Last Week: All was quiet on the Wall Street front. The S&P 500 slipped 0.33% to break its six week winning streak, as reasonably good consumer reports offset modestly negative trade headlines. During that winning streak the market exhibited a remarkable absence of volatility, inching up approximately 1% a week, for a total gain of slightly less than 6%. On the consumer front, October retail sales bounced back 0.3% after declining [...]
Last Week: TKIF! (Thank Kudlow It’s Friday) The market drifted through Thursday’s close, as investors slumbered through a mixed bag of economic reports and earnings releases, an escalation of unrest in Hong Kong, a clear message that interest rate policy is on hold during the congressional testimony by Fed Chair Jerome Powell, and the Trump impeachment inquiry. White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow sparked a nice rally in Friday’s trading by [...]
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 and estimated results for companies that have yet to report) earnings decline for the third quarter improved modestly to -2.4%, from -2.8% last week. [...]
Last Week: Despite a mixed bag of news, investors were treated to a Halloween rally that saw the S&P 500 gain 1.47% to set a new record high. The yield on the Ten-Year Treasury trickled down 7 basis points to 1.73% and the U.S. Dollar held steady. Apparently the same old spooky stories can’t scare the bulls anymore. Corporate earnings continued to modestly exceed the low bar that had been set [...]