At first glance, U.S. equities seem to be riding a bullish wave. The S&P 500 is up more than 20% in 2019, and the steady stream of IPOs for high-profile “unicorns” throughout the year suggested there was still appetite for growth-story stocks. In actuality, stocks are sitting under a pall of pessimism, with the market…...
And then the market got itself a’going! Tuesday was a jam-packed day of headlines that began with comments out of the United Nations General Assembly. Speaking to the U.N. General Assembly in New York, the president struck an bifurcated tone about reaching agreements with Beijing and other major trading partners. While slamming China for what…
What drove markets on Monday? Apparently nothing, as all 3 major U.S. indices finished just about flat for the day. It was if the trading day never took place if one looks at the closing values. The S&P 500 finished the trading day off .29 points for the day and on the heels of a…
The market fell last week and snapped a 3-week win streak after the major indices danced around record highs. For much of the trading week, the market managed to go nowhere, until Friday’s headline concerning China’s decision to forgo a state visit to Montana. In fact, all the week’s losses were largely contained to Friday,…...
Welcome to this week’s State of the Markets. Please click the following link to review the SOTM video. Our emphasis in this week’s SOTM video concerns the latest FOMC rate cut announcement and what we might expect from the economy and market going forward. We look at certain analogues and past examples of rate easing cycles. Additionally, we discuss some…
While Wednesday’s FOMC rate cut announcement stole the spotlight from other data points and prognostications, there was certainly a lot going on for investors to digest or brush off. Between the Bank of America Fund Manager Survey to the Duke CEO Survey, investors and analysts alike kept their head on a swivel heading into the…
This week, I had the pleasure of presenting our market outlook to clients at an event held at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago, IL. As I journeyed through the park, I realized that aspects of the day-to-day operations at the zoo and several of the animals seemed applicable to the state of the economy and…...
The first trading day post the Saudi Arabia oil field bombings and speculative production slowdown pushed crude oil future (CLF) prices up roughly 15%, with equity prices moving lower Monday. Crude closed near it’s intraday high of roughly $63 per barrel while the S&P 500 (SPX) finished lower by nearly 10 points on the day.…
That makes a 3-week winning streak for the major averages. The S&P 500 rose roughly 1% in the past trading week as investors eyed and achieved the all-important 3,000 level. As shown in the chart below, the benchmark index is holding nearly 2% above the 50-DMA, while all moving averages are moving higher in a…...
Welcome to this week’s State of the Markets. Please click the following link to review the SOTM video. Our emphasis in this week’s SOTM video concerns the 3-week rally in the major averages that has been characterized as a sector rotation rally. The bond sell-off we highly anticipated has taken form, underlying economic data remains healthy with CPI rising, but…
