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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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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Things Are Not Always as They Appear

Things Are Not Always as They Appear There is an old saying about Wall Street prognosticators: Often Wrong, Never in Doubt. The first problem with prognostications is that they are typically very short-term oriented. The second problem is that they often hide counterintuitive facts. The third problem is they contain their own behavioral biases. Since […]
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Bitcoin is Back, With a Vengeance

Bitcoin is Back, With a Vengeance Bitcoin, the ‘nothing’ asset is back, and it continues to rally after a strong 2023, but still not quite at all-time highs. Many are focusing on this rally to argue for bitcoin as a legitimate asset, but there are better reasons for that consideration. Bitcoin is often promoted as […]
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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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Confused Yet?

Confused yet? It was a week of inconsistencies. Inflation has been down; now CPI and PPI are up. Retail sales were strong; now they are weak. Manufacturing PMIs are up; Industrial production is down. Lay-off announcements are up; initial jobless claims are down. For a data dependent Fed trying to time interest rate reductions, the […]
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It Was a New Day Yesterday

It Was a New Day Yesterday… But it’s an old day now (with apologies to Jethro Tull). Financial markets are dominated by cycles. In 2023, the Magnificent 7 dominated the stock market. Those seven stocks had a terrific year, while the other 493 stocks in the S&P 500 collectively struggled to keep their heads above […]
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