Greetings from Metro North, my first train ride to New York City since February 2020. Trains are still crowded. Masks are mandatory although 25-33% of the riders are not wearing them. And my parking lot in Milford CT is now a condo complex, something that would have been helpful to know before I arrived. Given how bad traffic has been to NYC, I think I am going to stick with the train for now. I am hoping to get my […]
Read More
The markets start the new week with the Dow Industrials having been down 8 straight weeks, the most since 1923 if you believe the old data are correct. This stat has been posted all over social media. It’s just stating the obvious. The stock market has been in one of the most relentless selling waves of all-time. That’s inarguable fact and obvious to anyone with skin in the game. But it’s still not easy to live through. My question for […]
Read More
The bulls made several stands on Thursday after a total drubbing on Wednesday. And as the all-important 3pm hour started it looked as if the bulls were going to make some noise and eat into the big losses from the day before. But that wasn’t to be, leaving stocks vulnerable into the weekend. Again, the bears need to immediately progress to new lows across the board with conviction to have short-term impact. That’s not the most likely scenario. If stocks […]
Read More
Note to self. Don’t go to the eye doctor first thing in the morning and expect to get work done before lunch with dilated pupils. Wednesday’s stock market decline seems to have really stirred the bears, more so than any one single day this year. Yes, the magnitude was four digits which usually gets people going, but almost nothing scored a new low. Not the Dow Industrials, S&P 500, S&P 400, Russell 2000 nor NASDAQ 100. Only consumer discretionary did […]
Read More
My last two posts last week were essentially taking lemons and turning them into lemonade. By the way I absolutely love lemonade, especially fresh and naturally flavored ones. Strawberry, blueberry, raspberry. Sign me up! Anyway, I started to see the making of a low last week and the first nail was hammered in on Thursday with confirmation on Friday. That was one of the nastiest and longest selling waves of the modern investing era. And I am assuming that it […]
Read More
What a long week it has been. What a long month it has been. What a long year it has been. Can we start over? Markets continue to be super volatile and that’s expected at the end of massive selling waves which this turned out to be. Remember, a snowball is biggest the secondĀ before it hit the bottom. Through Thursday this wave has lasted 31 days which puts it in rarefied air. We usually see selling waves last 18-25 […]
Read More
The government released CPI today and it came in .2% hotter than expected. Pre-market trading saw an immediate plunge in the equity markets. Early morning trading shows moves in both directions so we will need to see how everything settles out at 4pm. It will be a huge win for the bulls to close mildly lower today and more of the same for the bears with another route. The stock market has been really ugly and I have certainly been […]
Read More
Monday was an ugly day coming after ugly days on Thursday and Friday. This is what the end of nasty selling waves look like. Monday was the third day in the last few weeks where 90% of the volume was trading in stocks that went down. That is widespread and pervasive selling of the indiscriminate variety. For sure, an entity or two were being forced to liquidate. I heard rumors last week about a major asset allocation shift using ETFs. […]
Read More
Good Monday Morning. The weather may finally turn nice in New England, but the markets begin the new week in the same crummy mood as last week and the week before that. And the story remains the same. Higher interest rates. Less confidence in the Fed. Inflation. The correction has been sharp and swift and painful with few places to hide. What different about this one is that the bond market’s decline has much worse on a relative basis. Bonds […]
Read More
What a week it has been! And there is still one day left although I will go out on a limb and say that Friday will look nothing like Wednesday or Thursday. On Wednesday the Fed raised rates by 1/2%, something everyone knew was coming. In my special Fed piece, I said that we would see a juiced post-2pm rally because of the selloff leading up to the meeting. Juiced was an understatement. Stocks soared in the last two hours […]
Read More