Daily State of the Markets
2014 Planning: Buy Signals To Watch For
To be sure, the Fed's decision to begin tapering their QE program remains the topic of conversation around water coolers in Manhattan, Chicago and LA. In short, nobody really expected Ben Bernanke to start cutting back on one of his greatest inventions as he moved toward the door…
Lesson From The Fed: ZIRP Trumps Taper
For weeks, the question of whether or not the Fed would begin tapering their QE program was the focus of the stock market. After each and every economic report, the issue was always the same: Was good news bad for stocks because it meant the Fed would start pulling the punch bowl? Or was …
2014 Planning: Two Sell Signals to Watch For
In looking ahead to the New Year, a great many investors will be trying to avoid the big mistake of 2013: missing out on the gains available in the U.S. stock market. You see, even with the recent "sloppy period," the S&P 500 is up 24.9 percent year-to-date, the Russell 2000 sports a …
2014: What's The Plan, Stan?
This is the time of year when investors tend to take stock of their efforts over the past twelve months. Investors big and small look back on the year that was and try to determine what went right, what went wrong, and if any changes need to be made going forward. In other words, this is …
The Bear Case: Are Stocks Over Owned?
On Friday, we acknowledged the idea that, according to the bear camp, the U.S. stock market is overbought, overvalued, over owned, and over exuberant. We reviewed the argument that stock market sentiment has indeed become a bit "over exuberant" and that our furry friends might just have a…
Are Stocks Overbought, Overvalued, Over Owned, and Over Exuberant?
One of the arguments emanating from the bear camp is that the U.S. stock market is overbought, overvalued, over owned, and over exuberant. And as you might surmise, those seeing the glass as at least half empty contend that such a combination is both (a) rare and (b) fatal to bull markets…
"Dangerous But Necessary"
As we've discussed a time or twenty, the primary objective of this oftentimes meandering morning market missive is to identify and understand the "drivers" of the market action. At times this task is child's play. A piece of economic news comes out and the market reacts accordingly. One d…
Missed Big Gains in 2013? Look Before You Leap!
To be sure, it has been an interesting year in the stock market. At the beginning of the year, almost no one saw gains of 20 to 30 percent for the stock market indices and most macro players continued to believe that the next crisis was right around the corner.
And yet with just a…
The Quiet Period Has Arrived At Last
In case you've been out at the malls and haven't had time to keep up with the goings on in the stock market, it is safe to say that "taper talk" has been all the rage of late. Whenever a Fed official or a piece of economic data suggests that the Fed might need to start tapering the latest…
Goldilocks Lives!
To be sure, the game has become a bit confusing of late. For example, one minute the "good news is bad news" theme is the driver to the action and the next, well, not so much. And for those investors counting on the mainstream media to help them understand why the market is doing what it …