NYSE Composite short interest in the middle of August was essentially unchanged month-over-month at 14.8bn, while the Nasdaq Composite saw a 2.4-percent decrease at 8.6bn. The adjacent chart and the one below show how short interest has been building up … Continued
The Congressional Budget Office yesterday put out some interesting forecasts for the current fiscal year. Corporate tax revenues will come in at $315bn, versus prior forecast of $351bn, it said, and that U.S. real GDP growth will be 1.5 percent, … Continued
NYSE margin debt was essentially flat in July – $460.2bn, down from $464.3bn in June and not too far away from February’s all-time high of $465.7bn. It is possible August manages a month-over-month increase; numbers will be released in a … Continued
A month ago, we pointed out a divergence between 10- and two-year Treasury yield spread, which peaked as 2013 was unwinding, and financial stocks, which had ceased to track the spread and were rallying. Going back nearly 18 years, the … Continued
One more day, and one more post-Great Recession high on the Nasdaq Composite. In fact, the index is at a 14-year high, and yesterday was able to build on Monday’s breakout. There is of course a lot to quibble over … Continued
The Nasdaq Composite (4508.31)has managed to pull off a mini breakout, and is trading above the level identified previously. As a matter of fact, indices/ETFs such as the S&P 500 Large Cap Index and XLF (financials) have convincingly taken out … Continued
In a global survey of 200 institutional money managers, the Bank of America/Merrill Lynch found that the pros are worried about the stock market and are buying protection against a crash. They are worried about geo-political events and about interest … Continued
We so often hear or read that stocks climb a wall of worry. Anytime the balance tilts one way, odds grow that it then tilts the other way. Short interest can serve as an example. If too many market participants … Continued
The rally the past couple of sessions, is it an oversold bounce or is there more to it than meets the eye? Particularly on Monday, money did come out of defensives such as utilities and health care, and into offensives … Continued
Chinese stocks have been on fire! From an intra-day low of 36.62 on June 24, FXI (iShares Trust FTSE-Xinhua China 25 Index Fund) shot up nearly 13 percent to 41.30 in a little over a month (by July 29, to … Continued