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 stock market is a cauldron of contradictions and divergences. Breakdowns below key support levels abound. Stocks suffer post-earnings fades even after companies report strong results, especially in both beaten up growth stocks and resilient big cap tech. Yet, the S&P 500 just rises above the steady erosion of market breadth with … Read more
Stock Market Commentary Last week featured an intense barrage of earnings reports. The collective response on the major indices was a major yawn. The S&P 500 finished flat for the week. The NASDAQ and the iShares Trust Russell 2000 Index ETF both softened by 0.4%. Financials were a notable exception as the Financial Select Sector … Read more
Stock Market Commentary The week began with two straight days of selling for the stock market. Almost everything was in place for a real pullback. Although the S&P 500 (SPY) was less than 2% off its all-time high, my favorite measure of breadth in the stock market, AT40 (T2108), the percentage of stocks trading above … Read more
Stock Market Commentary All March long the stock market wrestled with inflation fears. After the S&P 500 (SPY) successfully rallied away from its 50-day moving average (DMA) (red line in the chart below) in early March, I recognized signs that the stock market’s churn was a sign of digestion of these fears. Yet, so-called growth … Read more
A month ago I mused about the business of music streaming and wondered how music artists make any money from their music. A recent episode of Marketplace provided the simple answer: the transition from buying music by the unit to paying a flat monthly fee has been unprofitable for the vast majority of music artists. … Read more
Stock Market Commentary A great stock market divergence clarified itself last week. Growth stocks, especially the expensive and/or speculative kind, took a back seat to industrial and consumer names and other stocks primed to benefit most from the global economies reopening on a fresh wave of liquidity. This divergence renders a generalized view of the … Read more
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Stock Market Commentary The stock market continued its streak of trickiness. Buyers and sellers played a fierce bear-bull battle starting with one of the biggest fake-out one-day rallies since last September 2nd’s near parabolic run-up. Fresh money flowed into funds to start the month of March to for gains of 2.4% on the S&P 500 … Read more
Stock Market Commentary The stock market got quite tricky last week. A day after buyers re-established control, sellers returned with a sustained fury. The selling on Thursday reflected the stock market’s split personality while the follow-up selling on Friday seemed broader. The pressure on the the stock market looks like an ominous setup for March … Read more
Stock Market Commentary The split personality of the stock market resolved into major breakdowns in the stock market on Tuesday…for about 30 minutes. Apparently increasing inflation fears gave way to the soothing words of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at the Fed’s semiannual monetary policy report to Congress. Buyers quickly met the latest sharp and … Read more