Weekly Update

What Will Get the Bulls Really Running

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Published November 18, 2022

 

The folks at Delta have provided a good succinct overview of the state of the stock market and what needs to happen for a sustainable uptrend to occur. Here’s what they have to say:

“Since mid-October, the Bull has shown some life. The S&P 500 is up by about 5% from the closing low on October 12. Bullish drivers of the market include:

  • An expectation for typical seasonal strength in November and December
  • A perfect history of 18 – 0 of positive S&P 500 performance from November through April in mid-term elections years dating back to 1950
  • Mid-term elections that deliver a divided U.S. Congress which is expected to reduce the likelihood of any new taxes and major fiscal expenditures
  • Earnings reports are not as bad as feared
  • Maybe the Fed will stop raising rates sooner rather than later

(more…)

Weekly Update

Who Backstops Cryptocurrencies?

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Published November 11, 2022

 

For the first time in awhile the usual market suspects of inflation and the Fed’s assault on the stock and bond markets took a backseat for a couple of days. When interest rates rise sharply as they have this year, investors find out who was overly leveraged and caught without a seat in the market’s cakewalk. This week, we found out that cryptocurrency exchange FTX was the latest one without a seat. (more…)

Weekly Update

Inflation Has Plateaued

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Published November 4, 2022

 

Stock investors had a bit of a panic attack this week. The Fed Chair Jerome Powell continued hammering markets with his inflation-fighting warrior pose, a pose that most all market-watchers now agree he was late in adopting. Powell is making up for lost time, of course, by ratcheting up interest rates at a breakneck pace. The sudden acceleration has been a very cold shower for some business processes with private equity and venture capital investors reducing their activity by a third or more in the most recent quarter. (more…)

Weekly Update

The Housing Market Stumbles

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Published October 28, 2022

Below we share a good summary of the housing market. As with the stock market, the woes experienced recently are really only reversing the crazy gains of the prior year. Compared to pre-pandemic, we would guess that most homeowners remain in very good shape and sitting on better-than-average appreciation (aka: inflation) in their assets. (more…)

Weekly Update

The Market Bottoms Well Before the Economy Does

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Published October 21, 2022

 

These days, there is much talk about a coming recession. By the time the recession gets here, if it does, the stock market will have already suffered much of its decline and will be near its low point. The article below from an analyst at JP Morgan presents a historical perspective of the timing between recessions and stock market bottoms. (more…)

Weekly Update

Corporate Earnings Are the Next Shoe to Drop

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Published October 14, 2022

 

Investors await corporate earnings data over the next few weeks with concerns high that declining earnings outlooks will be the next shoe to drop on stocks. The chart below highlights where we have been on corporate earnings and how things have changed. (more…)

Weekly Update

Spiking Interest Rates Drive Housing Slowdown

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Published October 7, 2022

 

The market is obsessed with the impact of sharply rising interest rates. The brief below from Delta outlines some of the impacts of this sharp change in Fed policy and what investors are looking for to turn the markets around.

“The Federal Reserve is now projecting a terminal Fed Funds rate of about 4.6%. This is up from about 3.8% over the past month. On August 1, the 10-year US treasury was about 2.6%. Today, it is approaching 4.0% – a dramatic increase in a short time. (more…)

Weekly Update

Inflation Is Rolling Over but So Too Are Corporate Earnings(?).

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Published September 30, 2022

 

Blaine Rollins outlines the key questions facing investors these days. Here are some excerpts from his recent commentary:

“You can see the light at the end, but how much risk will you take to run down to the other end? Big returns await if you can only make it to the other side. But there is always the possibility that you make it part way and the train called ‘recession’ interrupts your path. (more…)

Weekly Update

Up and Down – The Waves of a Bear Market

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Published September 23, 2022

 

There are thousands of ways to invest. We prefer to remove the emotional component and use mechanical models to drive our investing. Some others like to rely on seasonal cycle analysis. One of those cycles is the four-year presidential election cycle shown below. The second year of the presidential cycle tends to be the worst of the four years. The return historically has been flat through the first nine months of the second year. This year, we are well below that flat historical trend. But the presidential election cycle suggests we are nearing the best performance of the four years. The period from the midterm election to the following May tends to offer outstanding performance. That would be a substantial change in market tone from where we are in today’s market where caution and negative sentiment rule. (more…)

Weekly Update

Interest Rates and Economic Uncertainty Keep a Lid on the Market

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Published September 16, 2022

 

Investors have their hands full these days trying to parse the conflicting economic reports. The labor market tells us that unemployment is at record low levels. Wages are rising for the first time in a very long time. Yet, fear is growing that the economy may be softening, while inflation remains higher than investors would like (fueled by those same rising wages). This week was a microcosm of the pitched battle between bulls and bears.

We will look at the market’s largest and perhaps most influential stock, Apple. (more…)