Posts by Mike Verity

Stocks gapped down at the open, but quickly recovered. The Dow is currently down 80 points and the S&P 500 is off .17%. A couple of down-and-out sectors (materials, energy) are in the green, suggesting a continued broadening of the rally outside of ”Magnificent 7” stocks. The bond market has been mixed recently. Short-term bonds…

Stocks opened higher this morning in reaction to a better than expected jobs report. Currently, the Dow is up 160 points and the S&P 500 is up .5%. Gold is trading modestly lower. WTI crude, which has been a downtrend for much of the year, climbed above $74/barrel. Bonds are selling off across the board,…

Stocks are modestly higher this morning (Dow +36 points; S&P 500 +.2%; Nasdaq +.5%). Whereas many traders said the Fed rate cut would be a “sell the news” event, the opposite has been true. Since that announcement the S&P is up 1.7%. Bank of America says last week’s equity market inflows ranked third in the…

The S&P 500 and Dow rallied to all-time highs this morning in response to yesterday’s interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve. (see below). Several sectors are up more than 1% in early trading, including consumer discretionary, energy, industrials, technology, communications and materials. The bond market is mixed, with short-term issues rallying but long-term bonds…

Stocks sank at the open but quickly turned around. Currently, the Dow is down 170 points and the S&P is down .2%. Bonds are broadly, if slightly, lower. Commodities are at last catching a bid. After falling below $66/barrel yesterday, oil is rebounding 3%. The yield curve has just dis-inverted. That means that for the…

Stocks are meandering between red and green this morning. Financial and energy sectors are the worst-performing. WTI crude oil is down under $69/barrel after OPEC modestly trimmed its 2025 outlook for global oil demand. Banks got hit after a profit warning from JP Morgan (see below). Capital markets are highly reactive in front of the…

Stocks dropped and bonds rallied this morning in response to ADP’s monthly jobs report (see below). The VIX Index ticked up to 21 and gold rallied about .6%. Oddly, traders seem to be brushing aside a couple of better than expected business activity reports (see below). My guess is that stocks reverse and close flat…

The S&P 500 is down about 2% over the last couple of trading sessions on rising recession fears. High-fliers are taking a much bigger hit as speculators and traders pull in their horns. For example, Nvidia (NVDA) is down 9%. The VIX fear gauge ticked up to 20, but that’s rather modest compared to its…

In a widely followed press conference last week, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the “time has come” to begin easing monetary policy. This is as close as he has come to declaring victory over post-Covid inflation, and it signals that the Fed will begin cutting interest rates very soon. Whereas short-term interest rates are…