Stocks Recover - After Modest Fall The stock market opened higher before plummeting in the late morning and recovering in the afternoon. From the peak early in the morning to the trough later in the day, the S P 500 fell 1.72%. It felt like the market would finally roll over. Traders on Twitter were
Global Manufacturing Falls - Weak Markit Manufacturing PMI The Markit manufacturing PMI was 53 in February which fell from 54.9 in January. This is the slowest rate of manufacturing growth since August 2017. Inflation eased, but the rate of output and new order growth slowed. This report supports mo
Bear Market Repealed Almost Fully Bear Market Repealed on Another solid rally on Friday that brought the S P 500 very close to its record high in September. And it fully repeals the quick bear market. Investors feared the worst in December. But now it’s clear America is only in a slowdown and is out
Q4 GDP Growth Beats Estimates The stock market fell on Thursday. Yet quarter over quarter annualized GDP growth beat estimates for 2.2%. It was 2.6%. 2018 was the first year since 2004 where GDP growth was above 2% in all four quarters (2.2%, 4.2%, 3.4%, and 2.6%). Stocks ignored the solid report be
Redbook Sales - Same Store Sales Growth Moderates Redbook sales year over year same store sales growth rate of 5.4% last week supported the strong consumer sentiment reading. Growth fell to 5.2% this week which is still above the 4.6% growth of 2 weeks ago. The deceleration from 9.3% in December has
Consumer Expectations - Confidence Rises The stock market is usually thought of as a reflection of the future economy. However, through the reflexivity theory, the stock market can cause changes to the economy. Volatility paired with the trade war and the government shutdown to take down consumer co
Bad Earnings Reports - Mixed Wednesday Action The market was mostly flat on Wednesday. S P 500 fell 5 basis points, the Nasdaq rose 7 basis points, and the Russell 2000 was up 0.23%. Biggest action was in the after hours session as many tech stocks fell. During the normal trading session, the worst
QT - Mixed Dallas Manufacturing Fed Report Before getting into QT or Quantitative Tightening, let's review the Philly Fed. Relatively speaking, the Dallas Fed report was solid because the Philly Fed report was negative and the Markit flash PMI fell. The production index was down 4.4 points to 10.1 a
Weak Housing Market - Small Caps Underperform On Tuesday, the stock market took a slight breather as the S P 500 fell 8 basis points, the Nasdaq fell 7 basis points, and the Russell 2000 fell 0.71%. The VIX rose for the 2nd straight day as it increased 2.15% to 15.17. Maybe the spike on Monday was
