Unchanged and Uninspired There was certainly a lack of consistent direction and movement magnitude across major indices last week. The indexes certainly had mixed results, with the Nasdaq Composite shedding -0.6%, the S&P 500 rising 0.7%, and the Russell 2000...
Inflation Cooling, Earnings Warming, and Sentiment Heating Up There are hundreds of songs that relate life’s “ups and downs” to the weather. Our favorites cover the spectrum from Bob Dylan’s “Hurricane” to the Allman Brothers Band’s “Blue Skies”. Similarly, the...
Fireworks and Fed Chirps Unlike Joey Chestnut’s win (he consumed 62 hot dogs en route to his 16th Nathan’s Famous competition win on Fourth of July), the stock market posted a modest loss during the holiday-shortened trading week, as traders digested conflicting...
Which Camp? The stock market had a strong finish in its final trading week of the first half of the year, with gains of 2.4%, 2.3%, and 3.7% for the S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite, and Russell 2000 respectively. While the Tech sector remained strong, with Apple Inc...
Stalled Out The stock market rally stalled during holiday shortened trading, as the indices suffered their worst weekly losses since the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank in March. Further evidence of a slowing economy combined with the continuous “further...
Eleven Straight Months The new bull market got a nice boost from the inflation data with CPI only +0.1% for the month and PPI decelerating even more dramatically to measure only +1.1% for the 12 months ended in May. Producer prices have now been cooling for eleven...
A New Bull A funny thing happened on our way to the recession; a new bull market developed. It took 248 trading days for the S&P 500 to rise 20% from its bottom, marking the longest bear market since 1948, but on Thursday that threshold was reached, and the new...
On Hold Chicken Little flew the coop as investors concluded that the sky was not actually falling following the passage of a debt ceiling bill that averted a U.S. default combined with the mounting evidence that future interest rate hikes are on hold. The next...
Closing In Artificial intelligence and questionable intelligence dictated the action in the financial markets. Early in the week stocks drifted lower as debt ceiling talks progressed without resolution and the Fed minutes showed uncertainty about future monetary...
No Fresh Drama The equity markets moved higher, with the usual suspects (Apple and its fellow tech giants) continuing to lead the charge, but with the rally broadening out as other stocks joined the party. The Nasdaq Composite gained 3%, the S&P 500 rose 1.6%, and...