Last Week: The Chicago and Wall Street Bears were both in hibernation as Thanksgiving gave way to winter. I turned off the game versus the Packers last night at halftime. Without Akeem Hicks in the middle, my 18-month old granddaughter Jane could probably gain 5 yards a carry against my beloved Bears. On a brighter note, the market continued to climb to new record highs fueled by additional vaccine announcements, Biden’s [...]
As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, it would be an epic understatement to say that 2020 has been a most unusual year. In our family my birthday on March 12 comes first in the calendar and my son Alex’s on November 19th comes last. Flashing back to March 12th, I hosted a party at Standard Club (now closed after 150 years in business) with a group of twenty friends for a [...]
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 haste. On that news the market surged on the opening and spent the rest of the week trying to hold those gains, with the S&P 500 [...]
Markets: What a difference a week makes. A blue undertow (Biden won, but the Senate appeared likely to remain with a Republican majority) swept into the sea of red and turned the market green. Volatility vanished and FOMOTINATE (Fear Of Missing Out There Is No Alternative To Equities) poked the bull out of its pen. The S&P 500 surged 7.32% led by a double-digit gain in the Technology sector accompanied by [...]
Markets: It was the worst week in the market since March, with the S&P 500 sinking 5.6% and small caps faring even worse shedding 6.22%. Volatility surged with the VIX spiking 38% to match its highest level since June. The chart below shows the percentage changes in the S&P 500 and the VIX over the last six months. It is interesting to note that last week’s action was very similar to [...]