Market goes to pessimism on trivial Pompeo comments–tells ya something, though
It didn't take much to end the optimism of the past few days and turn the market at least mildly pessimistic today. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told CNBC this morning that Huawei Technologies isn't the only Chinese company that poses security risks to the...
A fine volatility this is–just kind of strange
This post should be song to the tune of "A Fine Romance." (It helps if you can dance like Fred Astaire. Or sing like Ella.) "A fine romance, with no kisses A fine romance, my friend, this is We should be like a couple of hot tomatoes But you're as cold as yesterday's...
Negative economic numbers from both China and United States this morning
I'd give the edge to China in the "Whose news is worse?" sweepstakes this morning. For April China's retail sales rose 7.2% year over year--good news except that economists were projecting an 8.6% increase and that March showed 8.7% year over year growth. The April...
What the market fears is what it doesn’t know about the U.S.-China trade wars
The Standard & Poor's 500 fell another 1.65% to 2,884.05 today on fears that there would be no agreement this week out of the U.S.-China trade talks and that President Donald Trump's threats to raise tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese exports to the United States...
How serious is this morning’s stock sell off?
Here's what's disconcerting about this morning's stock market drop. First, while we do know what caused the selloff--President Donald Trump's Sunday tweet threatening China with higher tariffs on even more exports unless it agreed to a trade deal in the next few...
Now it’s the European Union on the trade war front lines
Just in case you were worried that global trade wars were in any danger of calming down, today you can relax. Trade hostilities with the European Union are heating up. On Monday the Trump administration said it would impose tariffs on $11 billion in imports from the...Unsettling market risk potential for Thursday and Friday
Today, Wednesday April 3, action in the three legs that support stocks near the highs for 2019 pointed toward significant risk for Thursday and Friday. The Standard & Poor's 500 index closed the day up 0.21% at 2873. Leg 1 for the market: The financials, the...
Trick or Trend: If there’s a lack of liquidity, what does that mean for financial markets?
Our regular (or occasional or perhaps occasionally regular) Friday series (actually running on Sunday this week) Trick or Trend looks at what might (or might not) be emerging investible trends. Exclusively on JAM. This post won't run anywhere else. Ever. An...
Durables orders good for stocks and economy
Orders for durable goods rose 0.4% in January, the Census Bureau reported this morning. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had projected a 0.6% decrease. Ex-transportation new orders, which means excluding volatile aircraft orders (for January remember and therefore...
Want to hedge stocks? Step #1 buy bonds! Step #2?
Investors and traders looking to hedge against the risk that U.S. stocks will take a tumble (or worse) are rushing to buy bonds. Let week another $490 million flowed in the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT.) That brought the inflow for 2019 to date as of...
Adding VIX $23 Calls to my Volatility Portfolio today
Over the weekend in my Trick or Trend post I noted that S&P 500 volatility was experiencing a very unusual inversion--where the markets were projecting more risk in the next week than for longer periods like a month or two. And, I posited, that inversion wasn't...Jim’s Stock Alerts
Download Jim’s eBook for Free
