Extremes

Extremes The Billy Joel channel is back on Sirius XM this month (channel 79, if you care) and it has become my go to channel in the car. Thursday, on my way home, they played “I go to Extremes” and I couldn’t help but think about the stock market. Markets tend to go to extremes, […]
READ POST

All Roads Lead to Rome

All Roads Lead to Rome The Fed came out with their new ‘dot plot’ this week and based on the results, you’d think the economy is just rolling along. But initial unemployment claims were telling another story as initial claims hit 242,000last week, well above the 225,000 estimate, and is now trending upward once again. […]
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

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. […]
READ POST

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 […]
READ POST

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 […]
READ POST