Published June 2, 2023
As the megacap stocks fueling the rise of the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) continue to rocket upward, investors can easily believe the bear market beginning sometime late 2021/early 2022 is over. The fly in the ointment here is that the vast majority of stocks in the market are not participating in the uptrend. Below, the team at Schwab provides good information around this topic. (more…)
Published October 8, 2021
Markets have clearly been gripped by uncertainty over the past month as interest rates have risen while concerns about government funding and China have called into question the trajectory of the economic recovery. Below is a portion of an excellent overview from Schwab’s Liz Ann Sonders on the noisy information facing investors these days. (more…)
Published August 27, 2021
We have written often in recent weeks about how extended the market seems to be. Some of this content has come from Schwab. Back in the late 1990s, Schwab notified clients more than once that the market’s valuation was excessive and to be careful. Similarly, they have been proactively warning this summer of higher-than-normal market valuations and a market ripe for some downside action. There are notable differences between now and the late 1990s. (more…)
Published May 22, 2020
The stock market has rallied hard off the March 23rd bottom, surprising almost everyone in the strength and lift of the move. This rally has brought the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) back to positive on the year, a stunning development given the dire economic situation. That positive year-to-date print for the Nasdaq reflects the seeming fact that Covid-19 has served to accelerate trends which benefit these top companies of the digital economy – e.g. Amazon, Facebook, Google. That the Russell 2000 small-cap index remains down almost -20% year-to-date, while the equally-weighted version of the S&P 500 is down -16%, is perhaps a better stock market gauge of the overall economy’s troubles. (more…)
Published May 31, 2019
At the beginning of this month of May we concluded our weekly blog with the following:
“Were smaller, riskier stocks to find strength, it would be a real boost to the market’s rally effort as there is clearly some “wall of worry” built into this market.”
By the end of the month, the market’s answer was clear: there would be no boost from small and midcap stocks. (more…)
Published October 19, 2018
Our post last week noted that the October selloff in stocks likely had drivers other than the oft-noted rise in interest rates as some of the most interest rate-sensitive sectors, such as utilities, were holding up just fine. We also noted that the wave of geopolitical issues that seem to be ever-widening were unlikely to be a major cause of the selloff as investors were not pouring money into bonds, as they typically do during periods of angst. A recent note from Oppenheimer points to persistent and increasing weakness in non-U.S. economies as being the primary catalyst for the current stock market correction. (more…)
Published May 25, 2018
Technical analysis is the examination of supply and demand for stocks, usually expressed in chart form. The charts can help us see at what price buyers step in to support a stock – e.g. at what price the market shows overwhelming interest in buying; at what price sellers overwhelm buyers and drive the stock back down. (more…)
Published March 16, 2018
Last week we highlighted some of the sectors that were showing unusual strength in the market. We have pointed out how our favored Nasdaq 100 index (QQQ) has been leading the market. This week we will look at some of the other broad market indexes to give you a sense that this is still a market, broadly, that is digesting its low-volatility 2017 gains. (more…)
Published September 29, 2017
After spending much of the year lagging well behind their large-cap brethren, small caps stocks have caught fire! They are being spurred on by a shift in favored market sectors toward financial and energy companies as well as the announcement (finally!) of a tax cut plan by the Trump Administration. (more…)
Published September 22, 2017
While many in the industry speculate on the coming end to a years-long bull market, there are others who argue that the bull market has just begun. How does this disagreement come about? (more…)