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 The protracted shutdown of the U.S. Federal government has dragged past three weeks and Federal workers have now missed their first paychecks of this battle. The stock market rallied to an all-time high when the shutdown started, and it certainly seems to care even less after recovering from a 1-day mini panic … Read more
CEO Sam Altman launched OpenAI’s DevDay 2025 with a series of demos showing off the generative AI platform’s latest capabilities. I was particularly intrigued by demonstrations of features developed in partnership with several companies including Figma (FIG), Spotify (SPOT), Hubspot (HUBS), Coursera (COUR), and Zillow Group (ZG) (links go to the relevant section of the … Read more
Stock Market Commentary Last week’s trading had something for almost everyone: volatility, churn, recovery, and a bank scare. A familiar story about renewed U.S.–China trade tensions expanded into a larger mosaic of market stress and resilience. Still, given market breadth remains broken, I see a market skating on the edge. The volatility index (VIX) summarizes … Read more
Stock Market Commentary China and the U.S. have an unstable relationship. Each country needs the other and yet they cannot co-exist peacefully in the global economic or political sphere, especially when nativist flames and security alarms are burning brightly. That lingering instability came to prominence one more time after trade negotiations broke down (yet again) … Read more
The bearish to bullish reversal ended for home builder stocks with a return to bear market territory. Today, October 9, 2025, the iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF (ITB) dropped under the threshold that defines a bear market: 20% below the all-time high (see chart below). The 2.6% slide on the day is part of a … Read more