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: What was quiet in the prior week is now loud and clear. Led by the NASDAQ, the stock market is in breakout mode. While market breadth is not quite endorsing the move, key breakouts are showing up in the indices and individual stocks. The inability of sellers to take advantage of bad … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: On a weekly basis, the stock market seems to flip its abiding theme. One week after I accused the stock market of sleepwalking, buyers roused the major indices out of their slumber with a new and sudden display of strength. A 13.9% post-earnings surge from Meta Platforms, Inc (META) seemed to set … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: Put all the headlines aside. Last week was all about the technicals. Picture-perfect support unfolded for the major indices and stopped bearish momentum dead in its tracks. Suddenly, the stock market went from the verge of confirming a short-term top from early February to looking ready to make a run at challenging … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: This stock market is one bullish bear market. A bear market perhaps cannot get more bullish than the current market. Since the October lows, the various indices have shown a general upside bias. As much time that I have spent the last several weeks looking for excuses to get bearish, the market … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: Last week ended the overbought period with a relatively strong report on initial claims for unemployment. The stock market – still freshly stung with the memory of the previous week‘s exceptionally strong jobs report – sold off sharply in response to the good economic news. A stubbornly resilient labor market continues to … Read more
Dave & Busters Entertainment (PLAY) is a major gaming and dining entertainment center that recently expanded internationally. Insiders – corporate executives and especially one particularly eager institutional shareholder – have expanded ownership in the company for many months. When I recently read in briefing.com that a 10% owner purchased 214,588 shares, I finally jumped into the … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: Yesterday’s surge in the Japanese yen (FXY) may have exhausted enough sellers to clear the path for some holiday cheer in the stock market. Suddenly, the market seemed to transition from the heavy burdens of a stubbornly hawkish Fed to the alluring hopes from a lack of (scheduled) negative catalysts for the … Read more
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
Stock Market Commentary: I continue to underestimate just how much these bear market rallies price in misplaced optimism over monetary policy from the Fed. Although Chair Jerome Powell remained overall consistent with the Fed’s hawkish, inflation-fighting message, the stock market plunged after an initial post-release surge. Accordingly, the latest bear market breakthrough came to an … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: The stock market has swung so much between hope and despair that it looks like a dog chasing its tail down a hill. Accordingly, “The Market Breadth” has careened from soaring headlines to danger signs. A steep downtrend has remained in place since the last peak in August. Since that time 200-day … Read more