Lots of Thanks
This is the Thanksgiving time of year when we join together as a nation to pause and give thanks for all our blessings. Investors have a lot to be thankful for this year. Despite a slow and uneven economic recovery,…
Weaker Earnings
During the last few weeks S&P 500 companies have been reporting 3rd quarter earnings. It is now apparent that these earnings will be less than what was originally forecasted just a few weeks ago. Weaker earnings have also shown up…
Climbing the Wall of Worry!
This week is the one year anniversary of the rating downgrade of U.S. government debt. America had AAA rating for over 70 years, and last year's downgrade brought warnings from many that the interest rates on U.S. government debt would…
We Are All Linked
I recently viewed a news report on the economic troubles in Europe. This report focused on Spain’s economy, how it’s housing market remained in steep decline, unemployment was 24%, close to 50% unemployment among youth, and how despite having above…
Three Year “Market Bottom” Anniversary Thought
“Go to where the puck is going to be, not to where the puck is.” Amid widespread market selling, March 9, 2009 marked the bottom of the market and the start of a 3 year bull market ride. Three years…
Managing Through Up and Down Markets
During the last 60 trading days, the S&P 500 Index has had 37 days of intra-day price swings of more than 2%. There have been both up days (up 11% since October 4th) and down days (down 18% prior to…
Hold In May
Virtually all of the S&P 500 companies have finished reporting 1st quarter earnings. The results were impressive, earnings grew 18% year-over-year, far exceeding analyst’s intial estimates. The rate of growth is moderating from the sharp rebounds we saw just coming…
Five Things
We are in the middle of low volume summer trading in the stock market.After last quarter's pullback, stocks are beginning to gradually move higher again. Recent economic news shows an economy that is still struggling with high unemployment and a…
The Long and Short of It
Last week the S&P 500 lost over 4% and is now down 12% from its April high. The sell-off has been focused on troubles in Europe, particularly in Greece, and Spain, as well as some of the structural and demographic…