The U.S. economy added a monster 339,000 jobs in May. Economists had been looking for 180,000 to 190,000 jobs. On the news, stocks rallied. Strongly. The Standard & Poor’s 500 closed up 1.45%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day 2.12% higher. The NASDAQ Composite added 1.07% and the NASDAQ 100 finished up 0.73%. The small-cap Russell 2000 moved higher by 3.56%. So why did stocks move up?
Disappointing holiday sales and margin pressures. Not a good combination for any stock. And today shares of Macy’s (M), down 6.39% as of 2 p.m. New York time; Lululemon (LULU, down 9.01%, and Chico’s FAS (CHS) down 9.41% are paying the price for disappointing Wall Street.
It’s not a surprise. But it is a reminder of a continued negative trend for retailers in a slowing economy. Today, August 23, in its second-quarter earnings report Macy’s (M) lowered guidance for the remainder of 2022 on higher inventories of unsold goods and slower sales.
Friday, June 17, was a modestly up day for most of the indexes. The Standard & Poor’s 500, for example, gained 0.22% and the NASDAQ was up a stronger 1.43%. (The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.13% on the day.) But you’d never know that the indexes were up only modestly if you checked the gains on the most speculative stocks in the market. Meme favorites GameStop (GME) and AMC Entertainment (AMC) were up 7.48% and 6.28%, respectively. But the speculative gains didn’t stop there.
On Tuesday, Snap (SNAP) fell 43.08% as the company lowered guidance for the remainder of 2022. Today, the shares were up 4.59%. At today’s close of $14.81 they’re still trading well below the 50-day moving average of $29.86. Should you chase them here? Macy’s (M) picked up 19.31% today on an earnings beat and higher guidance. Should you chase the shares higher? Or how about Nvidia (NVDA), which gained 5.16% on the day after an earnings beat and some positive statements about future products and product sales after the close yesterday. Should you buy the shares at today’s close of $178.51? That’s quite a bargain from the $333.76 that the stock sold for on November 29, 2021. A day like today when the market looks set to break a seven-week losing streak is tempting. Time to put some cash to work, no? Look at all the bargains? And the bear market is over–at least for a while, right? Bear markets are typically punctuated by days like today and a rally inside a bear market can go on for a while. This one, for example, could easily run into June or even July. And that means repeated temptation to jump back in. And repeated episodes of hard to suffer pain as stocks that you’ve sold for sound reasons climb well above your selling price. Bear market rallies are, I just want to remind you, exactly what make bear markets so damaging. Investors and trades face the losses from the overall market drop plus extra losses generated by buying into what looks like a rally off a bottom that turns out to be just a temporary step to even lower prices.
After yesterday’s selling, we’re getting a bounce today. But, significantly, the bounce in stocks is much less “bouncy” than the Monday bounce from Friday’s plunge.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell retired the word “transitory” to describe stubbornly high inflation in testimony today in front of the Senate Banking Committee. And, Powell continued, the Fed might accelerate the pace at which it is winding down its purchase of Treasuries and mortgage-backed assets. “It is appropriate, I think, for us to discuss at our next meeting, which is in a couple of weeks, whether it will be appropriate to wrap up our purchases a few months earlier.” The Fed is currently scheduled to complete its asset-purchase program in mid-2022
U.S. retail sales rose in October for a third month. The value of overall retail purchases increased 1.7% last month, the most in seven months, the Commerce Department said today, November 16. Excluding gas and motor vehicles, sales gained 1.4% in October. The figures aren’t adjusted for inflation. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 1.4% advance in overall retail sales.
Retail sales dropped 1.1% in July, the Commerce Department reported today, August 17. Sales of furniture, sporting goods, building materials, cars and auto parts were all down strongly in the month. Sales at non-store retailers, which include e-commerce sales, dropped 3% in July.
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%.
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.
U.S. retail sales surged 18.0% in June from June 2020, the Commerce Department reported today. Demand for goods remained strong but spending is clearly shifting back to services. Stocks fell despite the good news with economic recovery and post-vaccine stocks taking the biggest hit. The Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLY) fell 1.23% on the day. The Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLP) gained 0.20%.
