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 Last week was billed as another marquee Fed week. While decision day brought a lot of intraday volatility, the churn became a mere speedbump as market breadth yawned and the stock market melt-up continued. The main message I heard from the Fed was an acknowledgement of an economy weak enough to warrant … Read more
The Extremes I look for opportunities when markets overreact to sentiment extremes. The recent drama over the logo change for Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc (CBRL) provided a textbook case. A redesign consistent with modern branding aesthetics set off a social media backlash, fueled by cultural politics and amplified by high-profile voices. In the … Read more
Stock Market Commentary The current administration’s policy of long-term growth through short-term pain in the form of austerity came into clear focus last week. I earlier introduced this concept in “Growth Scare or Overreaction – An Oversold Market or Something Worse?“. Last week, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent laid out the strategy in detailed economic … Read more
Stock Market Commentary Holiday trading last week was deceptively lazy. The indices did a lot of churning, yet the S&P 500 and the ETF of small caps each made all-time highs at some point. A good number of individual stocks developed and followed through on bullish setups. For example, all week long, new highs greatly … Read more
Stock Market Commentary In announcing the official end of monetary tightening, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell mentioned some form of the word “recalibration” nine times from his introductory statement to the Q&A portion of the press conference. Specifically, “….it’s a process of recalibrating our policy stance away from where we had it a year ago, … Read more