The Verdict

The Verdict Last week we mentioned the Wall Street adage ‘buy the rumor, sell the news’ and wondered how markets would react to the first rate cut. The answer still isn’t clear. On Wednesday, the market swung wildly right after the 50 bps rate cut was announced. That is typical right after a Fed announcement, […]
READ POST

Going Down

Going Down Next week is the big Fed rate cut decision, so this was the last week of data to influence that decision. In our view, the data this week was not bad enough to call for a 50 basis point cut (bps are basis points and a basis point is 1/100 of a percent) […]
READ POST

Not So Fast!

Not So Fast! The rate cut train was building momentum when a strong 2Q GDP report hit and stopped that train in its tracks. The stock market was already on edge as the early earnings reports, including the tech sector, have either not been up to par, or simply failed to impress. The earnings bar […]
READ POST

Tightwire Act

Tightwire Act The Fed could be walking a tight wire. The state of the labor market is critical for Fed policy. As the labor market remained tight, the Fed could afford to be patient with rate cuts to make sure inflation does not revive. But a Bloomberg economist is taking exception to the idea that […]
READ POST

The Big Picture

The Big Picture One of the great problems writing this missive from week to week is getting too buried in day-to-day events. When that happens, it is very easy to lose sight of the big picture – the very big trends that often occur less than once in a lifetime, but can have monumental impact […]
READ POST

Short Takes for a Long Weekend

Short Takes for a Long Weekend A Tentative Green Light The ‘most important event this week’ was the earnings report from AI leader, NVIDIA (NVDA) on Wednesday afternoon. The good news is that earnings exceeded expectations once again, the company announced a 10-for-1 split and the stock hit a new high in excess of $1,000. […]
READ POST

What, Me Worry?

What, Me Worry? The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) held their meeting this week and as usual, it created some wild swings on Wall Street. What caused the ruckus this time was a market that had been leaning toward fewer and fewer rates cuts and some early chatter about maybe the next move had to […]
READ POST