U.S. households have experienced steady growth for two and a half years, but also lag vis a vis growth in several other metrics. Steep rise in home prices possibly to blame? After going sideways for nearly two years (indigo bi-directional … Continued
Last week, bond bulls wasted a big opportunity. Sort of. Intraday Friday, 10-year Treasury yields broke down, but only to recover big by close. On December 15 last year, yields hit 2.62 percent before retreating. This resistance goes back to … Continued
The latest productivity report had observers buzzing more about unit labor costs than output per hour. In 4Q16, unit labor costs jumped at an annual rate of 1.68 percent, up from 0.18 percent in 3Q16. This comes in the wake … Continued
Financials are once again beginning to perk up, with XLF, the SPDR financial ETF, closing last Friday right underneath near-term resistance. The ETF has been sideways for nearly a month. This followed a massive breakout post-election last year. Resistance at … Continued
August non-farm job openings fell by 388,000 month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.44 million – an eight-month low. This was the largest m/m decrease since August last year. July’s 5.83 million essentially matched 5.79 million in July … Continued
Markets are under the influence of the Fed’s rate hike talk – or a lack of it – a little too much … to such an extent that it can potentially backfire someday. Last Thursday, we learned that the ISM … Continued
Jackson Hole came and went. At the annual confab, Janet Yellen, Fed chair, last Friday seemed to agree with preceding hawkish messages from three prominent FOMC members – Stanley Fischer, vice-chair, William Dudley, New York Fed president, and John Williams, … Continued
Breakouts galore in U.S. equity indices! The S&P 500 large cap index broke out to a new all-time high on July 11th, and has since made several more highs. The breakout came after having gone sideways since essentially February 2015 … Continued
As soon as the June payroll report hit the tape pre-open last Friday, markets heaved a big sigh of relief. Reversing the downwardly revised 11,000 non-farm jobs in May, 287,000 jobs were created in June. The S&P 500 large cap … Continued
Table 1 was posted in last Tuesday’s blog. It is apropos to be discussing it again. The table tallies instances of rallies of five percent or above on the S&P 500 over four sessions. Going back six years, there have … Continued