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: For those desperately looking for the “Fed pivot”, today’s Federal Reserve statement on monetary policy disappointed with a validation of the breakdown leading into the Fed meeting. Fed Chair Jerome Powell was almost unrelenting from start to finish with his efforts to stay on message: inflation remains too high, and the Fed … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: The week’s CPI shocker abruptly dissuaded the market from expecting good tidings from the upcoming meeting of the Federal Reserve. Selling followed through two out of the next three days as a nervous breakdown unfolded in the stock market. The S&P 500 (SPY) and the NASDAQ (COMPQ) even printed fresh 2-month closes … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: Pricing pressures are apparently NOT easing just yet. The August CPI report turned “peak Fed” into “fear the Fed” all over again. Instead of falling, core inflation (CPI excluding food and energy) increased a whopping 0.6% month-over-month. This surge pushed the 12-month core inflation rate up from July’s 5.9% to August’s 6.3%. … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: The confluence of market-moving news the last two days of the week resolved into a stock market looking incrementally healthier. A synchronized breakout above resistance at respective 50-day moving averages (DMAs) flipped the script on the negative sentiment that dominated trading going into last week. While weakness in the U.S. dollar from … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: Even sellers in a bear market exhaust themselves at some point. That point happened to coincide with the latest product announcements from Apple Inc (AAPL). So once again, AAPL finds itself sitting right at the focal point of an important market juncture. Across the major indices, the day’s relief rally generated a … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: The recession that Wall Street wants remains elusive according to the August jobs report. The data show the labor participation rate increased with job growth and a minimal increase in the unemployment rate: a recipe for the (mythical?) economic soft landing. The reaction in the stock market reflected the duality in interpreting … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: Jerome Powell, and the Federal Reserve, remained resolute with the anti-inflation rhetoric. The stock market hated it. Slowing growth, recession fears, and hopes for “peak inflation” are still not producing the result Wall Street wants: a Federal Reserve backing down from monetary tightening, also known as “the pivot.” The bears seized the … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: And then there was just one. The S&P 500 (SPY) is once again the lone index of three that still trades just outside the clutches of the bear. The signs were flashing red last week as the bear market looked like it warmed right back up. The technicals of market breadth combined … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: Now I see why there was so little fanfare about the end of the bear market. Last week’s trading looks like a warm-up for a bear market comeback. The S&P 500 and the iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) printed bearish confirmations of resistance at their respective 200-day moving averages (DMAs) (the blue … Read more
Stock Market Commentary: The bear market ended with a bullish counter, yet I noticed no celebratory or indicative headlines on CNBC. CNBC’s Fast Money included technical discussions but gave no reference to what I consider to be two major technical developments. The NASDAQ closed above its bear market line and joined the S&P 500 and … Read more