Stop, drop, and roll

Stop, drop, and roll. Equity markets spent the better part of yesterday’s session trying to claw their way out of early session deficits but any hopes of a solid close were dashed by a Presidential Tweet. Trump announced a plan to add an additional 10% tariff on $200 billion in Chinese exports affecting 40% of…

Up, up and away!

Up, up and away!  Stocks rose again in yesterday’s session after receiving positive economic news and the potential for a Canadian trade deal.  In fact, stock traders were really looking for excuses to buy yesterday as momentum and animal spirits were the real drivers in the positive move.  If you read my geek-out Wednesday description…

Rolling with it

Rolling with it.  Equity markets were able to float into a positive close yesterday, though the animal spirits of prior sessions took a well-deserved break.  On a quiet, low volume day the S&P500, the Russell 2000, and the NASDAQ 100 indices all eked out new highs yesterday and Dow Jones came to rest just around…

Flying High

Flying high.  Both the S&P500 and NASDAQ 100 closed at new highs yesterday helped along by the announcement of a US Mexico trade deal… of course momentum helped a bit as well.  The S&P500 muscled to a new high once again yesterday closing just below its intraday high as traders pressed down on the accelerator…

Happy Days!

Happy Days!  The S&P500 is back on top!  Fed Chief Jerome Powell said just enough to spur the large cap index to elevate itself to a new high close.  Interestingly, Powell really didn’t provide any new revelations.  He actually repeated his typical party line of methodical rate hikes with a slow normalization of the Fed…

An object in motion stays in motion

An object in motion stays in motion.  A well known quote from Newton’s first law.  The lesser spoken part of that law states that the object stays in motion unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.  I am not sure if Newton was writing about equity markets, but that certainly appeared to be the case…

Sitting Bull

Sitting Bull.  No, not the famous Lacota Leader of Little Bighorn Battle fame.  I am talking about the market, of course.  Yesterday’s news cycle was a battle between, what many were calling, the longest bull market in history and the beltway turmoil caused by the Manafort conviction and the Cohen plea deal. Sounds like the…

What’s in a number?

What’s in a number?  Well, if that number happens to be the all time high set by the S&P500 Index back in January, it might be the number that traders aim for when attempting to spur a me-too rally causing the crowd to rush in for fear of missing out.  That number at the start…

Somethings gotta give

Something’s gotta give.  Yesterday, being a quiet news day, allowed traders to follow on positive sentiment and rally equity indices and bonds (yes you read it correctly, bonds).  The day started with some M&A news as Pepsi announced its intention to acquire SodaStream and the news was followed by Tyson announcing its plans to acquire…

Weak Week

Weak week.  Last week was one marked with weakness in foreign currencies, weakness in the case for sleep-deprived tweeting (see Tesla), and weakness in the sectors that have done the bulk of the pulling of equity markets in the currently shifting market regime.  What was not weak last week were earnings, particularly amongst some retailers….