Short Term
China orders state-owned companies to halt purchases of U.S. pork and soybeans, putting trade deal in further jeopardy
China has told state-owned companies to halt purchases of soybeans and pork from the United States in response to President Donald Trump's announcement that his administration would begin the process of eliminating Hong Kong's special trade status. Chinese importers...
Can stocks now count on a Trump Put?
I think we witnessed the birth of a Trump Put on the stock market in today's Rose Garden press event that investors and traders can pin beside their terminals along with the Powell Put from the Federal Reserve. Ahead of what had been billed as an announcement from...
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...
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...
Examples of countries that re-opened and are now headed back into lockdown aren’t reassuring for U.S. experience
Yesterday Lebanon became the latest country to reimpose social distancing restrictions after easing those measures just two weeks ago when it looked like the spread of the virus was under control. Iran has ordered a county in the southwest to reimpose a lockdown. Iran...
Has the market broken it’s upward trend? I’m watching the big tech stocks as indicators
As of 12:30 p.m. New York time today, U.S. stocks had continued their downward move of yesterday. The Standard & Poor's 500 was lower by 2.23% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average had tumbled 2.35%. The NASDAQ Composite was off 2.44% and the Russell 2000 small cap...
The Fed speaks and speaks and speaks this week: Will all the words push Congress on more spending for coronavirus rescue?
Due to a quirk in the Federal Reserve calendar, the central bank doesn't meet in May. (Next meeting June 10; last meeting April 29.) That means the Fed has lots of time to jawbone the financial markets and Congress in an effort to get Washington to provide more fiscal...
Saturday Night Quarterback says (on a Sunday), For the week ahead expect…
... the "No, you do it" game being played by the Federal Reserve and the Republican-controlled Senate to increase in intensity. Senator Mitch McConnell and the Republican majority in the Senate have said that they don't want to even consider another coronavirus rescue...
Just a reminder: weekly report on new claims for unemployment tomorrow
The projections from economists are that the total initial claims for unemployment will fall to 4.5 million for the week ended on April 18. That would still be a horrendous number. The total weekly figure at the beginning of this spike was 280,000. Last week, 5.25...
Yesterday’s carnage in the May oil futures spreads today to the June futures
After plunging below $0 on Monday as the May futures contracts neared expiration, West Texas Intermediate continued its descent with the price of oil on the June futures falling to $10 a barrel. The problem, clearly, isn't in just a technical glitch in the futures...
Oil plunges on futures market on panic over expiring May futures contract
Warning: This is going to be a little "insider baseball. As of 1:30 p.m. the quoted price on Bloomberg of U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate was 80.02% to $3.65 a barrel. On the other hand, international benchmark Brent crude was down"just" 5.80% to $26.45 a...Jim’s Stock Alerts
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