The View from 5th Avenue

The View from 5th Avenue – 5 November 2024

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Election day is finally here in the states, the ballot storm has arrived. As we await results of our new President-In-Elect, which may take some time, hoping sooner rather than later, I strongly hope that we live up to the first word of our country….”UNITED” we should stand. Speaking of united equities soared in unison forming a sea of green, as it was a rather tame day across major averages. Interesting stat from our very own Ben Denney, on average election day over the last 10 years is up +90…

The View from 5th Avenue

The View from 5th Avenue – 4 November 2024

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Oh, it’s going to be a week, isn’t it? You know so when the FOMC is taking a backseat on the list of market-moving events on the weekly itinerary. The market hasn’t deviated much over the last few weeks in its expectations, a 25bps cut largely factored in, a quite soft NFP on Friday pretty much confirming it. Much speculation remains over the election however, and a surprising poll out of Iowa has ever, EVER so slightly nudged VP Harris back into the ‘lead.’ That has caused a bit of tumult in t…

The View from 5th Avenue

The View from 5th Avenue – 31 October 2024

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It almost looked as though the S&P500 saw a ghost today as the index wiped out all of October’s gains (+1.8% as of yesterday’s close, now -6 bps on the month). Or as one economist put it, “it turns out stocks can’t go up each day.” Heavy weights Microsoft and Meta dragged on indices due to their combined $4.5trn market cap, but they weren’t the only companies haunting investors as today’s overflow of earnings underwhelmed in aggregate (details below). On the economic front, we had some importan…

The View from 5th Avenue

The View from 5th Avenue – 29 October 2024

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There’s a lot happening over the next seven trading days and that has the Street on edge. But while the various events all have something to monitor closely, the path for equities continues upward for now. Besides earnings, this week’s economic data is packed with employment insights bookended by the nonfarm payrolls Friday. JOLTS this morning fell below estimates (7.443mn versus 8mn) giving Treasuries a brief pop, as openings continue to show a move back towards pre-covid levels (today’s print…

The View from 5th Avenue

The View from 5th Avenue – 28 October 2024

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The calm before the storm, with US Presidential Elections just a week away (arguably the last week of normalcy here in the States until the election dust settles), the busiest week of corporate earnings with 42% of the SPX reporting this week (5 of the 7 Magnificent), in conjunction with a handful of key economic data, there is not a moment of dullness on this side of the Atlantic, for better or worse. As we are nearly a third of the way through Q3’s reporting season, ~75% of corporate earnings…

The View from 5th Avenue

The View from 5th Avenue – 24 October 2024

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Standing out from the crowd can be a good thing and a bad thing during earnings season and there was certainly more (!) in both categories today as earnings fed through at a ferocious pace. Much of the day was spent trying to decipher the noise, delineate between the risers and fallers, and highlight the macro movers and shakers. But once people came up for air, it was clear there was a split down the middle in terms of bullish and bearish EPS releases. Bulls were quick to highlight Tesla (TSLA…

The View from 5th Avenue

The View from 5th Avenue – 23 October 2024

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A mid-week sell of evident today as investors took a step back, focusing on the elephant(s) in the room. With the US election a mere two weeks ago and an outcome that is far from certain investors are struggling for direction, and the macro backdrop is not doing much to help matters either as yields persistently grind higher and the VIX spiked above 20 today. Despite drinking from an earnings fire hose today the close deep in the red for major US indices didn’t feel particularly single stock dr…

The View from 5th Avenue

The View from 5th Avenue – 22 October 2024

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The calendar is now only two weeks away from the Presidential election and that is leaving investors in a state of flux. The race is close, and that means the outcomes are tougher to position for until the picture clears. And unfortunately, that may not come right away (if the outcome is as close as the polls are suggesting). Until then, traders are deciphering earnings versus the current index levels and deciding whether those companies justify their current trading levels. Away from earnings,…

The View from 5th Avenue

The View from 5th Avenue – 21 October 2024

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A relatively quiet Monday for US equities as investors prepared themselves for the peak of earnings season. With 112 companies in S&P 500 due to report this week, traders will have their hands full as they sift through a plethora of information, in what may the most scrutinized earnings season of the year. It was a choppy day for main US indexes as US treasury rates rose after T. Rowe Price CIO Arif Husain said the US 10y could “test the 5% threshold in the next 6 months” on concerns over risin…