Last Week: . On Monday, the market suffered its worst Christmas Eve performance on record, with almost a 3% decline on all equity indices. That evening, Carolers sang an altered version of The Christmas Song: Chestnuts roasting on an open fire Jack Frost nipping at your nose Waves of sellers and hardly a buyer Those gosh darn traders with their momentum algos Everybody knows a turkey and some mistletoe Help to [...]
Last Week: At the end of August, we noted a disconnect between the news flow and the markets performance: “The often-cited adage is that the stock market climbs the wall of worry. I would suggest that the current market is instead climbing the wall of “whatever”, because no one seems particularly worried about anything. The global supply chain and trade agreements are all in flux, not only with China, but also [...]
Last Week: Pessimism has taken root, as the impact of the “trade war” on global economies has become manifest. In a sporting contest there is usually a winner and a loser. You strategize to beat your opponent. Global trade is not a sporting contest. Quite to the contrary, you want your trading partners’ economies to be robust, so that they can buy more of your goods, and produce the goods they [...]
Last Week: Baby, it’s cold outside, and on Wall Street. Parenthetically, the Frank Loesser classic holiday song of that title (the “Elf” rendition is my favorite) has been banned from certain radio stations, but that’s a topic for a different forum. The glow from the warmth of the weekend Trump/Xi G20 meeting quickly faded, as details of any U.S./China trade agreement proved sketchy at best, leading to nearly an 800-point drop [...]
Last Week: In the NFL, the Chicago Bears had a bye on Sunday, which means they didn’t get to play. Apparently, the Wall Street Bears followed suit, as the S&P 500 staged an impressive 4.85% rally without meeting much resistance. It was the S&P 500’s best weekly performance since 2011. Consumers were feeling bullish, as Cyber Monday sales topped $7.9 Billion, a 19.7% increase from last year according to Adobe Analytics, [...]