Investors buy the dip; Delta variant is forgotten for a day

Investors buy the dip; Delta variant is forgotten for a day

Today investors and traders ran to buy all the re-opening, post-vaccine recovery, cyclical stocks that they dumped yesterday. Macy’s (M) is up 4.29% as of 3:30 p.m. New York time after plunging 4.90% yesterday. Amusement park operator Cedar Fair (FUN) is up 4.12%. Cyclical Dupont (DD) is up 1.34% after closing down 4.46% yesterday. Carnival Cruise (CCL) is ahead 7.83% today after dropping 5.74% yesterday. It’s as if the market has decided that the really scary upward trend in new infections from the spread of the Delta variant is done with and over. Pandemic yesterday. No pandemic today.. The figures from the pandemic front say otherwise. The 14-day change in new cases as of July 19 is 198%. The 14-day change in new deaths is 44%.

Stocks extend growth fears, selling today–how far does this go?

Stocks extend growth fears, selling today–how far does this go?

Today, Monday, July 19, stocks accelerated their retreat from the end of last week on fears that a fourth wave of the pandemic, fueled by the Delta variant, will crush hopes that the economy is headed back to normal. As of the close New York the Standard & Poor’s 500 was down 1.59% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was lower by 2.09%. The NASDAQ Composite was off 1.06% and the NASDAQ 100 had dropped 0.90%. The small cap Russell 2000 had fallen 1.51% and the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) was down 1.68%. For the day at least you can see the market’s fears accurately reflected in the list of stocks falling most heavily.

Saturday Night Quarterback (on a Sunday) says, For the week ahead expect…

Saturday Night Quarterback (on a Sunday) says, For the week ahead expect…

Investors and traders will be looking to the first batch of earnings from big banks on Tuesday and Wednesday to answer two big questions: 1. Will earnings show the huge 65% year over year growth now expected by Wall Street analysts? 2. Will investors and traders sell on the news or push stocks higher on hoped for more economic (and earnings growth) to come? But I think w’ll have to wait until the week of July 27 to get answers to those queries.

Today the market looks a lot like “before the Fed Wednesday”

Today the market looks a lot like “before the Fed Wednesday”

Remember way back at the beginning of last week? That is before the Federal Reserve signaled on Wednesday that more of the members of its Open Market Committee were thinking about raising interest rates sooner than previously expected. Re-opening stocks, value stocks, and cyclical stocks led the market. The small cap Russell 2000 was the best performing of the major indexes. Well, they’re back

Today brings the selling that many expected after Wednesday’s Fed meeting

Today brings the selling that many expected after Wednesday’s Fed meeting

Yesterday, growth stocks climbed in the face of signals from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday that interest rates increase were coming sooner–as soon as the end of 2022–than expected. That seemed puzzling. May be, one line of thought (mine) had it, investors and traders decided that growth stocks would outrun any increase in interest rates that might take place in 2022 or 2023. Today, we got the selling that many had expected yesterday

What a difference a week makes: stocks look ahead to BIG TECH earnings next week

What a difference a week makes: stocks look ahead to BIG TECH earnings next week

Today, April 21, as of 3 p.m. New York time, the major indexes were on track to break their three-day losing streak. At 3 p.m. the Standard & Poor’s 500 was ahead 0.65% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average had gained 0.74%. The NASDAQ Composite was higher by 0.73% and the small cap Russell 2000 had moved up 1.94%. Why the big change in tone from earlier in the week?

On second thought, financial markets decide they really didn’t like yesterday’s news from  the Federal Reserve

On second thought, financial markets decide they really didn’t like yesterday’s news from the Federal Reserve

After not moving very much yesterday on the actual news from the Federal Reserve-the Standard & Poor’s 500 finished up 0.29% and the NASDSQ Composite closed higher by 0.40%, today, March 18, markets decided they really didn’t like the Fed’s stance on inflation, interest rates, and bond yields.
A day after Fed chair Jerome Powell said the Fed wasn’t much concerned about either the projects for higher inflation or the rise in Treasury yields, the yield on the 10-year Treasury spiked to 1.71% at the close. (It was at 1.74% as 1 p.m. in New York.) The closing yield amounted to a jump of 7 basis points in the yield on the benchmark Treasury issue. The yield on the 10-year Treasury is now up an astonishing 42 basis points in a month. And as has been the case in 2021 and as you might expect, stocks sold off with high multiple, high momentum technology shares taking the worst beating.

Again but not as bad–spike in Treasury yields clips technology stocks today

Again but not as bad–spike in Treasury yields clips technology stocks today

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbed to 1.62% today, March 12. That’s a jump of 9 basis points on the day. Following the recent pattern, the climb in yields meant a drop in the prices of technology stocks. Among BIG TECH stocks Apple (AAPL) fell 0.76%; Facebook (FB) dropped 2.00%; Amazon (AMZN) was lower by 0.77%; Alphabet (GOOG) slid 1.50%; and Microsoft (MSFT) lost 0.58%.