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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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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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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Pre-emptive Pivot

Pre-emptive Pivot The news this week was the Fed (again) with the surprise change of anticipating rate cuts. Nick Timiraos, the so called ‘Fed Whisperer’ at the Wall Street Journal wrote about Chair Powell’s comments: “Dec 1: ‘It would be premature to … speculate on when policy might ease.’ Dec 13: Rate cuts are something […]
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