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 Pressures continue to build in financial markets. Trading today opened like a typical relief bounce but ended with a thud. A breakdown in the S&P 500 flagged the seriousness of the selling. Fresh highs in a surging volatility index confirmed the magnitude of the pressures from a new fear and loathing for … Read more
Stock Market Commentary Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell, aka “J-Pow”, finally decided the time has come to drop the descriptor “transitory” from America’s current experience with inflation (see the 37:00 mark in the video below). J-Pow even acknowledged that “it is therefore appropriate…to consider wrapping up the taper of asset purchases…perhaps a few months sooner” … Read more
Stock Market Commentary A new COVID-19 variant created a new normal for financial markets. The following stock charts provide snapshots of how the market reacted to this new reality. Pandemic-sensitive stocks reacted sharply with a holiday-shortened trading session creating extra urgency for traders. Some of these quick trigger moves should reverse at least a bit … Read more
Stock Market Commentary News of a new 30-spike protein COVID-19 variant sent financial markets into a tumble. The rapid news flow combined with a shortened, holiday trading day to deliver broad-based and intense selling pressure. As the market absorbs this latest blow, it should become clearer that COVID-19 is a new normal. That is, the … Read more
Stock Market Commentary Waning market breadth weighed on a broad swatch of stocks last week. I was compelled to let go of some of my worst losing stocks. I feature a few of them in this inaugural Stock Chart Reviews series. My pace of trades will likely slow for the rest of the year unless … Read more
Splunk (SPLK) started last week with a gap down and 18.1% plunge in the wake of the resignation of CEO Doug Merritt. I thought the sell-off was an over-reaction given Graham Smith, the Chair of Splunk’s Board of Directors, stepped in to play interim CEO. However, the accompanying preliminary Q3 earnings report gave me pause. … Read more
Stock Market Commentary Technology stocks are now the main stocks climbing the wall of inflation. A notable and stark rotation unfolded this last trading week. A new plunge in market breadth seemingly accompanied selling of almost everything without the big cap tech label. With a topping in market breadth confirmed, I triggered a fall clean-up … Read more
Stock Market Commentary And just like that, the bullish expansion of market breadth hit a wall…a wall of inflation. The October Consumer Price Index (CPI) for all urban consumers apparently surprised financial markets by soaring 0.9% from September and 6.2% over October, 2020. The chart below shows that both surges are at the high end … Read more
Stock Market Commentary The first trading week of November was action-packed. At the start of the week I looked ahead to monetary policy from the Federal Reserve and the October jobs report as key catalysts. While those events were indeed important, the stock market was treated to an overlay of at least two other important … Read more
Stock Market Commentary The S&P 500 (SPY) bounced back from September’s woes for a 6.9% gain for the month of October. While the gain is extreme, I am even more interested in a different October extreme. Somehow, the index managed to skate through October without a notable drawdown. The maximum drawdown in October for the … Read more