Short Term
Stocks start 2020 in melt-up mood
We've seen this before. And investors and traders seem determined to keep a good thing going--until it doesn't work anymore. Today, January 2, the first trading day in the new year for U.S. markets, stocks were off to the rally races again. The Standard & Poor's...
Little stock market movement by the close today is actually a good sign
The Standard & Poor's 500 closed dead even for today December 27. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was head just 008%. The NASDAQ Composite slipped 0.17% and the Russell 2000 small cap index was off 0.62%. The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets EFT (EEM) was up by...U.S. consumers deliver the sugar plums for holiday shopping
Amazon (AMZN) reported today, December 26, that the holiday shopping season broke records for the company this year. Among other high-lights five million new customers started Prime free trials or paid memberships globally, and the number of items delivered with...
Tariff news from China today should be enough to feed rally in holiday markets
We've got two short weeks coming up--since the New York markets are closed this week for Christmas and next week for New Year's--when trading volumes shrink and it doesn't take much in the way of news to move stocks up or down. I think we got that dose of "sufficient...
IMF raises China growth forecast on announcement of Part 1 U.S.-China trade deal
The new head of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, has told China's Caixin Global news service, that she expects the Part 1 agreement to boost China's GDP growth to 6% in 2020. That would be an increase from the IMF's previous projection of 5.8%...
Market decides it can’t figure out the news on the U.S.-China trade agreement
What if they announced a Part 1 agreement in the U.S.-China trade war but nobody could figure out what if meant if anything? Stocks would go nowhere. The Standard & Poor's 500 gained all of 0.1% today and the Dow Jone Industrial Average matched that big move with...
It’s getting to look a lot like end of the year volatility
Remember how back in September a spike in very short term overnight rates in the repo market kicked off volatility across the financial markets until the Federal reserve flooded that market with liquidity? Well, signs are that we could see the kind of spike in...
Surprise! U.S. economy adds 266,000 jobs in November; unemployment drops to 3.5%
The United States added 266,000 jobs in November and the official unemployment rate fell to 3.5%. The results were buoyed by the return to jobs of 41,300 General Motors workers after the settlement of that strike. But the November total was still impressively stronger...
OPEC does nothing and markets seem to be ok with that
OPEC reached an agreement today to cut an additional 500,000 barrels a day from production. In reality that action is close to "no action" since OPEC has been informally making those supply reductions for most of the year thanks to voluntary cuts by Saudi Arabia that...
Oil climbs ahead of December 5 OPEC meeting
Call it very, very cautious optimism. Maybe. Oil prices climbed ahead of the December 5 meeting of OPEC in Vienna. The oil market got a boost from a report today, December 4, from the U.S. Energy Information Administration that showed U.S. crude inventories fell by...
“News” on U.S.-China trade talks takes away, “news” on talks gives back
A day after "news" on the lack of progress of U.S.-China trade talks led to a decline in stocks, "news" of progress in the talks has led to a modest rally. The Standard & Poor's 500 closed up 0.63% today and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was ahead 0.53%. The...Jim’s Stock Alerts
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