Like Watching Paint Dry
The markets haven’t been all that exciting this week. Choose your analogy. Watching paint dry. Watching grass grow. I chose the former since I am in full grass planting mode and it better grow quickly next week after the sun, rain and warmth coming. Below is an index I don’t often show, but one that the masses follow religiously. It’s the VIX index which is one measure of volatility based on the options market. Typically, when stocks fall the VIX […]
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Date: April 21, 2023
Tax Day Trend & Two Sectors
Adios tax day 2023! It was good to se you go. Congrats to all of my CPA readers who braved another season and survived. I feel like there was more work done this year than in the recent past with more preliminary 1099s than ever before. Twitter was abuzz about paying taxes. 10% of taxpayers pay 80% of taxes which makes sense in a progressive tax system. Liz Warren claimed that Americans are paying so much in taxes simply because […]
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Date: April 19, 2023
Could a Roth Conversion Ease Your Tax Bite?
Minimizing the amount you pay in taxes is essential for weathering market downturns. However, the complexity of the U.S. tax code often makes it difficult to plan effective tax strategies on your own. This is why affluent taxpayers sometimes assume that their best option is simply to pay whatever they owe each year. Many of them have no idea how much money they could potentially save by planning financially to lower their tax liability. One strategy worth considering, for instance, […]
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Date: April 17, 2023
All That Good News to Begin Earnings Season
Now that JP Morgan has reported earnings, Q1 earnings season is officially here. Banks usually kick us off and we saw a slew of solid reports to end last week. So far, rumors of more banks’ demise are not panning out. And let’s not forget about the benign CPI and PPI reports last week, further confirming inflation’s demise. However, with oil rallying, that tailwind has dissipated. With all that good news, the stock market should have soared, right? Below is […]
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Date: April 17, 2023
Inflation Data Benign – Strong & Weak Indices
After a benign CPI report, the PPI report was even more tame, continuing to support my longstanding theme of inflation moderation. This has been an amazing story as we now have 9 straight months of lower month over month inflation. I can’t find a similar streak over the past 50 years and I saw on Twitter you have to go back to the 1930s to see, not exactly a valid comp. Of course and obviously, it is difficult to see […]
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Date: April 14, 2023
Bears Are Wrong – Yet Again
As I finish this post, the government just released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and it came in a touch cooler than expected across the board. Inflation continues to moderate as has been my thesis for a year. While it is not getting back to the Fed’s arbitrary long-term target of 2%, it should still slowly meander to some new normal level below 4%. And yes, this takes more pressure off the Fed to raise rates higher for longer. I […]
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Date: April 12, 2023
A Powerful Indicator Just Lit Up – Not to Be Ignored
The major stock market indices continue to digest recent gains. We know that the Dow Industrials, S&P 500 and NASDAQ 100 have been leading while the S&P 400 and Russell 2000 have been lagging. I expected Friday’s employment report to lead to some Monday morning fireworks, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Stocks look down a bit and bonds a little worse, but nothing too bad. The bulls should make some noise during the day. Those of you […]
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Date: April 10, 2023
April & Q2 Setting Up Nicely For The Bulls But Concerns Remain
Let’s focus on April and what it seasonally brings to the stock market. We know that it an historically strong month for stocks, especially in a pre-election year. We also know that when it begins the month in an uptrend, it averages more than 1% return. We also know that the super strong trends that began at last November’s election continue this month and through Q2. Regarding Q1 ending, when the stock market does not breach the lowest levels from […]
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Date: April 6, 2023
New Month & Quarter – Could Banks Be a Winner?
The new month and new quarter begin today and the typical tailwind may be somewhat muted because of how strong stocks were last week. Nonetheless, we still have positive seasonals this week. With the masses looking to avoid showing banks on their Q1 ending reports I wonder if we see some reversion to the mean for the super hated sector that was in the spotlight for much of Q1. I can’t say the chart above of the banks really creates […]
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Date: April 3, 2023
Never Die on the Hill of a Market Scenario
Although the media keeps saying how surprised they are about the strength this week, it was in the cards last week and I wrote about it in all posts. It’s really amazing how they try to spin a new narrative to back up the price again. Last week, it was about the teetering banking system and how easy it is to create a bank run. Who would be next? Or, would Yellen’s and the FDIC’s measures save the system from […]
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Date: March 31, 2023
