Weekly Economic and Market Review
Last week’s economic data continued the recent pattern of the recovery. Manufacturing remains strong, inflation is rising, housing is weak and employment remains a major issue. The economy is continuing to slowly recover but there is no sign of an acceleration that is sorely needed to reduce the unemployment rate. I suspect the next few .. read more
Weekly Economic and Market Review
As I said last week, get ready for some volatility. Stocks most everywhere fell last week but it wasn’t a one way ride. Down Monday, up Tuesday, flat Wednesday, smacked around Thursday and an end of the week rally on Friday. The S&P 500 finished the week down 1.28%. Foreign markets, particularly emerging ones, were .. read more
Weekly Economic and Market Review
The economic reports released in the Christmas week continued the recent trend of stronger data. In particular, consumers have been leading the way as shown by several reports last week. The Goldman and Redbook weekly retail reports both showed strength going into the holiday with the year over year change now in the range of .. read more
Weekly Economic and Market Review
The market got exactly what it expected last week and the result was another leg higher in a rally built on two dubious assumptions: gridlock is good and the Fed can fix what ails the economy. The mid term elections delivered control of the House of Representatives to John Boehner and the Republicans while the .. read more
Weekly Economic and Market Review
Stock markets rose last week even as the economic data – or at least most of it – continued to deteriorate. The S&P 500 rose roughly 1.5% while the NASDAQ rose over 3%. Foreign markets also generally rose with the hottest markets continuing their winning ways. India rose 4%, Hong Kong 3.3%, Turkey 5.3%, Indonesia .. read more
Weekly Economic and Market Review
The emerging consensus on the street is that the November mid term elections will be just the thing to set the bulls to running as newly resurgent Republicans and a chastened President…..what? Work together to pass much needed structural reforms of Social Security and Medicare? Enact sweeping tax reform? Repeal the recently passed health care .. read more
Weekly Economic and Market Review
So maybe the economy isn’t headed over another cliff after all? Last week’s economic data wasn’t great but it was enough to rally the market 3.5% just because it wasn’t as awful as expected. I haven’t been particularly worried about the prospect for a double dip into recession land because I’m an eternal optimist – .. read more
Weekly Economic and Market Review
Has sentiment reached an extreme? Is anyone surprised anymore when weak economic data is released? Were you surprised that existing home sales fell 27% last month? I wasn’t and apparently neither were the people buying up home builder stocks when that news was released last Tuesday. Were you surprised to read the Goldman and Redbook .. read more
