China’s manufacturing sector contracts most ever in February
China's Purchasing Managers' Index for manufacturing fell to the lowest level on record at 35.7, accord to the National Bureau of Statistics. (The manufacturing index had been at 50 in January.) The PMI for the service sector also fell to the lowest level ever at...
Trick or trend: Now financial markets are looking for a 50 basis point cut at the March 18 meetng
Our regular (or occasional or perhaps occasionally regular) Friday series (actually running on Saturday this week) Trick or Trend looks at what might (or might not) be emerging investible trends. Exclusively on JAM. This post won't run anywhere else. Ever. I hope that...
For another day the Federal Reserve rallies the market
It was just four sentences--“The fundamentals of the U.S. economy remain strong. However, the coronavirus poses evolving risks to economic activity. The Federal Reserve is closely monitoring developments and their implications for the economic outlook. We will use our...
Buying General Motors in my Dividend Portfolio
I don't think the coronavirus stock market rout is over, but I do believe you have to be opportunistic about snapping up dividend yield during this correction. Today shares of General Motor (GM) were down another 2.12% as of 2:40 p.m. New York time. That brings the...
Clues on a U.S. coronavirus testing timetable
My argument is that the financial markets will remain in unpredictable (but downward trending) chaos until we have a better idea of the actual status of the virus outbreak in the United States--and that will require testing to discover the course of the disease, the...
Lesson for financial market sell off from California coronavirus bad news
News on Thursday that California was monitoring 8,400 people believed to have been exposed to the coronavirus was a major contributor to the afternoon collapse in U.S. stocks that sent the Standard & Poor's 50 down 4.42% for the day. And there's a very important...
Next big date in the coronavirus selloff? March 18
How can I be so precise? Because March 18 is the date of the next meeting of the Federal Reserve's interest rate setting Open Market Committee. And in the last two days financial markets have stampeded to a belief that the Fed will enact an emergency interest rate cut...
U.S. stocks break down on bad coronavirus news from California; technical support fails
This morning it sure looked like U.S. stocks were going to bounce back from yesterday's beating and from a deeply negative open. After opening down 2.28% at 9:31 a.m. New York time and then sinking even lower to down 3.54% by 10:35, the Standard & Poor's 500...
A day of firsts in the coronavirus outbreak–including first case in U.S. not connected to travel or contact with a confirmed case
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been informed of the first case of the coronavirus in a person who did not recently return from a foreign country or have contact with a confirmed case. This would be a huge development because this case in Northern...
Microsoft warns that coronavirus will cause miss in guidance in March quarter
This is exactly the pattern that financial markets are afraid of:Â Another company announcing the it would miss the revenue and earnings guidance that it had issued just weeks ago because of the effects of the coronavirus outbreak. In this case it's Microsoft (MSFT), a...
The odd mini rally in China stocks
It was less obvious today when there were other splashes of green among global stocks. But on Monday and Tuesday, the trend was readily apparent since so few stocks moved up on those days and so much of the market was colored a bright red. Oddly enough some China...Download Jim’s eBook for Free
