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 Big news: the oversold period is officially OVER. This tariff tainted oversold period was lasted a historical 12 trading days. Several catalysts emerged during and after market hours to support a narrative of a sustained bottom, including: While the length of the oversold period confirms bear market trading, these developments suggest the … Read more
Stock Market Commentary Overhead resistance once prevailed over expanding market breadth, particularly over the past two trading sessions. The dominant headline was Federal Reserve Chair Powell’s warning about the difficult scenario facing the Fed due to tariffs. I interpreted his message as an intention to avoid responding as long as possible. For a market pricing … Read more
Stock Market Commentary And now car companies may soon receive tariff relief. The bewildering pace of change in tariff policy continued with an announcement that car companies may get tariff relief, and separate tariffs may be coming soon for semiconductors and pharmaceuticals. This on-going chaos remains a backdrop and a major wildcard to the trading … Read more
Stock Market Commentary The tariff rumors proved true after all. The green shoots of Monday that grew alongside the rumor of a pause presaged Wednesday’s massive relief from a real blink on tariffs. Those historic gains were large enough to generate a strong week broadly across the stock market. Still, as more blinking and backing … Read more
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
Stock Market Commentary The trading week started with a powerful jolt to the market. The major catalyst was a rumor that President Trump was considering a 90-day delay on tariffs, triggering a nearly 30-minute, $2.5 trillion rally. While ultimately unfounded, the rumor represented the kind of response markets expect: when financial markets panic, policy-makers panic. … Read more
Stock Market Commentary A good friend of mine introduced me to the phrase – now we’re cooking with gas! In today’s context, this phrase refers to some startling developments in the rolling crash in the stock market. The technical damage was thorough, unrelenting, and nearly merciless. Chaos in economic policy chaos has fully transferred into … Read more
Stock Market Commentary Today was a brutal day in the stock market. The only good news I can report is that market breadth finally dropped into my official oversold territory. However, “so what?” sounds like an appropriate question to ask in the face of deepening market angst over tariffs. For example, a headline from Yahoo … 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 We closed out March and Q1 with a wild day of trading. As captured in a headline from Yahoo Finance, “Wall Street closes out worst quarter since 2022,” sentiment was deeply negative. Headlines about tariffs, economic troubles, and Coinbase’s (COIN) worst quarter since the FTX collapse added to the sense of dread. … Read more