North Star's Premise Proven Investors finally got a taste of money, tasting much sweeter than wine, as rising corporate earnings and declining interest rates gave the markets a kiss. The bond market benefitted from slightly soft employment data, particularly...
The blog post discusses the recent market correction, with the S&P 500 dropping 10% from its 52-week high, led by losses in various sectors. Despite strong earnings results, concerns arise regarding personal spending relying on savings, and the potential for accelerating earnings growth remains a bullish case for equities. Rising gold prices are attributed to geopolitical turmoil and an increase in U.S. Treasury debt offerings. The post anticipates a volatile week ahead with a focus on the Federal Reserve’s policy, employment data, and corporate earnings, all while acknowledging the ongoing impact of global geopolitical events on investor sentiment.
Margin Call Stocks staged a modest rally on Monday, only to see mounting losses Tuesday through Friday, adding up to the worst week in a month for the market. The S&P skidded 2.4%, the Nasdaq Composite dropped 3.2%, and the Russell 2000 slid 2.3%, with declining...
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...
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...
Positive Light Stocks and bonds fell for the week as a combination of strong U.S. economic data and challenges in China unnerved the financial markets. The healthy domestic economic data drove interest rates higher, though bond prices stabilized on Friday. The...
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...
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...
Rally Reignited A spoonful of sugar from the Fed made the medicine go down, as the market indexes posted their biggest weekly percentage gains since June, with the S&P 500 finishing up 4.8% for the week, the Nasdaq Composite jumping 5.2%, and the Russell 2000...
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...
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,...
FAANG in Flux For the second week in a row, the market was slightly ahead through the Thursday afternoon coffee break only to nosedive into the weekend. By the closing bell on Friday, the S&P 500 had shed 3.27%, the Nasdaq was down 3.93%, and the Russell 2000 lost...
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