Damage from Data “The Wacky U.S. Economy” is the most recent Barron’s magazine cover story. The article suggests that there is no precedent for the current economic conditions, therefore traditional monetary policy and forecasting tools are ineffective. Specifically,...
Recovery Ahead Whereas most media outlets seem to subscribe to the commonly accepted principle that bad news sells, we would prefer to channel the 1974 hit song from Rufus and Chaka Khan, “Tell Me Something Good”. Case in point, the hotter than expected CPI and PPI...
Humdrum Geopolitical tensions, hawkish Fedspeak, and lackluster earnings combined to produce humdrum financial markets. It was geopolitics on Monday with the U.S. shooting down a Chinese spy balloon over the coast of South Carolina. Several more flying objects were...
Five Words The combination of 5 dovish words from the Fed and encouraging data on the economy was able to overcome lackluster earnings reports and drive stock prices higher. Earnings reports continued to be subpar midway through the fourth quarter earnings season with...
Wild Rush The 2023 bull stampede on Wall Street continued as the economic data and corporate earnings reports declawed those grumpy bears. All the major market averages finished higher, with the Nasdaq Composite climbing 4.3% to rack up a fourth straight week of...
Robust Rally A robust rally on Friday erased the losses from earlier in the week, with high-profile tech stocks leading the bounce. Netflix Inc (NFLX) surged 8.5% after gaining more subscribers than expected, and Alphabet Inc (GOOGL) added more than 5% after Google...
Solid Start Stocks registered their best weekly percentage gains since November, as the economic data releases and the corporate earnings reports encouraged investors. On the economic front, the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index climbed in January to its...
Normalizing, Not Overheating Nor Collapsing The stock market surged on Friday following the December employment report which showed strong hiring and a historically low jobless rate combined with cooling wage growth. Following the report, Tavis C. McCourt,...
Good Riddance, 2022 The combination of Covid-19 concerns in China and the fourth consecutive month of housing price declines in the U.S. led to lackluster trading in the financial markets. In the equity indices, the S&P 500 slipped 0.1%, the Nasdaq Composite lost...
A Visit from St. Stock Market ‘Twas a week before Christmas with stock volume light. Bears were selling with few bulls within sight. No news Monday and Tuesday let stocks lower drifted. Wednesday’s Nike and Fed-Ex earnings helped markets get lifted. Investors cheered...