Third-quarter earnings season begins in earnest this week. Operating earnings estimates for S&P 500 companies have been persistently coming down for 2015 – from as high as $137.52 at the end of the second quarter last year to $110.98 as … Continued
By last Tuesday, non-commercials were net long 22,490 contracts in 10-year note futures, having reversed the bearish bet they had in the prior four weeks (Chart 1). Turns out it was the right thing to do. By Tuesday, TLT, the … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of September 29, 2015. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: Hat tip to bond vigilantes! Heading into the FOMC meeting two weeks ago, they never bought into the message coming out of the … Continued
Do non-commercials have it right? Their net shorts in Russell 2000 futures peaked at 46,064 contracts on August 18, a week before stocks, including small-caps, bottomed. Since then, they have gradually been reducing their bearish bias, with holdings at -27,708 … Continued
With all the hand-wringing over whether or not the August lows will hold, this is the least of bulls’ worries. Bigger challenges probably lie ahead. Of the big four – the S&P 500 index, the Dow Industrials, the Nasdaq composite, … Continued
The third-quarter earnings season begins in a couple of weeks. Leading into this, operating earnings estimates for S&P 500 companies have continued to come under pressure (Chart 1), with 2015 now standing at $111.08, which will be down 1.7 percent … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of September 22, 2015. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: Last week, post-FOMC decision not to hike, stocks fell. They had rallied strongly into the meeting, and were probably set to drop either … Continued
The August swoon in U.S. stocks felt like it came out of nowhere, but it was slowly in the making. The S&P 500 index (1939) peaked in May at 2135, with sideways action since February this year… NYSE margin debt … Continued
SMH, the Market Vectors Semiconductor ETF, does not act well. What might be the message for semis in particular and stocks in general? Before we try to draw an out-and-out negative conclusion from this, let us remember that between the … Continued
Volatility has been the name of the game in stocks in the past month. Between the August 18th intra-day high of $209.59 and the August 24th intra-day low of $181.46, SPY, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF, lost north of 13 … Continued