No Surprises
There have no surprises this week, at least not for my readers. The Fed announced its overdue plan to reduce asset purchases. Check. The Russell 2000 finally scored a new all-time high. Check. The Dow Industrials hit my upside target of 36,000. Check. The other major stock market indices continued to make new highs. Check. The rising tide has lifted most ships. Check. The rally since late September has been powerful and relentless. Starting on September 20 and ever since, […]
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Date: November 4, 2021
Stocks Ain’t Done – Lots of Clowns Pretending to Know – Fed to FINALLY Taper
Let me start off by sharing a fun, engaging and informative interview I did with the good folks at Investors Hub. The Federal Reserve is currently meeting and we are finally going to hear about the long-awaited, surprise to no one, way overdue plan to taper asset purchases. This should have started over a year ago when inflation was in its infancy. Of course, my readers began hearing about inflation in the summer of 2020 as the train was leaving […]
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Date: November 2, 2021
Afternoon Swoon – Bears Lining Up
Greetings again from 32,000 feet! After a super turbulent flight down, I landed and my license was gone. Yes, somehow between Hartford and Fort Lauderdale it disappeared. And even though I had a picture copy, they would not let me rent a car. 40 minute long story short where I started making all these alternative plans and had my wife on the phone calling Hartford TSA while I called JetBlue, I found my license in my sneaker, the one on […]
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Date: October 28, 2021
Getting a Second Opinion – 6 Reasons You Owe It to Yourself
No one blinks when you ask for a second medical opinion. After all, it’s your health and well-being. You can’t be too careful. So why don’t more people seek second opinions on their finances? It’s their financial health and well-being after all. There are many motives for seeking a second financial opinion, and they don’t necessarily imply that you are currently getting bad advice, just like you may not be receiving bad medical advice either. However, if you are, changing […]
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Date: October 26, 2021
New Highs Continue as Forecast – Always a Concern
Greetings from 34,000 feet! 17 years ago, I swore I would never take a red eye flight from CA and I haven’t since. Taking a 6am is equally unappealing. Arriving at the airport at 5am, I found a literal sea of people and chaos. No matter which line you chose they were all backed up the length of the terminal and out the door. 50 minutes to get through security using TSA Pre-Check is unacceptable and insane. While in line, […]
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Date: October 25, 2021
New Highs, New Highs, New Highs BUT Junk Not Along for the Ride
The Dow Industrials sit at all-time highs. The S&P 500 has rallied for 7 straight days and is at all-time highs. The S&P 400 just hit all-time highs. It has been a fun run when most did not expect it. Wait until the Russell 2000 small caps get their tail in gear to the upside. That’s coming. If I had to poke holes in my bullish thesis I would talk about the chart below which is a popular high yield […]
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Date: October 22, 2021
Bulls Charging, BUT…
It has been a nice and fun run for the bulls since the middle of last week. The major stock market indices have all rallied 3-4%. It’s good that they are in sync. However, (Geez Paul, can’t you just leave it at that?) the daily number of stocks going up versus going down has been a bit of a stinker for the past four days. I would have liked to see very broad participation, especially in a rally so young. […]
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Date: October 20, 2021
***Q3 Client Update***
Many people like to read my very “brief” quarterly client update which I select excerpts. If you’re one of them, please read on. If not, feel free to stop now. Always happy to hear comments and questions. I would rather have been wrong on my forecast and perfectly right on our models. How’s that for a sentence to begin my Q3 report? Over the past few months, I have concluded every single client meeting with my thoughts that gains in […]
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Date: October 19, 2021
When The Ducks Quack, Feed Them
My oh my. What a difference a few days makes. We went from hearing all about 1970s style inflation, supply chain woes and challenged Q3 earnings to partying like it’s 1999, all in one week. Well, good luck to those schizophrenic investors. As my friend and Twitter queen, Helene Meisler likes to say, “nothing like price to change sentiment”. As you know, I have been firmly positive, whether or not the major stock market indices would see one more decline […]
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Date: October 18, 2021
Bulls Roar Back, Who Knew? New Highs On Track for Q4
As sentiment in the media and pundit land was negative earlier this week, stocks roared back to life on Thursday. Of course, the pundits fell over themselves telling everyone how they bought the bottom on Wednesday and became super bulls. Numbers do not lie. That’s why managing money is different from writing a newsletter, being a pundit or yelling BUY BUY BUY to unsuspecting lemmings. Thursday was a good day for the markets, at least price-wise. The major stock market […]
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Date: October 15, 2021
All-Time Highs Still The Call – One More Decline or Not
With back to back deep dish pizza dinners at Lou Malnati’s and Giordano’s, I am back from Chicago after attending what was the best NAAIM Outlook conference I can ever recall. Simply amazing speakers and highly beneficial networking opps. A number of folks who usually come really missed out on this one. First, I want to correct a statement I made yesterday in the energy video. I said something to the effect that regardless of whether the market sees one […]
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Date: October 13, 2021
Bulls Need to Step Up – Vital Canary Under Pressure
Stocks jumped up at the opening on Friday, presumably because of yet another disappointing employment report. The early chatter was that the big miss would give the Fed cover not to announce the plan to taper asset purchases next month. However, the bond market opened lower and stayed lower for the second straight day. You can see that in the chart below. That market certainly isn’t behaving like the growth is slowing and/or the Fed is going to cut back. […]
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Date: October 11, 2021
Bulls Thwart Bears to Finish in The Green – New Highs Still The Call
The stock market finally saw an intra-day reversal from a moderate down first hour to closing in the green in Wednesday. That’s one of the ingredients that gives me stronger conviction of a bottom. While we continue to be positioned for a significant rally based on our models, I still do not have strong conviction that THE bottom is in. And the truth is, I may not get exactly what I want. It could just be one of those times […]
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Date: October 7, 2021
Lots of Investors Negative But Was It THE Low?
After watching a full slate of football on Sunday afternoon (Yeah Cowboys & Jets!) as well as playing 9 holes with the “little guy” who is now 13 and an excellent golf cart driver, I watched 60 Minutes as is my normal routine before the Sunday night NFL game begins. When the teaser showed a whistleblower from Facebook, I took a deep breath and sighed. We own Facebook in one of our strategies and a healthy dose of technology sub-sectors […]
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Date: October 5, 2021
5 Times a DIY Strategy to Financial Planning Doesn’t Work
If you have the time and expertise, you might be able to do your own financial planning. However, most people lack both, which is one of the many reasons to use a financial advisor for guidance. Taking on a task you’re not properly suited for can end in costly, avoidable mistakes. Unfortunately, it takes many DIYers a few big mistakes to finally ask for help. We see this a lot at Heritage Capital, when prospective clients come to us, asking […]
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Date: October 4, 2021
October Not The Bullish Month Many Believe – All-Time Highs Still Coming
Stocks did not end the month of September nor Q3 well. Early strength weakened and the bears pounced into the close. However, that setup leads to a reliably bullish setup from a trend only is active at month and quarter-end. That’s not my opinion or thought; it’s a mechanical system. And if stocks open lower, it would add further strength to that trend. While that was the case when I woke up, news just broke about Merck’s anti-viral clinical three […]
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Date: October 1, 2021
Ugly Day on Tuesday as Pivot in Full Swing
The stock market took it on the chin on Tuesday and my major stock market pivot was in full motion. The major indices were hit with the ugly stick and sectors losses varied depending on economic exposure. However, similar to what I wrote about during the recent pullback, the decline felt worse than it actually was. There has been an unusual amount of negativity in the media. The largest real estate company on earth, Evergrande, defaulted. Inflation has been running […]
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Date: September 29, 2021
Major Stock Market Pivot
After Thursday big surge by the bulls, the bears couldn’t even get a pullback on Friday. Early weakness was quickly bought and I joined that party at the open. Very quietly banks and financials are climbing the ladder of leadership as long-term bond yields are trying to breakout to the upside. That’s probably the biggest and perhaps most important story in the short-term. It’s a return to the “reopening trade” or economically sensitive sectors. The 10-Year Treasury Note is below. […]
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Date: September 27, 2021
Bears Have Tough Few Days – No Stress in Treasury or Junk Markets
Well, well, well, as the pundits and paid actors were advising things like “SELL, SELL, SELL” on Monday, the market did its best to make monkeys out of them once again. I heard one “senior commentator” claim that the late day rally on Monday was just traders “front running” anticipated strength on Tuesday and it was unlikely any rally would hold. Boy does that sound smart. And wrong. In Dow points, the index is now 800 points above that level. […]
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Date: September 24, 2021
Textbook Bullish Setup as Fed Concludes Meeting With Some Uncertainty
FINALLY, we have a FOMC meeting where the outcome isn’t a certainty. HURRAY! First, let’s get discuss how the stock market is supposed to behave. It’s Fed day so the stock market usually trades in a band of plus to minus 0.50% until 2pm and then see a bigger move, usually to the upside. That trend has not played as well under Jay Powell as it did under Yellen and Bernanke. Stocks have also sold off into the Fed meeting […]
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Date: September 22, 2021
