State of the Markets

Making The "Call"

By: David Moenning

After the roller coaster rebound seen on Friday, February 9 and then the best week in more than 5 years for the S&P 500, I guess one of the easiest stock market calls was that it was probably time to "go the other way" for a while. And "go the other way" they did on Tuesday. C…

Has The Storm Passed?

Although we can ever know for sure why Ms. Market does what she does, I believe last week's price action may have been telling. Recall that I've opined a time or two lately that the vicious decline which unfolded from January 29 through February 9 was partly fundamental and partly…

No Surprises

By: David Moenning

The bears were probably more than a little disappointed with their performance yesterday. If you will recall, Dow futures had swung from a gain of +165 points just prior to the release of what was being billed as a potential blockbuster CPI report, to a loss of -340 points minutes after. …

Today, It's All About The Inflation Data

By: David Moenning

Well, if you were wondering if inflation and, in turn, interest rates were important to the stock market, this morning's initial market reaction to the CPI data cleared things up. The Labor Department reported at 8:30 am eastern that the Consumer Price Index (aka CPI) rose by 0.5%…

What's Next? History Suggests...

By: David Moenning

One of my favorite jokes about Wall Street goes something like this: The first time something happens on Wall Street, it's called it a trend. If it happens twice in a row, it's a tradition. And if it happens three times in a row, well, it's darned near a commandment! I guess it is…

The Biggest Change Seen Last Week Was...

By: David Moenning

I like to start each week by reviewing (a) my key market indicators and (b) the macro picture of the current market environment. As such, my Monday morning market missive is intended to cover both. Let's start by taking a quick survey of the damage the stock market's decline has i…

Is This Really About Rates?

By: David Moenning

I usually don't write on Friday mornings. However, with the Dow experiencing its second quadruple-digit dance to the downside of the week yesterday, I figured it was probably time to make an exception. The goal of this morning's hopefully not-so meandering market missive is to try…

Where is the Equilibrium Point?

By: David Moenning

As I wrote on Tuesday, the question of the day (for me at least) remains the same on this fine Thursday morning. What is real and what is artificial? Sure, stocks bounced right on cue after getting sucker punched by what I believe was a 12-standard deviation move in the volatility…

The Crash Playbook

By: David Moenning

By now, everyone knows that after a prolonged period of calm, volatility has returned to the stock market - in a big way. Just about everybody in the game, including yours truly, predicted this would happen. There was little doubt that the period of extremely low volatility would, at some…

What is Real and What is Artificial?

By: David Moenning

During times of market stress, one of the biggest challenges is trying to determine what is real and what is artificial. When markets spike - in either direction - there is usually some sort of a news event or happening that triggers the move. BREXIT was a prime example of this. M…