February 3, 2018 | Daily JAM, Friday Trick or Trend |
What was the difference between the slight slide in the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index on Thursday–a drop of just 7.25 points or 0.27%–and the debacle on Friday when the S&P 500 fell 2.12% or 59.85 points to 2762.13? The financial sector. On Thursday the financials supported the entire market with the Financial Sector Select SPDR ETF (XLF) climbing 0.94% even as the S&P 500 was headed lower. On Friday, financials fell even harder than the overall market with the XLF ETF dropping 2.20%.
October 15, 2017 | Daily JAM |
Last week, the Standard & Poor’s 500 went just about no where. We started the week at 2549 on the S&P 500 (that was the October 6 close) and ended at 2553 at the close on October 13. Check my math but that’s 4 points on the week for an index at 2550. That qualifies as massive sideways. Which can be a good thing.
September 12, 2017 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing |
Yesterday forecasts of lower than expected damage from Hurricane Irma were enough to light a fire under shares of insurance companies, the Financial Select Sector SPDR and the market as a whole. Today even a warning from Citigroup that trading revenue would fall 15% in the third quarter has been enough to derail the upward trend in financials.
September 7, 2017 | Daily JAM |
Financial stocks rallied strongly after Donald Trump’s victory in the November election for two reasons: A Trump administration would roll back at least some of the regulations enacted to restrain bank risk-taking after the Global Financial crisis, and the Federal Reserve’s schedule for three or four interest rate increases by the end of 2017 would lead to the kind of a steeper yield curve that hikes bank profits. The first of those two reasons is still in place but the second is the subject of increasing market skepticism.
August 22, 2017 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing |
Lots of folks out this morning trying to explain why U.S. stocks are up so strongly today after Thursday’s thrashing and two lackluster trading session on Friday and Monday. One explanation I’m hearing a lot is that President Donald Trump sounded “more” presidential in last night’s speech laying out his secret plan for continuing the war in Afghanistan. Another explanation that I’m hearing is that there are rumors of progress in Washington on the Republican tax plan. To which I say, Please… It’s August when lighter trading volumes magnify every wrinkle into the Rockies. The most likely reason that the market is up today is that it was down on Thursday and today the buy the dip trades that didn’t work on Friday and Monday are back on.
July 18, 2017 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing |
More big bank earnings today–and, fortunately, they were a mixed bag. Which made them markedly better than Friday’s results. Bank of America’s (BAC) ‘s second-quarter earnings per share rose 12% to 46 cents, beating by 3 cents a share. Revenue climbed 7% to $22.8 billion against the Wall Street consensus of $21.915 billion. Shares of Bank of America closed up 0.5% today, July 18.
June 1, 2017 | Daily JAM, Volatility |
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May 8, 2017 | Daily JAM, Mid Term, Volatility |
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