Morning Briefing
S&P 500 becomes untethered from earnings growth
Yesterday's rally in the Standard & Poor's 500, which pushed the index back over 3,000, sent the forward price to earnings ratio--that is the PE based on projected earnings per share for the stocks in the index--to 23.36. That's the highest level for the forward...
Do you see what I see?
This morning what I saw in photos and videos from this past Memorial Day weekend was a country rushing pell mell toward re-opening the economy without a thought for safety amidst a still uncontrolled coronavirus outbreak. I saw photos of crowds at beaches, on board...
Mortgage delinquencies soar in April
The number of borrowers who stopped paying their home loans jumped by 1.6 million last month, according to data from Black Knight, a real estate analytics company. The national mortgage delinquency rate rose to 6.45% in April, up from 3.06% in March. That's three...
Another 2.4 million workers filed initial claims for unemployment last week–but take the data with a grain of statistical salt
According to the Department of Labor another 2.4 million Americans filed initial claims for unemployment in the week that ended May 16. That puts the total from this report at 38.6 million initial claims for unemployment filed in the last 9 weeks. The two-month total...
Oil keeps on rallying–and takes market with it
Remember how back on April 20 West Texas Intermediate traded at a negative $40.32 a barrel on the futures market? Then the fears were that anyone who owned a forward future and who was forced to accept delivery of that oil would not be able to find a place to store...
Even after yesterday’s rip-roaring gains, the S&P 500 is stuck–so what comes next?
Yesterday, May 18, the Standard & Poor's 500 closed at 2953. We've been here before. Several times, in fact. On May 8, the index closed at 2929.80. On April 29, the close was 2939. With the 200-day moving average at 2998.,56, even yesterday's big move doesn't...
Stocks roar ahead on perfect storm of good news
As of 1 p.m. New York time today, May 18, the Standard & Poor's 500 is up 3.17% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is higher by 3.60%. The NASDAQ Composite has climbed 2.47% and the Russell 2000 small cap index is ahead 5.29%. The iShares Emerging Markets ETF...
Retail sales plunge 16.4% in April
U.S. retail sales fell 16.4% in April from March levels, the Commerce Department reported today. March itself had seen an 8.3% month to month drop. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg were looking for a 12% decline. In a separate report from the Federal Reserve today...
We need to start worrying about the economy–and especially the country’s small businesses–stepping off a fiscal cliff
Almost none of the provisions in any of the coronavirus rescue packages provide even medium term support or stimulus. Extra unemployment benefits, small business loans, and even the airline bailout expire in a period that stretches only from the end of June to...
Did the Fed try to talk down stocks yesterday? Push Congress into action? Both, I think
The gaggle of Federal Reserve speakers opining on the economy and the coronavirus recession yesterday amounted to a full court press on stock prices and Congressional inaction on the coronavirus recession. The Fed could force Wall Street banks to cut dividends by...
Federal Reserve puts its corporate-bond-buying vehicle in motion
On March 23, the Federal Reserve announced that it would create a facility to buy corporate bunds and ETFs tracking the corporate bond market. That facility remained an all-talk/no-action vehicle until today when the New York Federal Reserve Bank announced that its...Jim’s Stock Alerts
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