A Closer Look: Market Style
The Standard & Poor’s 500 is a stock market index based on the common stock prices of the biggest 500 publicly traded American companies. The S&P 500 ((IVV)) successfully bounced off its 50-day moving average in the past month on its way to new highs, the fourth such incident in 2013. Apparently there’s no stopping .. read more
Happy Mother’s Day Mr. Bernanke
In light of the current low interest rate environment, we are watching particularly closely for instances of “reaching for yield” and other forms of excessive risk-taking, which may affect asset prices and their relationships with fundamentals. It is worth emphasizing that looking for historically unusual patterns or relationships in asset prices can be useful even .. read more
Confessions Of A Gloomy Gus
I have recently been accused of being a paid up member of the gloom and doom club. Well, actually accused might be too strong; informed is probably more accurate. I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about how these weekly missives might be perceived but based on recent feedback the perception out there seems .. read more
A Closer Look: Market Cap
The S&P 500 Cap-Weighted Index ((IVV)) has had an scorching start to the year, breaking the 1600 level and in the process surpassing its all-time highs set in 2007 in this past week. Since correcting in the middle of April, the index bounced off support at the 50-day moving average in emphatic fashion, finally clearing .. read more
A Closer Look: Commodities
The GSCI Commodity Index ((GSG)) consists primarily of Energy (71%), but also contains Agriculture (14%), Industrial Metals (7%), Livestock (4%), and Precious Metals (4%). After breaking out to the upside in January, the index quickly reversed course and broke both moving averages on its way down. The index has been mired in a ugly downtrend since early .. read more
Central Banks, Inequality & Market Manipulation
The Pew Research Center last week released a report showing that from 2009 to 2011 the top 7% of American households (based on net worth) realized a 28% gain in wealth while the bottom 93% saw a 4% decline. In a statement of the blatantly obvious, Pew said the difference was a result of the .. read more
A Closer Look: World Markets
The US stock market was one bereft of sellers, before a general market sell-off this past week. In mid-November, the S&P 500 ((IVV)) had just finished breaking its 200-day moving average on its way to a multi-year low at the 1343 level. Since then, the index has been on a tear, gaining over 18% in .. read more
Deja Vu All Over Again?
Gold dropped 20%. Oil dropped over 10%. The Goldman Sachs Commodity Index dropped 11%. The US Dollar rose. Last week? No, that’s what happened in the first week of July of 2008. Last week’s rout in the commodities markets was eerily similar to that week nearly 5 years ago when the first signs of the .. read more
