Deal? What Deal???
I am sure I am not the only one who is really skeptical about this “trade deal” with China being real. While I am sure the two parties agreed on some items, we are so far from a real deal, signed, sealed and delivered. This doesn’t even sound like an agreement in principle since the Chinese have a different recollection and their state run news service tells their own story. This saga is far from over. The stock market was […]
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Date: October 14, 2019
Bears Wrong, Again?
On Monday, I wrote about the bulls thwarting the bears with another low forming in the stock market. I also showed some of the fuel that was building up for higher prices in the form of very negative options traders who are usually wrong. Couple that with my Twitter feed turning negative and the bears ostracizing my bullish view, I felt pretty good that stocks would rally. And rally they have in short order, catching the masses off guard. I […]
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Date: October 11, 2019
Bulls Thwart Bears With Another Low
Last Wednesday as stocks had pulled back to the lower end of the recent trading range, I thought we were about to see a showdown between the bulls and the bears. That battle was fought one day later as an early morning mini-collapse triggered by a poor manufacturing number flushed out the sellers and allowed the bulls to come roaring back the rest of the day with a beautiful intra-day reversal. On Friday, the bulls added to those gains and […]
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Date: October 7, 2019
The Truth About October
With Rosh Hashanah taking me out of the office for two days, I forgot to offer some stats as the sometimes nasty month of October begins. I cannot recall who first alerted me to the breakdown I am about to show so I will just say thanks to my usual cadre of characters whose work I value and respect. Rob Hanna, Ari Wald, Jason Goepfert and Tom McClellan. Overall, October has been better known for stock market bottoms than any […]
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Date: October 3, 2019
Lower End of Range Hit – Can Bulls Make a Stand?
Last week was the single worst week of the year based on seasonal patterns and it certainly lived up to the billing I gave it several times here. Weak seasonality didn’t end last Friday. It extends to the first part of October. For the past few weeks I have been in the trading range / mild pullback camp with an eye on the upper and lower ends of recent range. After stocks failed to exceed the top of the range […]
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Date: October 2, 2019
Stock Market Reaction to Impeachment
Here we go. I remember writing about impeachment in 1998 and hoped and prayed the country wouldn’t have to experience this kind of political circus again. It took 21 years, but the circus is back in D.C. Thankfully, since we only have two prior, modern day instances of impeachment, stock market results are certainly not statistically significant. Given that, however, let’s take a look at the environments surrounding each of the prior two along with where we are today. First, […]
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Date: September 27, 2019
Void of Relevant Data Makes Market Vulnerable to Headlines
With the Fed meeting behind us and earning season still a few weeks away, the markets are now acutely focused on geopolitical news. In other words, the markets are very susceptible to the latest headline or tweet. From my seat, stocks remain in a little range which I mentioned on Monday and you can see below on the right side of the chart bound by the purple line and blue line. While stocks could pop a little in very short-term, […]
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Date: September 25, 2019
Weak Week Clouds Short-Term Picture
Welcome to the single weakest week of the year, at least that’s what history suggests over the past 30 years or so. The five days after September options expiration have not been kind to the stock market overall. I should have done a little more digging to see how stocks behaved when they were already in uptrends heading into this week. Usually, September is much weaker when it begins with weakness, as I wrote about in The Myth of September’s […]
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Date: September 23, 2019
THE Weakest Seasonality of the Year is Here
Stocks are looking a little tired. That’s my take today. The bulls have tried twice to score new highs, but the bears have put up a little resistance over the past two weeks. While I do not believe the market is on the verge of a bear market or even a 10% decline, risk/reward is no longer tilted strongly towards the bulls. And that’s okay. FYI, next week is the weakest week of the year on an historical basis for […]
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Date: September 20, 2019
Here Comes Another Cut, But Will the Markets Celebrate?!?!
What to Expect Today The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is going to cut interest rates by another 1/4% at 2:00pm on Wednesday. The market is expecting it and the cut has already been priced in. Any other action would be a shocker. With stocks so close to all-time highs, this is again reminiscent of 1995 when the Fed came from an overly restrictive monetary policy in 1994 to realizing they screwed up and quickly played catch up. Stocks had […]
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Date: September 18, 2019
Stocks Were Looking for an Excuse to Pull Back
While stocks had another nice run last week, they didn’t exactly close Friday with much strength. That’s not surprising given how most of the major stock market indices were pushing up against all-time highs. So many times, we will a see security come back up and say hello to a previous important peak, only to watch it pause or mildly pullback first. The weekend news about Iran or Yemen conducting drone attacks on Saudi refining facilities was just what the […]
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Date: September 16, 2019
Bears Continue to Laugh & Scoff and Be Embarrassingly Wrong
When listening to the pundits and reading my Twitter feed over the past month or so, it has been fairly negative which it has basically been for the majority of the bull market with few key exceptions like January 2018. Whenever I prepare for a media segment, I usually start by saying that no one has been more bullish than I have on balance for the entire bull market. Most of my quantitative, upside price targets for the Dow were […]
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Date: September 13, 2019
Bears Getting Impaled
The bulls have been relentless of late, which should certainly not surprise anyone who reads this blog. I have been emphatically bullish, especially on semis and defensives, and looking for Dow 28,000. I can’t find many or really any others who have been as uniquely bullish as I have been. I don’t count anyone who believes that you should always be positive on the stock market because it will reward you over the very long-term. That’s a cop out. But […]
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Date: September 12, 2019
Remembering 9-11
I wasn’t around when Pearl Harbor was bombed but I know everyone from that generation remembers exactly where they were when it happened. My generation has the same memories of 9-11. I vividly remember watching TV in my office having just returned from Florida the night before where we debated staying one more day to get an early round of golf in on September 11th and then fly home after lunch. I was the party pooper in the group as […]
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Date: September 11, 2019
The Myth of September’s Gloom
As the calendar turned to September, the media was in their usual tizzy because historically, the month has the worst performance of any during the year. The problem with making very general statements is that context is ignored. It wasn’t long ago when all the headlines were about how strong the month of December was and everyone was all bulled up because stocks had corrected 10% in October and November. Then stocks collapsed in December like hadn’t been seen since […]
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Date: September 9, 2019
Bulls Look to Maul Bears as Semis Remain Strong
At the end of last week I wrote about the bulls’ inability to sustain a breakout above the recent range as prices briefly popped above the highs but reversed to close lower. Given my continued bullish outlook, I wasn’t worried and I am still not concerned. This morning, pre-market indications look for the bulls to attempt a full-fledged assault higher and break through the month long trading range as you can see below using the S&P 500 futures. For more […]
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Date: September 5, 2019
Bulls Poke Above Range Without Follow Through
The final day of the week and the month and I think all those investors supposedly in The Hamptons can get back to lounging on the beach or partaking in the nightlife. Not I. It’s been a month full of physical therapy, acupuncture and lots of walking and throwing with the kids when I wasn’t in the office. And to the disappointment of many, the bull market didn’t end in August and the economy didn’t recess. The trading range continued […]
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Date: August 30, 2019
Where’s the Worry About Inverted Yield Curve and 10 Year Plunge?
While the past few days did nothing to clear up the four-week trading range, I still give the nod to the bulls as I have been saying for weeks. That’s regardless of whether stocks first poke through the bottom of the range or not. I do find it funny that yields on the 10 year bond hit fresh lows on Wednesday and stocks did not collapse as some media analysts have been selling as a tried and truism lately. One […]
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Date: August 29, 2019
I Didn’t See That Coming!
Last Friday, I wrote about not expecting much or really anything new from Jay Powell when he spoke at the Fed’s annual retreat in Jackson Hole. While I was spot on about that, I absolutely did not see the tweetstorm from the President, basically threatening economic martial law, let alone questioning if his appointed Fed Chair was an “enemy”. A bit of a head scratcher. All of that led to the markets becoming unglued the rest of the day, except […]
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Date: August 26, 2019
Powell’s Much Ado About Nothing While High Beta Percolates
Markets were on pause mode on Thursday as everyone awaited Fed Chair Jay Powell’s speech from Jackson Hole on Friday morning. Most of the stories I have read and media interviews I have seen had a very binary outcome from Powell’s speech. It was “all or none”. I don’t agree. I think he is going to straddle the line as much as possible and say very little in the way of new or market moving information.The key will be not […]
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Date: August 23, 2019
