Volatility
Why I can’t put away my bear market worries #4: Consumer sentiment is becoming more negative
Most of the recent sentiment surveys show the same result: While sentiment about current conditions--AKA the present--remains strong, sentiment about conditions 6 to 12 months out is sliding in a pessimistic direction. The recent Bloomberg Consumer Comfort index,...
Why I can’t put away my bear market worries #3: Money flows that look like a bounce and not like a rally
Rallies share one very important pattern. In a rally more investors and traders want to jump in as prices rise. They're convinced that rising prices mean that prices will climb even more in the future and so they buy, driving prices higher. Bounces follow a different...
Why I can’t put away my bear market worries #2: Financials to tech earnings transition
The big banks have delivered to start off earnings season. And the financial sector has been a key source of strength for the uptrend in stocks since January 3. Over the last month, the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF) is up 5.4% as of the close on January 17....
Why I can’t put away my bear market worries: #1 Hong Kong overnight
Did you see what happened in Hong Kong overnight? The major Hong Kong Index, the Hang Seng was down slightly, dropping 0.54% on the session. But a smaller group of stocks in the Hong Kong market got slaughtered. Jiayuan International Group, Sunshine 100 China Holdings...
Special Report: 10 Best Buy Stocks for after the bear (or for now if you think the bear is over.)
Is the bear market over? And if it is, what stocks should you target as "best buys." The first is a really, really tough question to answer now. News of new efforts to stimulate economic growth in China helped push the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index over...
Are earnings estimates cuts running ahead or behind?
With today's announcement of a big miss from Samsung--and Apple's cut to December quarter guidance last week--it seems like CEOs and analysts are rushing to cut earnings estimates and projections before companies actually start to report next week. For example,...
Testing, testing: Bounce, rally, or retreat?
U.S. stocks moved toward a key test on Monday with the Standard & Poor's 500 approaching the 2550 to 2600 level that signals the top of the recent volatility range and likely technical resistance. If the index breaks above this level, the market could run higher...
Apple cuts revenue forecast, drops 7.6% in after-hours trading
Will Apple's (AAPL) warning spook stocks tomorrow, Thursday, January 3, to a degree that bad economic news out of China didn't today? After the close in New York Apple CEO Tim Cook dramatically lowered the company's estimates for sales in the December quarter. Apple...
Why no big drop on truly bad China economic news? Look to the bond market
China and other export-oriented Asian economies delivered really grim news on growth last night and yet U.S. stocks have refused to move into the red. As of 2:20 p.m. New York time on Thursday the Standard & Poor's 500 index was up 0.07% The NASDAQ Composite was...
Adding VIX Call Options to my Volatility Portfolio for bear market protection
I'm taking advantage of the 25% drop in the CBOE S&P 500 Volatility Index (VIX) to add March 19, 2019 Call Options at a strike price of $26.00 (VIX190319C00026000) to my Volatility Portfolio today. Â The VIX, otherwise know as the fear index, climbs when investors...
European markets sink into bear today; I’m switching back to yen and selling the euro in my ETF Portfolio
Back on October 3 I switched from the  Invesco Currency Shares Japanese Yen ETF (FXY) to the Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF (VEA) in an effort to get a little more performance out of this slot in my Perfect 5 ETF Portfolio. (This ETF invest in both Japan and...Jim’s Stock Alerts
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