The mid-May short interest was out yesterday, and some subtle shift in sentiment was noticeable. First off, in the aggregate, short interest rose. In fact, on both the NYSE composite and the Nasdaq composite, this was the first period-over-period increase … Continued
Equity bulls are putting down their foot, and have near-term momentum on their side so long as 2040 on the S&P 500 is not lost. Off the April 20th high through last Thursday’s intra-day low, the S&P 500 lost four … Continued
Tomorrow, April’s new home sales come out. March was down 1.5 percent month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 511,000 units. The cycle peaked at 545,000 units in February last year – a seven-year high. The median price in … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of May 17, 2016. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: More jawboning this week! Last week, three regional bank presidents – Eric Rosengren (Boston), Loretta Mester (Cleveland), and Esther George (Kansas City) – … Continued
Today completes one year since the S&P 500 large cap index made an all time high of 2134.72. On this anniversary, U.S. stocks’ near-term outlook is not as clear as is probably its medium-term. In the medium term, major indices … Continued
XLP, the SPDR consumer staples ETF, just made a new all-time high on May 10th before backing off, and coming down hard. In contrast, most major U.S. indices peaked last year, and some even earlier, like the Dow Transports, which … Continued
U.S. housing is stuck. That is pretty much the impression one gets looking at April’s housing starts that were out yesterday. Starts rose 6.6 percent month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.17 million units. The cycle high 1.21 … Continued
A week ago last Friday, U.S. stocks opened lower reacting to less-than-expected rise in April’s non-farm payroll. As the session progressed, bids showed up, as traders began to price in lesser odds of a rate hike in June. Turns out … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of May 10, 2016. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: Three FOMC voting members were on full jawboning mode on Thursday. Eric Rosengren, Boston Fed president, said markets are underestimating the likelihood of … Continued
One look at Chart 1 and it is easy to see what a squeeze can do to short interest. In the two weeks ended January 29th, short interest on XLF, the SPDR financial ETF, peaked at 146.8 million. The ETF … Continued