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: Forget recession fears. Forget an aggressively hawkish Fed. Forget the stock chart holdouts. Bullish belief delivered another powerful confirmation of what has become an exceptionally strong bounce from March’s nervous test of the last oversold point. The rally launched from the March lows and barely rested or paused. The rally has been … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: The stock market finished the week with confirmations of the bullish signals that were hard to believe. Accordingly, the follow-through buying served to uphold bullish belief despite the negative headwinds that scream with bearish overtones. Looking back, the current V-move upward looks swift. However, letting bullishness ride through this swing has taken … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: The stock market continued its quest to convince us that the world is getting or soon will get a lot better. Perhaps the market is somehow feeding off the definitive hawkishness from the Federal Reserve. Whatever the explanation, market breadth expanded to levels last seen 4 months ago. The rally demonstrates broadly … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: I did not back my way into an explanation for Wednesday’s post-Fed rally in the stock market, and I will not do so to explain the rest of the market’s impressively relentless comeback. In fact, the rally makes little sense given the prevailing narrative of fears over higher rates – not to … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: I will not attempt to back my way into an explanation for today’s impressive rally in the stock market. Maybe the surge is another classic bear market relief rally. Maybe the relief fuel symbolizes a market finally ready to leave a bottom behind. Time will tell. What IS clear is that the … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: The fresh sag in the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ makes the stock market look like it is running low on fuel. The damage is timely just ahead of the next meeting of the Federal Reserve. In these circumstances, I would expect the Fed to deliver soothing words to the stock market … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: The stock market held up surprisingly well last week given the intensifying Russian assault on Ukraine and the accelerating economic sanctions pressing upon Russia. Yet, similar to my concerns for the suffering Ukrainian people, I have increasing doubts that this market “stasis” can last much longer. Specifically, the downtrending 20-day moving averages … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: When Russia launched a full scale invasion of Ukraine, financial markets took heavy hits. Overnight, I anticipated a drop into oversold trading conditions for the U.S. stock market. Those oversold trading conditions were surprisingly and exceptionally brief. The major indices gapped down well below their lower Bollinger Bands (BB), and I waited … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: A divergence still exists between the anxiety in financial markets and market breadth, but that divergence is no longer so promising. Sellers rushed into the close as rumblings rolled of an escalation in the Ukraine-Russia conflict. After Putin followed through with a nighttime strike against Ukraine, stock market futures sold off sharply. … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: The market feels heavy and bearish. Yet, the major indices continue to bounce between the edges of their “churn zones.” Last week’s churn delivered a surprising ray of light tantalizing the dour sentiment. While the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ closed with a second straight week of losses, the major breadth indicators … Read more