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 China and the U.S. have an unstable relationship. Each country needs the other and yet they cannot co-exist peacefully in the global economic or political sphere, especially when nativist flames and security alarms are burning brightly. That lingering instability came to prominence one more time after trade negotiations broke down (yet again) … Read more
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