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
U.S. stocks look vulnerable here. The only question is that of duration and magnitude. Here is why. Off the February 11th intra-day low through the April 1st high, the S&P 500 large cap index rallied nearly 15 percent (Chart 1). … Continued
The energizer bunny marches on. The U.S. consumer, that is. In the third quarter, the U.S. economy grew an annualized 1.5 percent. This was the first estimate, so it probably gets revised up or down by the time we have … 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
The Friday before January 25th Greek elections, the euro closed at $1.123. Yesterday, one euro bought $1.133. Since anti-austerity Syriza party swept to victory late January in Greece, the euro – by default FXE, the Currency Shares Euro Trust ETF … Continued
TLT, the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond Fund, declined 16 percent between the all-time intra-day high of 137.09 on January 30 and the low of 115.26 last Wednesday. It is as if the bond market globally has been awakened from … Continued
The U.S. economy continues to churn out mixed messages. The retail sales number on Wednesday was an outright dud. Sales in April were flat month-over-month, against expectations for a 0.2-percent gain. With that, sales are now down to flat in … Continued
A month ago, KBE, the SPDR S&P Bank ETF, looked on the verge of a breakout (more here). Here we are, one month later, the ETF has indeed broken out. It has the potential to be a major breakout, as … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of April 28, 2015. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: The week was a head-scratcher from the standpoint of bond vigilantes’ reaction. The 10-year yield rallied hard on a very weak 1Q15 GDP … Continued