Depressed Levels The market action was primarily driven by the horrific events in the Israel-Hamas war, with a mixed performance from stocks while investors sought safe-haven assets such as U.S. Treasury bonds and gold. Defense and Energy sector shares rallied,...
A Dedication to Mickey Lefton “As my memory restsBut never forgets what I lostWake me up when September ends.” Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong penned those lyrics inspired by the grief he felt over the death of his father when he was a young boy....
Congrats Fed, You Are Winning Whereas we would prefer to be discussing the resilient economy, with full employment and supply chain disruptions finally alleviating, instead, once again, it was Chairman Powell and the Fed dominating the narrative. Spoiler alert:...
Bears Took Over Through Thursday’s close, the financial markets displayed solid resilience despite the looming threat of an autoworkers strike and a slightly hot producer price index (PPI) reading. Surging energy prices were responsible for a monthly rise of 0.7% in...
Disruptive Outcomes The markets responded negatively both to the good news of resilient U.S. economic data and to the unsettling geopolitical news. On the domestic front, the Services PMI® registered at 54.5 percent, a 1.8-percentage point increase compared to the...
Slow Ride The simple yet classic lyrics from Foghat’s “Slow Ride” tune encapsulate the lukewarm economic news last week that buoyed equity markets: (1) job openings at the lowest level since March 2021; (2) a decline in consumer confidence; (3) tame inflation...
TINA Years Are Through Nvidia Inc (NVDA) had terrific earnings, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s remarks in Jackson Hole were unremarkable, and the market yawned. Semiconductor and other AI stocks rallied early in the week, but sold off following Nvidia’s...
A Day Late & a Dollar Short The financial markets were in a “blue Moody” with stocks suffering early in the week following the rating agency’s downgrade on 10 regional banks, and bond prices slumping on Friday in response to a stronger-than-expected...
Wild Ride It was a volatile week that finished with equity market index losses after Fitch downgraded its U.S. credit rating below the top AAA level; this launched U.S. Treasury yields on a wild ride that somewhat ironically narrowed the 10-year versus 2-year...
Monetary Policy and Midpoints The stock market continued to move higher, fueled by economic data that clearly contradicted the doomsday narrative promoted by the inflation and recession fear mongers. The Fed still raised interest rates by another 25 basis points on...
A Case for the Consumer Last week, the equity markets rose supported by mounting evidence of disinflation and solid results from JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM) and other large banks. The gains were muted by the release of the Fed’s March FOMC minutes on Wednesday and...
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...
Pressure The stock market continued to be under selling pressure, as the S&P slid 1.6%, the Nasdaq dropped 3.1%, and the Russell 2000 shed 1.2%. Health care and Financials shares fared better thanks to solid earnings reports from several of the key components of...
Winter Is Coming The selling deluge continued with the S&P 500 losing 2.9% to finish at its lowest level since Christmas 2020. The storyline remained the same as the PCE, the Fed’s preferred inflation measure, rose a whopping 0.1% more than forecasters expected....
Walmart Sales Up, Gas Prices Down The stock market rally ran out of steam, as the S&P dropped 1.2%, the Nasdaq declined 2.6%, and the Russell 2000 slid 2.9%. Most of the damage was on Friday, without any specific news to account for the mood swing. Of note, the...
A Shift Back to Dovish Against the backdrop of the Fed raising rates and a shrinking GDP, the stock market finished July with a flourish as the S&P 500 rallied 4.5%, the Nasdaq gained 4.7%, and the Russell 2000 advanced 4.3%. The Oil and Gas sector was the...
Eric Kuby, Chief Investment Officer, will be interviewed on TD Ameritrade Network’s The Watch List hosted by Nicole Petallides. To hear North Star’s thoughts on market pessimism as well as our bargain stock picks, tune into the link below at 1:30 PM CT/2:30 PM ET....
Consumer Sentiment Crash It was no surprise to anyone watching the news over the last month that the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index for May nosedived back to the lowest levels in eight-years, and approached the nadir reached in the financial crisis...
Dark Clouds Descend The stock market’s losing streak continued into May, as the Dow Jones Average lost 0.2%, its sixth straight declining week, while the S&P 500 also fell 0.2%. Once again, the losses were heavier in the Nasdaq Composite and the Russell 2000,...
Error: Contact form not found.