For the second consecutive year, U.S. stocks are struggling to get traction in December. Month-to-date, the S&P 500 large cap index is down 0.9 percent. December last year was down 0.4 percent. In fact, before trading began last week, the … Continued
One look at the red line in Chart 1, and it is easy to see what crude oil has been through in the past year and a half. Intra-day, off the June 2014 high through last week’s sub-$35/barrel low, spot … Continued
December thus far has been uncharacteristically quiet. And that is putting it nicely. U.S. stocks have failed to get seasonal traction this month. So far. There are eight sessions remaining before the year is out. So there is hope. Since … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of December 15, 2015. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: Call it ‘dovish’ or ‘hawkish’, the Fed finally followed through on its first hike in nine years. The fed funds rate stayed zero-bound … Continued
As things stand, it is hard to be bullish on small-caps. As a group, they have been lagging for some time, and act weaker technically than large-caps. IWM, the iShares Russell 2000 ETF, has more or less been going sideways … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of December 1, 2015. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: Will it or wouldn’t it? Will the Fed switch into a tightening mode in the face of U.S. manufacturing just entering contraction? In … Continued
In the past year and a half, crude oil has gone through a lot. It is not often a commodity of oil’s significance drops 61 percent in nine months. Yet that is what happened to spot West Texas Intermediate crude … Continued
For a while IWM, the iShares Russell 2000 ETF, lagged other major U.S. indices. The ETF, as well as the Russell 2000 index are still below their respective August 17th highs, which preceded a five-day, 11-percent cliff dive (Chart 1). … Continued
U.S. multinationals can breathe a little easier. Maybe. Exports are under pressure… it has been that way for a while now. Nominally, U.S. exports of goods and services peaked at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $2.36 trillion in 3Q14, … Continued
Spot gold fell 0.45 percent last week – its fifth consecutive down week. Over the past two weeks, the rate of decline has softened. But that is small consolation to gold bugs that have been at the losing end of … Continued