Daily State of the Markets

Three More Reasons to Worry

Good morning. It looks like it will be another very bumpy ride on Wall Street today as U.S. stock futures are down again in the early going. There are three issues in play this morning that warrant your attention: The Chinese yuan, a successful hydrogen bomb test in North Korea, and oil.

Understanding What The Game Is About Here

Well that was harsh. Just when you thought that maybe, just maybe, the algo-induced intraday violence that had dominated the market action in 2015 might abate and that maybe, just maybe an actual trend lasting more than a month might begin, the 2016 opening bell rang. And before you could…

Putting 2015 in Perspective and Looking Ahead

It is my sincere hope that everyone enjoyed the holiday season and took some time to get away from the blinking lights for a week or two. But now it is to time to hit the reset button and get to work, for 2016's game is about to begin! As we enter another new calendar year (which,…

Don't Be Fooled, All Is Not Right With This Market

With a Holiday season upon us, it is a good bet that most folks have their attention focused on more important things than the stocks market right now. As such, I'll cut to the chase this morning. The big thing I'd like to get across in today's missive is that this is no time to be compla…

Will Oil Be the Grinch That Steals the Santa Rally?

I'd like to start this morning by once again asking, are we having fun yet? In looking back at my 28+ years of being responsible for other people's money in the markets, I am not sure I can recall a time that has been so consistently difficult to manage. Well, to be fair, there ha…

Does Fed Move Really Change Anything?

In what has to be considered the most telegraphed move in financial history, Janet Yellen's Federal Reserve announced an increase to the Fed Funds and Discount Rate targets yesterday. And while the mandatory moronic algo-games whipped stock prices back and forth for a few minutes followin…

Let's Be Careful Out There...

Since we've got some time on our hands this morning before Yellen & Co. do something they haven't done in nine years - raise interest rates - I thought it would be a good idea to pick up where we left off on our run-through of the important market indicators. If you will recal…

The Times (Err, Indicators) They Are A Changin'

Junk bonds are tanking. Oil is in a free fall. The Chinese are talking about moving their currency lower against the dollar. Stocks are overvalued by just about any traditional metric. And Janet Yellen's merry band of central bankers are about to raise interest rates. Super. And y…

It's About Oil, And Junk, And...

What a difference a week can make in this game, eh? What's interesting here is that things are traditionally kinda quiet at this time of year. However, while I spent last week running from meeting to meeting, the stock market appears to have embarked on a course correction that just might…

Why We're Back To Sideways

It is said that the more things change, the more they stay the same. This has most certainly been the case for the stock market for going on more than a year now. Cutting to the chase, the stock market continues to suffer from a relatively severe case of A.D.D. as the up-one-minute, down-…