Dare to hope. Stocks traded up in yesterday’s session on hopes that the Chinese trade dispute is on a positive track. Fueled with news that Xi Jinping would rework its China 2025 plan to be more friendly to US concerns along with promises that soybean purchases from US farmers would resume, markets rocketed up in…
Up, down, all around. Markets were very choppy yesterday principally driven by news on the China trade front and news from the Oval Office (if you could call it that). Markets started the day digesting positive news that China would resume soy bean purchases and were considering removing tariffs on automobiles. The positive news was…
U Turn. Stocks reversed course after a morning of selling with the S&P500 bouncing off the 2018 low close made back in April. As the session began on an already weakened leg from Asian trade, news that Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May was postponing a Brexit vote in Parliament hit the news feed. The postponement…
Into the basement. Sellers pushed stocks into the cellar on Friday as fear over trade and the yield curve loomed over the markets. Friday morning’s economic releases painted a positive picture of job growth (although newly added non-farm payrolls were slightly less than expected) with the unemployment rate remaining at 3.7% (still at record lows…
Whipsaw!! There is no better way to describe yesterday’s equity markets than to use the old Wall Street description. Traders awoke yesterday to see the last hopes of a post G-20 rally fade away as news of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou’s arrest in Canada hit the tapes. As reported here yesterday morning, the news caused…
Sweet and sour. Stocks were pounded on Tuesday as trader sentiment shifted from ecstatic to panic. Markets seemed to set themselves up for disaster last week as they rallied on no real Fed policy changes and hopes for a Chinese deal. By Monday it should have been clear that the meeting in Buenos Aires represented…
Remembering 41. As the Nation and the financial markets pause to mourn the loss of President George H. W. Bush, I thought this would be a good day to reflect on his presidency from the perspective of the financial markets. Bush certainly inherited his fair share of challenges on both the political and economic stage…
Give peace a chance. The so-called truce between the US and China had traders in stocks, bonds, and crude betting that better things will come. As reported here yesterday the 90 day truce, which included several “potential” concessions by the Chinese and a pledge by the US Administration to hold off a planned +15% tariff…
Dinner is a winner!? Stocks surged on the heals of continued Fed happiness and reports surfacing that a deal for China was prepped and ready. All major equity indices traded up late in Friday’s session ending November on a positive note. The move represented a convergence of positive drivers, chief among them was Chairman Powell’s…
