Without checking, what’s your first thought as to where the main indices stand thus far year to date? Your guess was quite likely a lot more pessimistic than how things currently stand. Sure, the DJIA losses exceed 100bps but that’s largely due to a particular airplane manufacturer (again – see below). The US benchmark is just barely in the red while the Nasdaq more so but only modestly. Despite the mere paper cuts to the market thus far, there has been a decidedly souring sentiment to the equi…

Indices finished flat today as markets absorbed December’s CPI print and Fed officials continue to follow the breadcrumbs. The headline number came in at 3.4% in December, hotter than the expected 3.2% but not quite enough to offer a stern reality check given markets have priced in 150bps of cuts in 2024 while the dot plot sits at half that. Core inflation dipped slightly from 4.0% to 3.9% while shelter ticked up to a monthly 0.5%, the highest in three months. The knee-jerk market reaction sent…

Markets remain in a sideways trading pattern (since mid-December) but closed today towards the top end of that range. All-time closing high of 4796 on the S&P 500 is getting closer however, and perhaps a market friendly CPI tomorrow will finally push indexes through. Economic news today was light, so traders kept their focus on inflation data with an important datapoint due pre-open Thursday. Estimates are for a slight sequential increase (for both monthly and y/y) reflecting that the path towa…

A rather muted and disappointing follow-on for the SPX today, as the index gave back some of yesterday’s gains (though the Nasdaq outperformed +9bps after being +220bps yesterday). For once, the bigger picture was out of the frame as macro/economic headlines were subdued (the NFIB small-business optimism reached a 5-month high in Dec, but that got very little attention). Yields declined while the DXY continued to bounce +30bps and Oil recovered half of yesterday’s losses, up 2% and back above $…

All major US indices finished in the green after a wobbly open, as equities surged back. The SPX index extended its gains (largest rally since 11/14), reaching a session high over +1%, while the CCMP index extended gains to a high over +2% coming off the heels of last week’s losses. At a glance, the diagonal pattern of the main indexes seem to reflect program buying. The BM7P INDEX (Magnificent 7 Index, finished +2.36%) as tech led the rally, making the sector the best performing of the 11 vert…

This is it everyone. As per Larry David, the statute of limitations for wishing someone a ‘Happy New Year’ has passed. It gives me great pleasure to lift this burden from your shoulders; you’re off the hook. What’s been somewhat burdensome if not outright worrisome this week has been equity’s reaction to the flip of the calendar. An overbought market along with some selling of last year’s winners, interest rate cuts officially on the clock and some choppy earnings results this week have left in…

A lot of negative headlines flying around the first week of the New Year and today did not help with US indexes logging their third consecutive down day in 2024. We have seen the “Mag 7” referred to as the “Lag 7” due to an underwhelming start and now “dry January” to describe the overall start to the year. If we can just take a deep breath here and not do what everyone thinks we are going to do and freak out. Despite their slow starts to 2024, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 are still up 11.8% and…

A sea of red for the third consecutive trading day as the Santa rally may have left the building. Rather uneventful on the news front, however geopolitical headlines out of the Middle East sounded ominous but oil managed to remain steady throughout today’s session. Rotation out of tech, a slew of data, and FOMC minutes were in focus. Fed minutes showed us the Fed still has a restrictive stance as they see policy rate near or at peak, and open to cuts 2H24. Further on the macro front, small miss…

And just like that… we’re back! A fresh new year is upon us and much like the drop of the ball in Times Square at midnight, stocks fell mostly lower in a bit of an anticlimactic start to 2024. After nine consecutive weeks of gains for the S&P, one could argue that today’s fall was inevitable. We have only seen such a rally three different times since the 80’s and- fun fact- in 1985, the winning streak continued for an additional 4% to clock an impressive 12 week stretch of gains. With much…

**As per holiday tradition, the View will be going on hiatus for the last two weeks of the year. Most importantly, we genuinely want to thank you for your continued support this year and years past. Wishing you all a happy holidays and healthy/safe New Year.**