Bracing for 2023 – Housing Market Review

bracing for 2023 (Credit: Bracing for the storm by mick62 on Flickr)

Housing Market Intro and Summary A continued respite from rising rates gave some breathing room for new home sales to stabilize in November while existing home sales continued to plunge with a dearth of inventory helping to suck air out of the room. Housing starts continued to plunge in parallel with home builder sentiment. However, … Read more

Stocks Rush Back to Overbought Despite Powell’s Fresh Inflation-Fighting Warnings – The Market Breadth

rush back (Credit: Oskar running in the snow II by Tambako the Jaguar from Flickr)

Stock Market Commentary: Social unrest from fresh COVID lockdowns in China are already a distant memory for the U.S. stock market. Just as quickly as the stock market bearishly failed once again to hold overbought trading conditions, market breadth flipped the script to surge and rush back to overbought. Buyers and bulls celebrated a speech … Read more

The United States Oil Fund and the Monday Blues

United States Oil Fund Monday Blues (Credit: Sunset on an empire by Jim_Nix on Flickr)

The United States Oil Fund, LP (USO) has declined six straight Mondays and seven of the last eight. Prior to this streak, USO only declined 39% of Mondays in 2022 (where the market was trading on the prior Friday). Overall, the split is essentially 50/50 with 19 Monday blues versus 20 Monday gains. In other … Read more

From Distraught to Overbought In A Flash – The Market Breadth

distraught to overbought (Credit: Shopping cart at Weis by SchuminWeb from Flickr)

Stock Market Commentary: The latest cryptocurrency scandal and implosion distracted the market (and me) from the upside potential of the October CPI (Consumer Price Index) report. Likely contagion, real and psychological, from crashing crypto prices helped drive distraught trading that created technical breakdowns across the major indices. U.S. midterm elections on Tuesday also apparently failed … Read more

Hot Inflation Read Accelerated the Timeline for Peak Fed Rates

The landscape of inflation and monetary policy continues to change fast. The June inflation numbers disappointed expectations once again for peak inflation. A surprise 1% point rate hike by the Bank of Canada combined with this hot inflation accelerated the timeline for peak interest rates from the Federal Reserve. Instead of a 75 basis point … Read more

Why Wall Street Wants A Recession

Jerome Powell at the Reservation Economic Summit

That sigh of disappointment was Wall Street looking for signs of a weakening labor market in the June jobs report. Instead, that report showed job creation remains robust in the economy. Not only did the unemployment rate remain steady at a low 3.6% with the economy adding 372,000 jobs (far more than “consensus” expectations), the … Read more

Stock Chart Reviews – Industrial Weakness

Stock Market Commentary: Fears of a recession are running high as the Federal Reserve scrambles to normalize monetary policy. The Fed is racing against an economic clock. It needs to get rates as close to the “neutral rate” as possible before a weakening economy finally forces them to reverse course. The higher the rates when … Read more

Stock Chart Reviews – A Bear Market of Crushed Gems and False Hopes

Stock Market Commentary: A little over a month ago, the prospects of a bottom for this bear market got me a little more interested in individual stocks. Unfortunately, the bear market rubble expanded shortly after that. Amid the rubble are crushed gems and false hopes. These stock charts follow up on my initial reads and … Read more

Stock Chart Reviews – Sifting Trash & Opportunity In Bear Market Rubble

Stock Market Commentary: With the prospects of a bottom for this bear market, I am getting a little more interested in individual stock narratives. The bear market rubble is extensive. The gems are dispersed across a wide area. These stock charts provide one framework for sifting through the trash and the opportunity. {note: in this … Read more

Stock Chart Reviews – Snapshots of the Fresh Bearishness

Stock Market Commentary: After much resistance to Fed hawkishness, the U.S. stock market gave way to fresh bearishness. The major indices dropped into new depths of the bear den. The stocks below are snapshots of the latest deterioration in the price action and decline in the technical health underlying the stock market. The ARK funds … Read more