It was another case of the ‘Mondaze’ in markets today as US indices faded into listless trading by the afternoon and closed marginally above/below the breakeven between the big three. Declining volumes have been a developing theme alongside the recent rally with Friday marking the lowest volume traded YTD for the S&P. But this morning’s action snapped that streak with a sassy start sparked by heavy short covering in Gamestop Corp (+74%) ~and the meme universe at large~ after social media marke…

The devil may be in the details, but the dirt is in the data. The question of where we stand in a higher rate environment has been top of mind for quite some time as the rate cut goal posts continue to shift, but one constant in the debate has been the Fed’s commitment to data-dependency. This morning’s University of Michigan sentiment survey revealed an unexpected deterioration in consumer confidence, prompting a selloff in treasuries across the curve. The ‘dirt’ in the data is the worrisome c…

A welcomed increase in Jobless claims this morning gave stocks a nice little tailwind to start the day. US Treasury rates and the dollar fell on the data as traders look for any dovish economic signals that will turn the Fed away from “higher for long”. It may just be a small data point, but it helped the S&P 500 to a nice 81% up day, leading to a close above 5200 for the first time in a month. The data wasn’t convincing enough to have traders move up their bets on the first rate cut from Novem…

We’ve discussed this before, the days of the workweek and their respective personalities that is. Ask for further details if you’d like on the other 4 but Wednesday is the fun friend. It’s midway, it’s hump day, it’s when excitement about nights out with friends/clients/flients springs anew. And yes I realize I’m showing my age as Tuesday starts to fall in the do not disturb bucket. But while we certainly got some profound earnings reports that had their influence (see below), there wasn’t a wh…

After last week’s rush of news and data, the markets are currently sitting in a period of a quiet economic calendar and fewer companies reporting earnings. So far, 425 of the S&P 500 have reported and the balance will cycle through the next couple of weeks. Earnings growth has held up (+5.5% y/y) as have sales (+3.9%), and this is providing the support indexes need to stay near their all-time highs. Equities are also benefitting from the Fed’s reiteration that they see the first rate move as be…

Don’t call it a comeback, but… US markets have just inked their third consecutive session of gains and the main three indices are officially all back above their 50-DMAs, effective as of the close today. As the pendulum has swung from hawk to dove, so have markets seemed to find more solid footing to assume their ascension that has prominently defined this year’s stock market performance prior to the most recent pullback. This week may prove to be a more fertile playing ground for further gai…

Investors glimpsed a light at the end of the ‘higher for longer’ tunnel today. A data-filled morning evidenced an economy that isn’t overheating but isn’t necessarily slowing either. In the context of previous reports showing outsized job growth and fast-growing wages, the headline NFP figure of 175k job growth (240k expected) received a warm welcome. In addition, services ISM contracted for a third straight month, falling below 50 for the first time since December 2022. At face value the data…

Yesterday was hectic with multiple potential market outcomes from multiple sources. FOMC, economic data and earnings created a busy/ volatile session and the main indexes closed in the red. Today’s calendar was mostly earnings driven, and traders decided that Powell’s non-pivot (to hikes) was enough to add to some positions. Futures were positive when the US got to their desks this morning and that trend continued all day. The S&P 500 added 91bps and the Nasdaq 1.51% with most sectors closing i…

Where do I begin? On a day where traders were graced with headline after headline, it was clear everyone’s focus was on the Fed’s tone following a lack of progress against inflation. Before we get to the headliner (the Fed), the morning kicked off with a plethora of earnings. Amazon (+2.2%) provided the MAG7 with a nice lift after AWS logged some serious strength with sales +17% y/y and guided Q2 revenue in line with street estimates. Then there was some cause for concern with regards to the co…

NYC is on fire right now. And we’re not talking about the weather, although yesterday was blazing. Getting a dinner reservation at a ‘hot spot’ is near impossible. The bars and clubs (from what I hear) are jam packed and the two local sports teams (NY Knicks and Rangers) are in the playoffs and have Madison Square Garden as the place to be. Markets are envious by comparison. Stocks have cooled off considerably since top-ticking at the start of the month and it’s a meeting on the first of May th…