bear market

Small Cap Stocks Add Pressure to the Bears – The Market Breadth

pressure (credit: Mr Bear found out the hard way not to mess with this crew! #lego #legotoys #actionfigures #adventuretoys by Seasons K Designs on Flickr)

I earlier claimed that market breadth would only push higher with the participation of small cap stocks. Well the big moment of truth already arrived as the iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) punched through its bear market line for the third time in 11 months. With the S&P 500 (SPY) and the NASDAQ (COMPQ) relentlessly … Read more

Sign of the Times: A Safety Trade Blows Up In A Hurry

safety trade (credit: FPL Power Plant Smokestack Explosion by Captain Kimo from Flickr)

“It isn’t random that utilities are acting fairly well.” Carter Braxton Worth, CNBC Fast Money, September 8, 2022. There is truly nowhere left to hide in this stock market! One of the last “safe haven” investments, the Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLU), hit an all-time closing high exactly one month ago and today completed a … Read more

The Weak Relationship Between Bear Markets and Recessions

The February 4, 2016 edition of Nightly Business Report included a segment assessing the ability of the stock market to predict recessions. This is of course a timely piece given the stock market’s current plunge and growing recession fears arising from analyst commentary and softening economic data. Steve Liesman, chief economist for CNBC, took a … Read more