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 There are not enough superlatives in the dictionary to describe what happened today. We have borne witness to a multi-day, multi-week saga of economic warfare, tariff chaos, a rolling stock market crash – and now, an historic oversold bounce. President Trump has gone from tariffs, to tariff flexibility, to tariff reciprocity to … Read more
A Flashback On September 29, 2008, a nervous and weak stock market anxiously awaited the outcome of a Congressional vote on a $700B Wall Street bailout package known as TARP (the Troubled Asset Relief Program) as part of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. According to briefing.com, the S&P 500 (SPY) was down about … Read more
Stock Market Commentary The stock market suffered experienced a jarring selloff during the announcement of reciprocal tariffs from President Trump, a move that, despite ample telegraphing, shocked both investors and global trade partners. The Futures dropped sharply, with even oil down 2.4% and the S&P 500 plunging as much as 3% after-hours. This tariff crash … Read more
Stock Market Commentary One hundred and fifty minutes. The bearish signal that hit the stock market after the last overbought period ended essentially lasted just 150 minutes. Buyers stepped into the market on Monday after lunchtime on the East Coast and essentially barely took a pause until the last 2 hours of trading today (Wednesday, … Read more
The Misdirection The New York Times (NYT) created buzz with a report alleging that members of the Trump administration enabled “elite traders” to profit off the coronavirus-driven collapse in the stock market. While the administration confidently reassured the public about the coronavirus (COVID-19), members of the administration reportedly shared their concerns about “uncertainties” at a … Read more
The stock market convincingly followed through on last week’s bullish divergence that indicated strengthening stock market breadth. At the time of the bullish divergence, AT40 (T2108), the percentage of stocks trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs), powered higher even as the S&P 500 (SPY) lost 1.0%. The index also suffered a 50DMA breakdown. … Read more
Stock Market Statistics AT40 = 41.8% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) (ranged from 25.8% to 42.8%) AT200 = 42.6% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAs (ranged from 39.2% to 45.5%) VIX = 27.6 Short-term Trading Call: cautiously bullish Stock Market Commentary Last Friday was the kind of … Read more
An Inescapable Truth In June, 2018, I made the following claims and observations (with fresh emphasis): “…at the end of the day, Trump is determined to drive the U.S. trade deficit as close to zero as possible. This cannot happen without some substantial economic disruptions. To the extent the market refuses to price in these … Read more
AT40 = 28.8% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) AT200 = 39.9% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAs (2-month low)VIX = 19.9Short-term Trading Call: cautiously bullish (see caveats below) Stock Market Commentary Presidential Decrees “Q Six hundred and twenty-three points — that’s what the Dow was down today … Read more
AT40 = 33.1% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) AT200 = 43.1% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAs (2-month low)VIX = 18.5Short-term Trading Call: cautiously bullish (from neutral) Stock Market Commentary The extreme of August held as support…just barely. Sneaky Resilience The S&P 500 (SPY) gapped up 1.4% … Read more