There was an article on MarketWatch.com on Friday entitled “Why lagging small caps might not bring down the S&P 500.” The title says it all. The story seeks to justify why prevailing weakness in U.S. small-caps is not a cause … Continued
Depending on how mature an economic cycle is, different sectors, and industries within them, act differently. Some lead, some lag, yet others are coincident. Investors gravitate toward sectors such as technology and consumer discretionary when they are more optimistic and … Continued
Small-cap shares are lagging. This is no news. Small-caps have been a topic of discussion on this blog several times before. They have lagged their large-cap brethren, the S&P 500 Index, since early March. That was when money started to … Continued
There is probably no other price as important as the price of money – that is, interest rates. They are what grease the wheels of an economy. Simplistically, when rates are high, people are incentivized to save more. When they … Continued
Jobs have been relatively hard to come by in the current economic recovery. From the January 2008 high of 138.37mn, U.S. non-farm payroll nosedived all the way to 129.66mn by February 2010, for a loss of 8.7mn. It took four-plus … Continued
Heard yesterday on Bloomberg Radio that U.S. consumption of boats and RVs is through the roof; RV sales are back to pre-Great Recession days, even as sales of boats are below that watermark but remain very healthy. These items tend … Continued
Short interest continues to inch up. By June-end, Nasdaq’s went up 0.6 percent period-over-period to 8.9bn – highest since end-September 2008 – and NYSE’s edged up 0.7 percent p/p to 14.6bn. What is going on in the Naz in particular … Continued
The U.S. jobs market seems to be on the mend. Or so it seems. June produced the fifth consecutive month of 200k-plus non-farm jobs, for a monthly average of 248k. The last time the economy churned out five consecutive months … Continued
The Institute for Supply Management’s monthly survey of economic activity in the U.S. manufacturing sector is one of the reliable indicators economists/market participants focus on. As with any other data point, it tends to correlate with other data points. The … Continued
Debt can be both a boon and a bane. Used properly, it can be a very useful tool – be it to an individual, a business, or a government. Too much of it at the same time can unleash destructive … Continued