ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
The bear market intrusion to the oversold period gave way to an explosion of bullish trading action this week. The maximum drawdown of October for the S&P 500 (SPY) was 4.0% well above the average for the month. This extreme move provided the perfect setup for the sharpness of the current oversold bounce. The rubber … Read more
Stock Market Commentary The economist “consensus” expectations for September job growth missed the mark by a mile, 336,000 actual versus 170,000 projected. These big misses represent the on-going struggles of conventional economics to understand the dynamics of today’s post-pandemic economy. Initially, the good jobs news frightened financial markets which think of good news as bad … Read more
ChatGPT Speaks I continue to find interesting and valuable ways to use ChatGPT. After listening to a segment on CNBC’s Fast Money that wrangled over the risks in commercial real estate, I decided to ask ChatGPT a topical question: “What publicly traded commercial real estate REITs struggled the most during the great financial crisis?” I … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: Unlike the prior week, last week was all about the fundamentals, and the fundamentals made a huge difference. After failing to break through picture-perfect resistance levels, especially the 20-day moving averages (DMAs) (the dotted lines in the charts below), the indices were left vulnerable to selling pressure. The pressure started with Federal … Read more
Housing Market Intro and Summary In my last Housing Market Review, I described a housing market that shows signs of stabilization. That stabilization continues despite a strong rebound in mortgage rates. Mortgage rates now look like a renewed risk to the housing market. However, the uptrend in most of the stocks of home builders are … Read more
Stock Market Commentary Traders switched up sentiment in the stock market with a flash. After struggling under the shadow of the bear for nearly two weeks, buyers made a bullish dash for stocks. The major indices flipped from key fades at critical resistance to convincing slices through key resistance. The broad based buying put a … Read more
A month ago I laid out the case and conditions for bottoming across the collection of ARK funds. The key pivot rested with the ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF). It still is the first and only of the pre-pandemic ARK funds to break its pandemic era closing low. Over the past month, ARKF struggled mightily … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: “The U.S. economy remains fundamentally strong, despite recent mixed data. Recent developments have increased the risk of a future adverse outcome. Our fortress principles are designed to withstandany operating environment.” JP Morgan Chase & Co (JPM), Investor Day 2022, Firm Overview, page 12 Starting from oversold conditions, the market was looking for … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: Some stocks benefit greatly from an oversold bounce. Some stocks continue to dampen the mood. Today, retailers bruised an otherwise impressive continuation of the oversold bounce in the stock market. With retailers weighing down the market with poor implications for the macro environment, caution remains warranted. Still, the rebounds in the most … Read more
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