Two Metals Can Tell Us If Growth Is Making a Comeback
Growth: Every country wants it, and governments and their planners will crawl over broken glass to get it. Here in the United States, growth has been so-so, well below 3% in 2024, though it’s strong compared to many other big economies. As we’ve been talking about recently, we can look at the behavior of assets…
I’m Not Worried About This Pullback
Stocks gave back all of Monday’s gains and then some today. Monday’s panic buyers were mercilessly punished for going nuts during the spree. Frankly, I’m not surprised by today’s plunge - I actually find it encouraging. That’s because a period of sideways price action will provide fuel for an even more powerful rally down the…
The Magnificent Seven Carry the Day, But…
If, like me, you’d watched the market edge higher this morning, what would you have guessed was leading the way? None other than the Magnificent Seven, of course. In this day and age, it’s generally a good bet that that particular “basket” of stocks will lead markets higher. In fact, in 2024, Apple (AAPL), Amazon…
Enjoy the Bounceback… And Get Ready for Another Smack
Markets were up strongly today, bouncing back from this week’s beatdown. But here’s the thing. Correlation is high and still increasing. I’ve talked a lot about this recently. Correlation is tricky stuff. When you see stocks moving with no headline or hard, identifiable event driving that move - that’s correlation. And what it takes up,…
Get Your 2025 Trading Started Right With These
I’m a technical trading guy - there’s no better way, in the moment, to get the full picture to know when to pull the trigger on a trade - or the ripcord. Technical analysis is the way to understand price action in the short term. But you can’t ignore fundamentals, the forces that dictate, more…
Santa Claus Is Not Coming to Town - Here’s What Happens Next
This is what I’d call a highly unusual “Santa Claus rally” period - what with the consecutive days of selling and all. But keep it in perspective; volume is light this time of year and the bears don’t have much fight in them right now. This is a great time to reflect on a record…
A Year Without Santa: What the Technicals Say About a Near-Term Bottom
By any measure, the “Santa Claus rally” that historically boosts stocks through the end of a calendar year has failed. There are just a handful of trading sessions left in the Santa Claus rally period, but I still see folks hopefully scanning the horizon in hopes the jolly fat bull might appear… There’s a tendency…
The Bear is Back and It’s Hungry
We need to talk about what's happening in these markets right now. Because the Santa rally is now toast… We're seeing something that should get your attention - extreme correlations across sectors that we haven't witnessed in recent memory. Sure, tech's been holding everything together, but when you've got the Dow and Russell…
Finding the Best Stocks for All Kinds of Markets
This month we’ve explored a few of my favorite fundamental criteria, like free cash flow and operating margin, to name a few, for picking safe stocks with great upside potential. Let’s keep it going, and look at two other boring-sounding numbers that can spice up your returns: assets-to-liabilities and the fixed charge coverage ratio. Trust…
Bulls: The Santa Claus Rally Is Coming to Town After All
Stocks nailed a higher low last week - which we discussed at length in the TheoTrade live trading room. I’m seeing strong leadership from the tech sector and emerging strength in semiconductors, too. I’ve been pounding the table about this for a few weeks now; these two conditions tick that final “box” we need to…