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 This week brought a return of market calm across the stock market following a sharp but brief trade-induced shock. The episode began with President Trump’s threat of significant tariffs on Europe (and foreign-made iPhones), which rattled the market. However, that fear evaporated after Trump walked back his threats with a 90-day pause … Read more
Stock Market Commentary A market calm emerged thanks to a pause on reciprocal tariffs and then a ceasefire in the US vs China trade war. This market calm shattered as a new tariff shock came in the form of President Trump threatening the European Union (EU) with a 50% tariff while at the same time … Read more
Stock Market Commentary We made it through another week without any major negative headlines impacting the stock market. Although late-breaking news took futures down due to Moody’s dropping the U.S. from its top credit rating, marking the loss of the last top-tier assessment of U.S. government debt, I expect the market impact to be minimal. … Read more
Stock Market Commentary The stock market resolved one cliffhanger, a hovering just below resistance at 200-day moving averages (DMAs) on the major indices, and moved on to another. A large surge in reaction to a pause in China vs U.S. trade hostilities sent the major indices gapping right over resistance and directly into the overbought … Read more
Stock Market Commentary The market ended the week on a quiet cliffhanger as major indices hovered under critical resistance levels. A defining theme was the muted reaction to major headlines, particularly around trade and stagflation risks. Despite the looming shadow of stagflation – a term not explicitly mentioned but clearly implied in last week’s Fed … Read more
Stock Market Commentary Last week marked an important shift as the stock market experienced overdue relief. Most notably, there were no major headlines causing significant disruptions in financial markets. Instead, the market continued the theme of recovery from the previous week, driven by policymakers pivoting their messaging about the economic chaos triggered by policies and … Read more
Stock Market Commentary Overhead resistance once prevailed over expanding market breadth, particularly over the past two trading sessions. The dominant headline was Federal Reserve Chair Powell’s warning about the difficult scenario facing the Fed due to tariffs. I interpreted his message as an intention to avoid responding as long as possible. For a market pricing … Read more
Stock Market Commentary The tariff rumors proved true after all. The green shoots of Monday that grew alongside the rumor of a pause presaged Wednesday’s massive relief from a real blink on tariffs. Those historic gains were large enough to generate a strong week broadly across the stock market. Still, as more blinking and backing … Read more
Stock Market Commentary And so a bear market ends, for the S&P 500 at least. The stock market enjoyed a strong follow-through day supported by previous oversold conditions. To represent the most recent technical developments, I created a well-defined area for the bear market called the “area of agitation”. The S&P 500’s breakout above this … Read more
Stock Market Commentary The market delivered a contradictory signal to end the week. For example, while swingtradebot flashed very bullish technical indicators, market breadth declined the last two days of the week. This divergence is symbolic of the swirling tensions in the air. After, the three-week sell-off into a bear market took advantage of rising … Read more