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 month, the stock market seemed to conclude that the threat of inflation had all but disappeared. Given the resulting celebration is one of the key drivers of the current extended overbought rally, today’s report on December’s CPI (Consumer Price Index) took on some significance. So when CPI missed “expectations” on the … Read more
Stock Market Commentary As new year weakness continues in the stock market, a serious tension has emerged in the message of the market between profit-taking versus a sustained top. An extended overbought period raises the stakes for the resolution of this tension. As long as the stock market remains overbought, I will assume the current … Read more
Stock Market Commentary Exactly two weeks ago, the stock market fell out of bed. I called the abrupt move the rally’s third strike. However, buyers jumped right back into the fray and overcame that third strike with a rally right to the second to last trading day of the year. So far, the new year … Read more
Stock Market Commentary Signature stock market moments capped a remarkable year for the stock market. Two months of nearly relentless buying delivered a stunning 70% of the gains for the S&P 500 in 2023 after bulls exploded out of oversold trading conditions. Housing-related stocks soared even more as financial markets celebrate the presumed end of … Read more
Stock Market Commentary After the stock market rally suffered strike one and strike two, Wednesday’s sudden pullback had all the signatures of a third strike to start the end of the extended overbought rally. Sellers surged in the final 90 minutes of trading that day. However, they failed to sustain the stampede for the exits. … Read more
Stock Market Commentary For traders like myself who follow market cycles from extreme fear to extreme euphoria, last week’s trading action was astonishing. The stock market was already well overbought and stretched going into Wednesday’s Federal Reserve meeting. Yet, buyers STILL managed to go into extreme stretch mode. The Federal Reserve essentially declared the death … Read more
Stock Market Commentary Despite strike one and strike two against the market rally, buyers are stretching out this overbought period. The jobs report for November seemed to further support the case of an economy that survived the Fed’s rate hike cycle even as the case recedes for near-term rate cuts. The stock market responded by … Read more
Stock Market Commentary Technical underpinnings are changing fast in the stock market. The first strike against the rally came in the form of initial struggles to break into overbought territory. A second strike has now emerged in the form of an appreciating Japanese yen (FXY). To the extent carry trades – borrowing cheap yen to … Read more
Stock Market Commentary Market breadth tentatively tested the overbought threshold before buyers got a hit and made a dash into overbought conditions. The previous tentativeness created a first strike against the market rally. The dash into overbought conditions refreshed a broad bullishness in the stock market. Long-term interest rates were once again the center of … Read more
Stock Market Commentary The rally out of the stock market’s last oversold period finally suffered its first strike today as a strong open fizzled into some important fades. The S&P 500 and the NASDAQ tapped highs of the year only to fail into marginally negative closes. Most importantly, market breadth perfectly tapped the threshold for … Read more