Category: Market Updates
76 posts categorized as "Market Updates"
Has Amazon become the new “Ma Bell”?
June 06, 2020
Has Amazon become the new “Ma Bell”? After Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone in 1876, he formed the Bell Telephone company which for the…
Update on the Economy, Financial Markets, and Policies
May 31, 2020
Since Covid-19, the US stock market performance has had two distinct groups: Growth (Technology/Communications/Healthcare) and Value (Financials/Industrials/Energy/Materials). Leadership has never been more concentrated. There are…
Quietly, the stock market climbs higher.
May 09, 2020
Quietly, the stock market climbs higher. We say quietly because something has been missing – volume. This week’s relentless climb for the S&P 500 has…
Well, there’s another first.
April 26, 2020
Well, there’s another first. We all woke up on Monday to a crashing oil price that eventually went negative on the May futures contract for…
Help is on the way!
April 19, 2020
Help is on the way! That is what financial markets are feeling this week despite another difficult string of economic data. This week’s new claims…
Life is going to change.
April 13, 2020
Life is going to change. How could it not? We have seen health scares over the years, but at a psychologically safe distance far from…
The world is at war.
April 05, 2020
The world is at war. Like in all wars, lives are at stake. Unlike military conflicts, however, humanity fights together against a pandemic to save…
It’s the great data chase.
March 29, 2020
This week offered the first reprieve of asset price recovery in the current bear market. Swift and significant action by the Federal Reserve enabled the…
These are truly remarkable times.
March 20, 2020
These are truly remarkable times. The uncertainty of the virus. The interruption of the economy. The disruption in daily lives. Worldwide. What is…
What’s in a price?
March 13, 2020
What’s in a price? It’s an important question for the markets today. The price decline in equities this week is nothing short of astounding in…
Wow. Where do we begin?
March 09, 2020
Wow. Where do we begin? It has been an incredible week in follow up to the last. Relentless news flow on the virus and the…
Talk about taking it in the “shorts”.
February 07, 2020
Talk about taking it in the “shorts”. Tesla (ticker TSLA) has been on a remarkable rise. Since the end of May 2019 when TSLA closed…
Where has the time gone?
January 31, 2020
Where has the time gone? Like a flash, one-twelfth of the new year has passed. It feels like we are still taking stock of the…
What are the chances?
September 15, 2019
What are the chances? Two of the pivotal points for the financial markets in the past several months has been US-China trade relations and Federal…
Elevators and Escalators
August 18, 2019
It is often said that equity markets fall like an elevator and rise like an escalator. We have seen that description hold true these last…
US Earnings Season Kick Off
July 19, 2019
US earnings season officially kicked off last week, and through yesterday approximately 15% of the S&P 500 has reported results for the second quarter. This…
Up, up and away!
July 12, 2019
US equity markets established new all-time highs this week as the S&P 500 crested over 3,000 and the Dow exceeded 27,000. Asset markets are ascending…
Making sense of the markets today
June 23, 2019
What do you have to believe to make sense of the bond and equity markets today? Fulfilling market expectations, this week the Fed kept rates…
The Global Bond Market
June 15, 2019
The global bond market is feeling negative. Truly negative. Like “pay the issuer to take your money for years” negative. Governments such as Germany, Japan,…
It all adds up
June 07, 2019
It all adds up. One, two, three, four. This week a combination of data points caused the equity market to rip and the 10-year US…
Curve ball
June 02, 2019
The Treasury yield curve is trying to tell you something. The risk of a policy mistake is up and the risk to further economic expansion…
Mission Impossible
May 26, 2019
Mission Impossible. You could say that was Theresa May’s mandate. She faced a daunting task to execute on a 2016 referendum to separate the UK…
Who put who in “timeout”?
May 10, 2019
An ultimatum from President Trump last Sunday night that tariffs will be raised should China back away from the trade deal was the big news…
It’s tea time
May 03, 2019
Reading tea leaves is a practice that started roughly in the seventeenth century when Dutch traders started the import of the commodity into Europe from…
Four million
April 13, 2019
Four million. That is how many words are in the US tax code (known as the Internal Revenue Code or IRC). At a normal pace…
Everybody’s working it
April 05, 2019
Everybody’s working it. The employment report on Friday showed 196k jobs added. The unemployment rate remained low at 3.8% and wage growth kept at a…
The “Pain Trade”
March 29, 2019
Traders have a saying that the market “tends to create as much pain as possible”. The context which provides meaning to the statement is that…
A new lease on life?
March 22, 2019
A new lease on life? Usually you have a set date when a lease ends, but in the UK’s case it depends. This week the…
The Devil is Always in the Details
March 16, 2019
The devil is always in the details. This is as true in index-based investing as it is in life. Take for example the unfortunate airline…
The Pendulum
March 08, 2019
The pendulum of market sentiment swung back from optimism this week landing the equity market in a tight spot. There is a lot of good…
It is ironic
February 22, 2019
It is ironic……Equity market assets are increasingly becoming passive while at the same time equity market trading is becoming more algorithmic. According to the Investment…
Slow-growth is not no-growth
February 16, 2019
Looking back, it seems December left everyone in the cold. This week, the US Census Bureau finally released their report on retail trade for the…
It’s time for a temperature check
February 10, 2019
It’s time for a temperature check. Released this week, new research from UK scientists reviewed the effects of 16th century exploration on the climate of…
You can’t always get what you want
February 01, 2019
You can’t always get what you want, but sometimes you do. Like this week. The Fed knew exactly what to say to give the financial…
There is a better future ahead
December 28, 2018
There is a better future ahead. No, that is not a market or economic forecast. Just a simple belief as we look to close this…
“To hike, or not to hike”
December 14, 2018
“To hike, or not to hike, that is the question. Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous tweets,…
Has the world turned upside down?
December 07, 2018
Has the world turned upside down? This week the media seized on the occurrence of an “inverted” Treasury yield curve which happens when yields on…
A few words can go a long way
November 30, 2018
A few words can go a long way when the equity market is this anxious. There are four key issues overhanging equity market sentiment…
“Art of the Deal”
November 16, 2018
There is no part of the world left untouched by the “art of the deal.” Look no further than the United Kingdom whose Prime Minister…
Take your pick
November 02, 2018
Take your pick. On any given day, there are many bits of information both good and bad that become available and the interpretation is driven…