1,313 results found
Daily Market Commentary
It’s the last trading day of 2023, and not much is happening around the market. Stocks have edged higher this week, and bonds rallied on light volume. We expected this much, as we previously wrote, but this could be the “calm before the storm” with important economic data coming over the first two weeks of […]
Daily Market Commentary
Some institutional investors must only report their holdings by the end of a month or quarter. As such, they often undertake window dressing trades around the end of these periods to give the appearance they held the “right” positions. Friday, December 29th, marks the last trading day of 2023. That means today is last call […]
Daily Market Commentary
Corporations predominately borrow from banks and credit investors via the corporate debt markets. Most often, banks and credit investors have similar views as to pricing corporate loans/debt. Today, their views are starkly different. The graph below compares bank lending standards to the yield premium of junk bonds versus U.S. Treasury securities. As shown, spikes in […]
Daily Market Commentary
Per a Bloomberg article entitled World’s Biggest ETF See Record $21 Billion Flow on Stock Rally, the ETF SPY saw a massive $20+ billion inflow of funds last Friday. Interestingly, the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) had a record $5.2 billion outflow. At the same time, the equal-weighted S&P 500 (RSP) saw inflows of $2.1 billion last […]
Invest
As investors cheer on the Magnificent 7, some football fans are forging new allegiances in hopes of rooting for the coming Super Bowl champion. The task isn’t easy. Recent favorites like the Bills and Bengals are fighting to make the playoffs. Indeed, a few fans of those teams will jump on the recently popular Dolphins […]
Invest
What is the “wealth effect,” and why is it important? It is a great question and reminded me of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Colosseum.“ The hysterical play by Craig Sodaro features a naive Swiss farmer heading for Rome. His dream is to become a stand-up comedian. Little does he know […]
Invest
In October, the markets were down 10% from the July high, bond yields were touching 5%, and talk of a coming recession was rampant. What happened? Interestingly, a Wall Street axiom says, “Sell the last Fed rate hike.” The reason is that when the Fed starts cutting rates, it is due to the onset of […]
Invest
The “American Dream” is dead. It would certainly seem to be the case if you believe surveys like Gallup that showed nearly 50% of the younger generation favor socialism over capitalism. To wit: “Since 2010, young adults’ positive ratings of socialism have hovered near 50%, while the rate has been consistently near 34% for Gen […]
Daily Market Commentary
The ADP jobs report came in at 103k versus the expected 130k. The ADP also revised the jobs count from October to 106k from 113k. Over the last three months, the average gain has been just under 100k. Unlike the BLS, which surveys companies about their employment activity, ADP uses actual payroll data, including more […]