Morning Briefing
Small move in S&P 500 disguises continued turmoil in big technology shares
Three stocks in the Standard & Poor's 500 were up for every two that were down as the index turned in a day with very little movement--a gain of 0.05% at the close on September 11. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was ahead a bit more at 0.48% That lack of...
Yep, the recovery is slowing: New claims for unemployment unchanged for the week
Applications for U.S. state unemployment benefits were unchanged at 884,000 for the week ended September 5 from the week ended on August 29, the Labor Department reported this morning. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected the total wold drop to 850,000 new...
NASDAQ 100 moves into correction
Traders who bought on the dip at the end of last week were a bit early, the market is saying today. As of noon New York time, the Standard & Poor's 500 was down 1.91%; the Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 1.56%, and the NASDAQ Composite was lower by a whopping...
Short-term leveraged options bets still unwinding this morning taking indexes down further
At noon New York time today the Standard & Poor's 500 was down 1.92% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 1.63%. The NASDAQ Composite was lower by 2.65%. Despite solid gains in the August jobs report this morning that matched Wall Street expectations. But...
Stocks plunge after new claims for unemployment report
Initial claims for unemployment filed in state unemployment programs totaled 881,000 for the week ended August 29, the Labor Department reported today. On a seasonally adjusted basis. Unfortunately, due to a change in the way the Department of Labor calculates that...
Stocks try another rotation again today–I’m not sure this one will stick with employment claims and August jobs report still due this week
At the close today, the Standard & Poor's 500 was up another 1.54%. Putting this question at the top of many investors' and traders' minds: Is there any way to participate in this blow out rally without real adding an unacceptable amount of risk? The 5.83% drop in...
Is the Fed doing a Bank of Japan in the mortgage market?
Since March the Federal Reserve has bought  $1 trillion of mortgage bonds. The Fed bought around $300 billion of the bonds in each of March and April, and since then has been buying about $100 billion a month. It now owns almost a third of bonds backed by home loans...
Apple’s split bails out the NASDAQ today
Shares of Apple (AAPL) split 4-1 today, helping the stock to a 3.39% gain on the day. If not for Apple (with a little aid from Amazon (AMZN), up 1.45% at the close), the last day of August might have looked a bit ugly. Even with the help from Apple and Amazon, the...
The real economy continues to struggle at MGM and The Gap
The stock market indexes keep hitting new highs. The real economy is struggling to maintain any forward momentum. This morning MGM Resorts International (MGM announced that it would permanently lay off 18,000 previously furloughed employees in the United States. This...
This week another 1 million workers filed an initial claim for unemployment
At 1.006 million in the week ended August 22, the week's initial claims for unemployment were neither as bad as feared nor as good as hoped. This week's figure dropped from 1.104 million in the prior week. (Economists had projected 1 million new claims for the week.)...
Market passes baton back to Fed’s Powell Put for today’s rally
On Monday the Standard & Poor's 500 and the NASDAQ Composite hit new all-time highs on what I'm calling the Vaccine Put, the hope that we'll see the announcement of an approved coronavirus vaccine by early in 2021 or maybe even the end of 2020 or perhaps before...Jim’s Stock Alerts
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