Sound Shape In weather parlance, March is said to come in like a lion and go out like a lamb. For the stock market, March came in like a bull! The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite closed at fresh record highs, primarily driven by tech stocks with a kiss from some...
Last Week: Insatiable Demand We could call it another serving of chips and dips, with Nvidia providing the tasty chips and dips coming from continued Fed policy concerns. The markets were closed on Monday and treaded water on Tuesday and Wednesday. Still, the major...
Swooped In The inflation data was just hot enough to cool investors’ animal spirits, leading to a modest sell-off in both the stock and bond markets. On Tuesday, the CPI came in at +3.1% year-over-year versus the 2.9% consensus forecast. The equity markets sold off,...
Upside Surprise On Friday, market participants received further encouraging data on inflation after the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released its annual revisions to the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The report showed that core consumer prices rose 0.2% in December...
Leading the Charge The good news continued to roll in from corporate earnings and U.S. economic data, somewhat offset by another dose of modestly hawkish jawboning from Chairman Powell and his merry band of Federal Reserve Governors. On the earnings front, strong...
Elite Six Stocks were positive for the week as more Goldilocks economic data fueled investor optimism. Earlier in the week, the U.S. gross domestic product came at a 3.3% clip in last year's fourth quarter, much stronger than the expected 2% gain. On Friday, the...
Pick-up in Sentiment I can see clearly now the rain is gone I can see all obstacles in my way Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind It's gonna be a bright (bright) Bright (bright) sunshiny day For the past 18 months, the dissonance of a healthy economy and...
Tepid Start Stocks edged higher for the week as tame inflation reports drove bond yields lower and restored investor confidence that the Fed would soon be cutting interest rates. The PPI fell 0.1% in December amid declining costs for goods such as diesel fuel and...
Market Hangover Investors seem to sober up following the nine-week-long stock market party that closed out 2023, as the S&P 500 fell 1.5%, the Nasdaq Composite dropped 3.2%, and the Russell 2000 sank 3.8% in holiday-shortened trading. Declining issues almost...
Conventional Wisdom Twas the week after Christmas and trading was light. Stocks traded higher with a record in sight. The Goldilocks economy overcame the doomsayers' fears. The Santa Claus rally kept rolling right into the New Year. The S&P 500 gained 0.3%, the...