Last Week: All three major large cap stock market indexes closed at all-time highs Friday as Congress appeared to make progress toward passing a COVID-19 stimulus bill. A weaker than expected rise in November non-farm payrolls had the bad-news-is-good-news effect on...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Markets: The high for the week was set on the opening Monday morning, but those modest gains quickly evaporated by lunch time as the S&P went negative -0.5%, and basically stayed around that level the rest of the week. Small and Mid-Cap stocks fared slightly...
For the next few weeks, we are going to format the Blog to cover the topics that seem to be of most interest, those being the markets, stimulus, economic reports, earnings reports, and COVID-19. We would appreciate any relevant feedback on this new layout. The...
Last Week: From Dictionary.com: Stimulus (stim-yuh-luhs), noun. In economics, a stimulus is a government injection of money into an economy and intended to spur (stimulate) economic growth. If William Shakespeare were around in 2020 he might have penned “to stimulate,...
Last Week: Here is how we wrapped up our previous commentary: “Politics will become an even more dominant verse, with the first presidential debate being held on Tuesday in Cleveland. The most important economic release will come on Friday when The Bureau of Labor...
Last Week: The song remained the same on Wall Street with a disconcerting level of COVID-19 cases and deaths combined with dysfunctional drama in D.C., somewhat offset by promising vaccine development announcements. The market experienced roller coaster daily swings...
Last Week: The Bears are back in action. On Wall Street the market labored to find its footing following the holiday weekend, with the S&P declining 2.5% to post its first back-to-back weekly loss in four months. The Tech sector had its worst week since March with...
Last Week: At lunch on Friday I saw a band called “The Momentum Traders” singing a somber tune: Yesterday The market was such an easy game to play Now it looks as though might stocks might sway Oh, I believe in yesterday Suddenly My portfolio isn’t what it used to be...
Last Week: The S&P 500 gained 3.26% to set another record high, while the yield on the Ten-Year Treasury jumped 9 basis points to 0.73%, its highest level since June 10th. Tech stocks continued to surge, with the Nasdaq composite adding 3.39% and is now up an...
Last Week: Mega-cap tech stocks carried the S&P 500 to a new record high, with Apple accounting for 60% of the 0.7% weekly gain. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite jumped 2.65% and is now up 26.07% for 2020. The breadth of the market needed a tic-tac as decliners...
Last Week: The S&P 500 gained 0.64% to finish at 3372.85, just fractionally below the record close of 3386.15 set on February 19 of this year. It briefly reached an all-time intra-day high Wednesday, before dipping lower later in the afternoon. Both the bond...
Last Week: The market continued to rebound fueled by better than expected corporate earnings, hope for another round of helicopter money from the government, and optimism over COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics development. Reality Check: 1) Second quarter earnings...
Last Week: The glass is half empty: For Q2 2020, the blended earnings decline for the S&P 500 is -35.7%. If -35.7% is the actual decline for the quarter, it will mark the largest year-over-year decline in earnings reported by the index since Q4 2008 (-69.1%). The...
Last Week: Earnings season is underway with 26% of the companies in the S&P 500 having reported actual results for Q2 2020. The good news is that the percentage of companies reporting actual EPS above estimates (81%) is above the five-year average, with companies...
Last Week: Earnings season produced no surprises with 9% of the S&P 500 companies having reported results which were consistent with forecasts for a 44% decline in profits for the quarter. If -44.0% is the actual decline for the quarter, it will mark the largest...
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