Daily State of the Markets
Near Term Action is Key
Although there continues to be a great many moving parts in this market, the key to the near-term would appear to be the price action. Cutting to the chase, the question of the day is if the recent break to the upside, which would seem to argue for higher prices ahead, has turned into the…
Should We Be Skeptical Here?
After a second consecutive week of gains in the stock market, most investors are likely breathing a sigh of relief right about now and a great many pundits can be heard proclaiming that the bear is over. To be sure, things certainly "feel better" in the stock market. And it is true that s…
What's Next After the Bounce?
Stocks enjoyed their best weekly gain of 2016 last week as the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up +2.62%, the S&P 500 rose +2.84%, the NASDAQ Composite advanced +3.85%, and the Russell 2000 was up +3.91%. Interestingly though, oil, as measured by the US Oil Fund ETF (USO), rose on…
The Bad News: It's a Bear Market. The Good News Is...
After a pretty crummy week, stocks finally perked up on Friday. The reason for the rally was simple. First, crude oil enjoyed its best day in years with a gain of more than 11%. And then banks on both sides of the Atlantic bounced with the BKX gaining 5.2% and European banks rising about …
All About Jobs (And "FANGs" and...)
Despite what appeared to be a pretty decent jobs report, stocks basically fell apart on Friday. So with Ms. Market once again confusing the masses, I thought it might be a good idea to try and make some sense of the action.
In reality, there are three topics to discuss here: (1) t…
Understanding the Insanity
It was definitely another wild ride in the stock market yesterday as the DJIA first fell nearly 200 points on the back of weakness in oil and an economic report in the U.S. that clearly came in on the punk side. But by the time the closing bell rang the Dow's screen was green - to the tun…
Is It Time To Worry About The Banks?
From my perch, the question of the day really isn't really about oil, where the low in oil is, or when oil will embark on a real bounce. While it is quite clear that the correlation trade between stocks and crude is locked in the "on" position at this point in time, the bigger concern - a…
Let's Talk This Out...
With the DJIA having bounced a nice, neat 1,000 points off the January 12, 2015 low, the question of the day is if we've seen the bottom of the recent correction - or - if the current rally is simply the traditional oversold bounce that tends to accompany meaningful declines.
Obvi…
Free Money Trumps Fear Every Time
Here we go again. Just when the bears thought that this time would be different, the global central bankers decided that it was time to hop back up on their white horses. It never gets old, does it?
In an attempt to save the world from the evils of "market volatility," both the EC…
Investors May Be Asking The Wrong Question
I've been getting a lot of questions lately as to whether or not we are seeing the beginning of a bear market. Given that the S&P is down -8.2% year to date and that the mere thought of the last major bear market still causes investors to quake in their boots, the question is certainl…