P 500 surrendering its remaining gains for 2018 after declining 3.9%. The Pendulum has quickly swung from greed to fear as the Volatility Index spiked to its...
Last Week: Our TIEs (Trade, Interest rates, Earnings) theme remained the dominate narrative, with relatively benign developments on the Trade and Interest rates front and continued spectacular Earnings. Unlike most quarters when analysts make downward revisions to...
Last Week: Tuesday was a tough day, with the S&P 500 sliding 1.3% and the yield on the Ten-Year Treasury topping 3% inter-day. The rest of the week, the stock market made up those losses to finish unchanged, and the Ten-Year Treasury also finished where it...
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