And so the Trump era begins. I don’t like to talk about politics in these pieces much as I want readers to get an unbiased view on the economy or the financial markets. However, activist governments and central banks can’t be ignored. The U.S. government has enacted few impactful policy changes over the last several […]
Stock Market Blog
Consolidation and Inauguration
I would call last week a choppy five day holding pattern with not much price action to note. It was a good week for me to have the stomach bug. At least I got to start that 2017 diet by losing five pounds out of the starting gate. It also gave me time to consider […]
2016 Year in Charts
This piece is a year in review of the financial markets using primarily charts. Most year in reviews are the equivalent to a thesis paper in college that takes hours to read through so I will stick to the charts with a bit of commentary. The charts you will review are long-term charts that show […]
ECB Provides Stimulus
Super Mario Does It Again The European Central Bank (ECB) and its head banker, Mario Draghi, unveiled a series of new measures by expanding their quantitative easing package and cutting its benchmark interest rates to record lows. The ECB raised the amount of bonds the eurozone’s central bankers buy each month under their quantitative easing […]
Rally Continues
Psychology during bear market rallies seems to follow a fairly consistent pattern. “During secondary reactions [upward] in bear markets,” wrote DOW Theorist Robert Rhea in the 1930’s, “it is a fairly uniform experience for traders and market experts to become very bullish.” The U.S. markets moved higher over the past week right up until 2pm […]
Bearish Outlook Continues
Its been a few weeks since the last update and the market continues to move higher after finding a double bottom on February 11th. However, there are points of resistance on the chart ahead as seen in the chart below as we move to test both the 200 day moving average (blue line) and trend […]
Central Banks, Oil and the Economy
A lot has happened since the last update, as central banks around the globe are once again providing additional stimulus to power-up stock markets. Here are the highlights since my last update on what you may have missed: A surprise move by the Japanese Central bank to cut rates to -0.1% on January 29th caused […]
“V” for Victory!
Last week was a wild ride for equities as the S&P 500 bounced on the August 2015 low and moved higher through the end of week. (See chart below.) Central bankers in Europe and Japan hinted at further stimulus measures on Wednesday and Thursday, which propelled global stock markets sharply higher into the close on […]
Stocks, Oil and The China Syndrome
As part of the ongoing service I provide to my clients, I will be sending out a market update periodically based upon changes in current market technicals and/or fundamentals. In October of 2014, the U.S. stock market broke its strong uptrend and went sideways until August of 2015, when stocks broke down precipitously. The market […]