LOTS of Seasonal Factors of Today & Month
Today is the first trading day of May. I wish someone told Mother Nature that as I had on long underwear and two fleece layers at my son’s baseball games on Saturday. Yet on Sunday, I had shorts and a tee shirt on as we did yard work all afternoon. Spring in New England. Stocks did not close April well, but they still finished sharply higher for the month. April was definitely a fun month all around with tech leading […]
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Date: May 3, 2021
Stop Touting the News
I can’t keep track of how many times I have said, it’s not what the news is, but rather, how stocks react. If there is one adage that has served me incredibly well in my 32 years in the business, it’s that one. Yet people continue to do the “but, but, but”. The market is usually right. Those who make it a methodology to fight it often end up in failure. There has been a dizzying number of Q1 earnings […]
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Date: April 30, 2021
Fed Day is Here and I am Not Celebrating
It’s Fed day and these meetings should all take on some significance going forward as Powell et al should begin to hint at less accommodation. However, the Fed learned their lesson in 2013 with the Taper Tantrum and will make sure the runway is long and clear. Although I have so been enjoying the fruits of their labor since last April and I assume clients and investors have as well, if I sat in Jay Powell’s seat, I would already […]
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Date: April 28, 2021
New Bulls Die Hard
While Friday was a really nice day for the bulls into about 3:30, the bears did manage to make a little noise into the weekend. Still, there were several constructive elements to the day. Market internals were strong and sector leadership was good. Additionally, the S&P 400 and Russell 2000 which had been lagging continued their recent wake up to power higher. Over the last week or so, I have offered that the stock market could begin a series of […]
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Date: April 26, 2021
Biden’s Cap Gains Plan a Disaster
I love when people ask me what could derail the market, any market for that matter. Lately, I have said it won’t be COVID or a third world nation with nukes. However, it could certainly be a monetary policy pivot shift by the Fed or definitely be a fiscal or tax policy change in DC. On Thursday we learned about the Biden administration’s proposed seminal change in capital gains taxes to a maximum of 43.40% for the highest income earners. […]
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Date: April 23, 2021
Time for the Bulls to Step Up
Stocks have now seen back to back down days with pre-market activity pointing to red this morning. The themes have been the same with the small cap Russell 2000 leading the way lower since it peaked on March 15. Remember that the other major indices saw their highs last week. Today should be an interesting day. With a lower open anticipated, I would be a buyer of things that have been hit harder of late, even if only for a […]
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Date: April 21, 2021
How Do You Eat an Elephant?
We begin the new week with 7 yards of fresh mulch still sitting in my driveway, down from the 8 that was dumped on Saturday. It’s a big pile. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. How do you spread all that mulch? One wheelbarrow at a time. As I tell my kids when they complain about helping, that’s why we had you guys, to be put to work. For the past few weeks, stocks have […]
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Date: April 19, 2021
Retirement Planning Connecticut: Staggering Benefits and Retirement with Your Spouse
Some say that a part of the American dream is for a couple to retire at the same time and enjoy their Golden Years doing everything together. The American reality may be something different. How to arrange your finances so that you, as a couple, don’t outlive your money and still have an enjoyable retirement lifestyle can be a complicated process. You cannot ignore the psychological effects that can accompany retirement, effects that can multiply if you both retire at […]
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Date: April 19, 2021
Two Small Cracks in the Pavement
The bulls just won’t give up. It’s been super impressive with some of the most powerful momentum I have ever seen. But, it’s not unprecedented. When I look more closely I can find a few small cracks in the pavement which I will review today. As you know, I start my analysis with the major stock market indices. They are mostly in gear to the upside. However, the Russell 2000 which is for small companies is lagging behind. Below on […]
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Date: April 16, 2021
Big Market Day – Hard to Find New Buys
It’s such a big day today. First, we have one of the highest profile IPOs of all-time coming out today on the NASDAQ in Coinbase, the cryptocurrency supermarket. All I hear are people just gushing about the company and saying that no one should worry about its Dotcom’esque valuation. One analyst is calling for $600 while a pundit was in the four figures. Good thing we don’t have epic greed and euphoria! Q1 earnings season also kicks off today with […]
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Date: April 14, 2021
