State of the Markets
Hawkish Or Just Plain Pragmatic?
As expected, Janet Yellen's Fed announced yesterday that their QE bond-buying program was coming to an end. The move was widely telegraphed and could be viewed as a positive since the Fed no longer thinks the economy is weak enough to require the Fed's help.
To support the relativ…
Apparently There Is Nothing To Fear But...
The bulls put a bit of an exclamation point on what is turning out to be a real joyride to the upside higher yesterday as the S&P 500 once again rallied hard without the benefit of an obvious catalyst. The rally pushed the venerable index back above its 50-day moving average and to wi…
A Spooky, Must-See Chart For The Season
It is getting to be that time of year where writers feel compelled to somehow work the words spooky, scary, frightful etc., into their pieces. So, in keeping with tradition, it is time to step back from the blinking lights and the scary corrective phase the market has been in, and review …
The Focus Remains on Fed and Headlines
The early action on this fine Monday morning suggests that traders are still taking their cues from any/all headlines relating to Ebola. U.S. futures had been steady for much of the morning until a headline saying that a pediatric patient is evaluated crossed the wires. Almost instantly, …
A Case of The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
To the casual observer, it was a good day on Wall Street yesterday. The Dow gained more than 215 points, the NASDAQ rallied +1.6 percent, and the Russell 2000 tacked on +1.8 percent. However, to those watching the action a bit more closely, Thursday was a case of the good, the bad, and th…
The Only Story That Mattered
There were three stories in the market on Wednesday, but in reality only one really mattered on the day. You see, when reports start hitting the wires that there are multiple gunmen shooting at people in Canada's Parliament building, traders' thoughts turn to one thing and one thing only:…
In Case You've Forgotten, It Doesn't Pay To Fight The...
The bulls (or perhaps more accurately, the bull algos) put on quite a show again on Tuesday. For the fourth day in a row, stocks rocketed higher and the S&P 500 finished with the best one-day gain in more than a year. Not bad for a market that had been left for dead four days ago, rig…
The Big Picture: Time to Buy The Dip?
Sometimes it can be advantageous to step back from the blinking screens and the wild intraday swings in order to try and get a feel for the bigger picture. On that note, there can be little argument that the U.S. stock market has undergone a corrective phase since what is now referred to …
We're Watching The Charts, Big Blue, and the Fed
On this 27th anniversary of "Black Monday," investors will likely see the recent spate of market volatility continue. Barring an unforseen event, stocks are unlikely to drop 508 points as they did 27 years ago. However, the early action has once again been all over the map.
In Jap…
Central Bankers Start Talking The Talk
Thursday was yet another wild ride on Wall Street. While the intraday swings paled in comparison to Wednesday's insanity, there was still plenty of volatility to go around. With the algos clearly still in charge of the action, it is somewhat difficult to make heads or tails of it all. But…