The View from 5th Avenue

The View from 5th Avenue – 6 December 2023

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The “too far, too fast” narrative continued to permeate air waves today as broad-based selling overtook equity markets into the close. The selling started early on and continued, after investors received more dovish employment data in the form of softer ADP, higher productivity, and lower unit labor costs. Investors weighed both sides —–the negative implications for EPS with softening growth and cooler inflation, vs. the bullish possibility of lower yields, broadening breadth and corporate r…

The View from 5th Avenue

The View from 5th Avenue – 5 December 2023

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It’s that time of year again. December is here before we knew it and the calendar is filling up to the point a dry January seems like a reasonable idea. But much like wanting to train for the NYC marathon after watching from the sidelines, that’s usually a passing fancy. The number of events into year-end can leave one’s head spinning though, but that’s not the only thing that’s seeing a bit of rotation. The peak-yield narrative has seen greenshoots sprout from other areas of the equity univers…

The View from 5th Avenue

The View from 5th Avenue – 4 December 2023

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After a five -week rally and a 91% up day on Friday where breadth is evidently improving, equities took a breather today. It brings into question “can the rally in small cap stocks persist”? Major indices seemed gassed during today’s trading session with the Nasdaq 100 dropping 1%, though equities rallied into the close major indices closed in the red. Rotation into risk-on looks prevalent however is this a hastily move into oversold/cheap secondary stocks with a reversion back to quality after…

The View from 5th Avenue

The View from 5th Avenue – 1 December 2023

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December is off to a rocking start and its clear there’s one thing on every investor’s Christmas list… cuts! Powell took the podium not once but twice today in an attempt to reign in the market’s eager reception of dovish FedSpeak and cooler inflation data this week, but as usual, his rhetoric went in the ear and out the other. Indices marched North as the S&P eyed its July high of 4607, though the Russell stole the show after crossing its 200d mva (+2.96%). Financials continued their move high…

The View from 5th Avenue

The View from 5th Avenue – 30 November 2023

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As of the closing bell today, we have turned the page on yet another month, leaving only one more to go in 2023. November was one to remember as it tried to take a page out of the TSwift handbook and officially secured its place in the Top 20 (#17 to be exact) months of gains recorded in the past 50 years. Or, more sensationally, as reported by Bloomberg— in the entirety of the past century, the month of November has only seen gains of greater than 8% less than 10 total times…!

The View from 5th Avenue

The View from 5th Avenue – 29 November 2023

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Markets are not giving up the Move-ember as the month is quickly coming to an end. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are sitting on their best monthly performances since July 2022, with only one day left to change that. Investors have attached themselves to the cuts are coming thesis since the perceived dovish tilt at the last FOMC meeting, and now construe every Fed speaker comment that the first rate cut will occur next spring. CME data now projects May 2024 as the pivot point, and that Fed Funds w…

The View from 5th Avenue

The View from 5th Avenue – 28 November 2023

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Equities which are currently trading near “overbought” levels, are still heading towards one of its biggest November gains on record, ever…”oh seasonality”. Comments from the Fed’s Waller remained the focus of the day, while nothing he particularly mentioned was groundbreaking, he’s “increasingly confident that policy is currently well positioned to slow the economy and get inflation back to 2%.” The 7-year Treasury action was a touch on the weaker side, and this took some of the steam out of s…

The View from 5th Avenue

The View from 5th Avenue – 27 November 2023

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After Wednesday’s edition, we promised we wouldn’t make any more Thanksgiving analogies or references. That’s in the past. We’re looking forward and the future is bright; namely because of all the Christmas lights that have sprung up over the weekend. The market was a bit dim by comparison however, volumes and enthusiasm failing to match the excitement normally found this time of year. There is time of course and the data we’ll see this week along with some notable earnings from the tech set (C…

The View from 5th Avenue

The View from 5th Avenue – 22 November 2023

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Sure, writing today’s recap the day before a celebrated American holiday / long weekend may seem like a chore. But think of the buffet of analogies at my disposal; in fact, a keen eye will spot I’ve already started doing just that. It’s been a veritable feeding frenzy for equities the last three weeks plus now, the US benchmark registering gains all but 3 times since the 27th of October. The feast started anew this morning as investors continued to have appetite, but labor data and consumer co…

The View from 5th Avenue

The View from 5th Avenue – 21 November 2023

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US equities finished just in the red today, seemingly losing steam on lower volumes ahead of Thursday’s holiday as traders awaited the highly anticipated Nvidia report. Lofty expectations countered an otherwise strong beat from the chip marker as shares fell after hours. It was an impressively level performance today on almost all metrics: Treasury yields wobbled higher on the longer end, the dollar rebounded off lows, oil flip-flopped into positive territory, and gold rose. News of hostage neg…