ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Since the year 2000, delivering a different narrative for students and fans of financial markets: stocks, options, currencies, Bitcoin, and more…
Stock Market Commentary: The last bullish run in the stock market came to an abrupt end. The day started on a positive note, but trading went awry after a mix of relatively unsurprising economic news releases and Fedspeak. News that the Justice Department would announce an international enforcement action against a cryptocurrency entity seemed to … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: Last week was a bullish week for the stock market. Key breakouts on the major indices made a bullish case for stocks as buying strength conjured up overbought trading conditions. Yet another post-CPI celebration sealed the deal on a bullish convergence leading into the report on inflation. While it is tempting to … 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
Stock Market Commentary: September was about as somber as it gets for financial markets. The S&P 500 lost 9.3% for the month which falls well below both the median and average (negative) historical performance for the index. With the June lows breached, the pandemic-era gains for the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ are now at … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: For those desperately looking for the “Fed pivot”, today’s Federal Reserve statement on monetary policy disappointed with a validation of the breakdown leading into the Fed meeting. Fed Chair Jerome Powell was almost unrelenting from start to finish with his efforts to stay on message: inflation remains too high, and the Fed … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: Pricing pressures are apparently NOT easing just yet. The August CPI report turned “peak Fed” into “fear the Fed” all over again. Instead of falling, core inflation (CPI excluding food and energy) increased a whopping 0.6% month-over-month. This surge pushed the 12-month core inflation rate up from July’s 5.9% to August’s 6.3%. … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: The confluence of market-moving news the last two days of the week resolved into a stock market looking incrementally healthier. A synchronized breakout above resistance at respective 50-day moving averages (DMAs) flipped the script on the negative sentiment that dominated trading going into last week. While weakness in the U.S. dollar from … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: Even sellers in a bear market exhaust themselves at some point. That point happened to coincide with the latest product announcements from Apple Inc (AAPL). So once again, AAPL finds itself sitting right at the focal point of an important market juncture. Across the major indices, the day’s relief rally generated a … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: The recession that Wall Street wants remains elusive according to the August jobs report. The data show the labor participation rate increased with job growth and a minimal increase in the unemployment rate: a recipe for the (mythical?) economic soft landing. The reaction in the stock market reflected the duality in interpreting … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: Now I see why there was so little fanfare about the end of the bear market. Last week’s trading looks like a warm-up for a bear market comeback. The S&P 500 and the iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) printed bearish confirmations of resistance at their respective 200-day moving averages (DMAs) (the blue … Read more