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 scraping by just above oversold territory. The churn of last week has created a mosaic different trading conditions. The bears are salivating at the all-time lows. The hopefuls like me are finding slivers of opportunity in the breakouts. The stock charts in this review cover some of everything. … Read more
Stock Market Commentary The stock market indices benefited from a strong 2021. year. However, under the surface, declining market breadth betrayed the bullish narrative for a wide swath of stocks. A disappointing start to the new year for the indices was even worse for those stocks already limping into the end of last year. The … Read more
Stock Market Commentary The stock market indices enjoyed an impressive year. However, weak and declining market breadth produced numerous exceptions to the strong performance of indices and ETFs. A number of important and well-known individual stocks corrected, collapsed, and crashed in 2021. For some, the tailwinds of the pandemic ran out. For others, investors tired … Read more
Stock Market Commentary In last week’s decision on monetary policy, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell directly and fully acknowledged inflationary pressures in the economy. Perhaps lost in the inflation buzz was Powell’s quick commentary on financial stability during the Q&A session: “…asset valuations are somewhat elevated, I would say.” Of course, various folks in the … Read more
Stock Market Commentary The stock market’s dip into oversold territory lasted a day. Subsequent trading has carved out a new divergence. Big cap stocks like Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT) helped bullrush the S&P 500 into an all-time high while a wide swath of stocks were left behind. Accordingly, market breadth is languishing again. The following stocks charts … Read more
Stock Market Commentary The stock market rebounded out of oversold trading conditions but ended the week in ugly fashion. The combination produced fascinating snapshots of an ugly oversold bounce. Expensive growth stocks are rapidly falling out of favor while a convergence of negative headlines and uncertainties is painting plenty of ugly all over the stock … 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
A major gauntlet dropped on the stock market. Apple (AAPL) soared as high as 3.2% but closed at just a 0.3% gain. AAPL broke out to a new all-time high last week in the middle of a swift 8-day run-up. In that time, AAPL bounced off support at its 50-day moving average (DMA) (the red … 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
Stock Market Commentary A week ago I pointed out the key signs suggesting the bear cycle was likely already ending. Last week, the S&P 500 (SPY) confirmed the end of the bear cycle with fresh all-time highs. Yet, consistent with this year’s theme, market breadth was left behind in catch-up mode. The momentum on both … Read more