Daily State of the Markets
Let's Review - Part I
As I have mentioned previously, in March of this year, I accepted the position of Chief Investment Officer at Sowell Management Services, an investment management firm responsible for north of $500 million of client assets. One of my jobs is to keep advisors up to date on…
Can You Say Neutral?
Welcome to the consolidation phase - are we having fun yet?
From a longer-term perspective, all we hear from the market analysts these days is that the volatility of the market has dried up this year. There have been no corrections, we're told. The trading range environment is bot…
Rebound in Oil Patch Saves The Day - But Can It Last?
Ho hum. The S&P 500 finished Wednesday's session with a gain of 1.98 points or 0.10% and the illustrious DJIA closed down 0.33 points, which, of course, amounts to 0.00% on the day. It must be late summer, right?
Well, as the Hertz commercials used to say, "Not exactly." Sure,…
Bulls Need To Fight, Right Here, Right Now
Paul Schatz of Heritage Capital, LLC is filling in for Dave M. this morning. We are pleased to be able to offer Paul's thoughts on the state of the market and hope that you enjoy his views.
After a clear loss to the bears last we…
Recovery, What Recovery?
After being down five of the last six sessions and ten of the last fourteen, stocks blasted higher on Monday. The popular media attributed the unexpected joyride to the upside, which turned out to be the Dow and S&P's best days in more than three months, to the "recovery in oil" and W…
Divergent Behavior
We've talked a lot recently about the protracted period of time the stock market has spent moving sideways. To be sure, the current action feels a bit off. And now there is some data to back up this view. As I reported recently, Ned Davis Research has informed us that the current, tight t…
Building An Unemotional Market Model
Last time, we looked at the "Indicator Wall" a team of professional money managers I am involved with built for NAAIM - The National Association of Active Investment Managers. The idea was to provide NAAIM members with a complete rundow…
A Cold, Hard Look At The State of the Indicators
I have been suggesting for some time now in my oftentimes meandering morning market missives that the risk of a meaningful correction in the stock market has become elevated. I've relayed many of the reasons why I come to this conclusion such as the state of absolute valuation levels, the…
Is Sideways the New Normal?
We've been saying that the key to the current stock market environment is to recognize that the indices have been basically stuck in the middle with you (hat tip to 70's one-hit wonder, Stealers Wheel) for some time now. Some will …
Some "S" Words to Consider
For those that weren't around in the early 80's, it is important to recognize that parsing the Fed's verbiage is MUCH easier today than it was during the early days of Paul Volcker's rein. Although Alan Greenspan did make the game a little easier than his predecessor, recall that the thic…