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 […]
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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. […]
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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 […]
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Choppy Waters

Choppy Waters After an amazing melt up since last November, the stock market has become choppy lately. When that happens, there is typically a ‘push-pull’ occurring that has the market uncertain of its next direction. In this case, the push higher is based on a growing economy and the presumably strong earnings that will bring. […]
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Lower is the New Higher

Lower is the New Higher A funny thing happened on the way to lower rates… Fed projections went up, not down. Wall Street was focused on the Fed’s median for 2024 projection, which was unchanged at three 0.25% rate cuts this year. But the economic gurus at the Fed took away one rate cut in […]
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Gold is Money, Everything Else is Credit.

Gold is Money, Everything Else is Credit. Gold’s traditional role in portfolios is as a haven in times of stress or perceived high risk on a shorter-term basis and longer term as an insurance policy against a decline in the value of the dollar. Gold’s recent run is interesting because it has come in the […]
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The Elephant in the Room

The Elephant in the Room We have long held that the Fed has been the dominant force in both the stock and bond markets. Rates going down? Then markets are moving up, and vice versa. That has generally been true since the recovery started in 2009. More recently, the Fed has taken a back seat. […]
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