ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
Stock Market Commentary After a month of churning, market breadth is wavering again. This slip is just about the only sign that the market cares at all about looming risks from a potential government shutdown. Even the volatility index (VIX) dropped 8.6% on Friday and remains just below where it closed right before the tariff … Read more
Stock Market Commentary The stock market leaned into a melt-up as a constant stream of IPOs signaled risk-on appetite even as a massive downward revisions in jobs in the 12 months through March, 2025 implied more than expected economic weakness ahead. Rate cuts beckon as a result of this broadening weakness, and Wall Street has … Read more
Stock Market Commentary The market staged a quick rebound this week after the “bears break-in” two Fridays ago. Most losses reversed by Monday’s close as buyers stepped in with conviction and quickly repaired the indices. However, the bounce masked the on-going failure of market breadth to keep pace with the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ, … Read more
Stock Market Commentary A bearish engulfing top pattern in the S&P 500 now seems like a distant memory. Yet, the melt-up in the stock market faces a new test. Just as the stock market enters its most dangerous months of the year in terms of drawdowns, a bearish divergence has emerged with market breadth. What … Read more
Stock Market Commentary The stock market last week was full of a nervous calm. Fed Chair Jerome Powell seemed to muffle the market’s mood after warning that meaningful inflation is yet to come as a result of tariffs. The expiration of the 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs looms over the market with just one major … Read more