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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More