Big tech takes back its gains from yesterday
The Standard & Poor’s 500 was down 1.76% and the NASDAQ Composite fell 1.99% today. But the worst damage was among the big tech names that had led the rally higher and that had bounced yesterday. Microsoft (MSFT) was down 2.80%. Amazon (AMZN) gave up 2.86%....
Tech bounces off 50-day moving average
They’re back. Tech stocks were back big this morning as the NASDAQ bounced off of its 50-day moving average. As of noon New York time, the Standard & Poor’s 500 was up 2.16% and the NASDAQ Composite was ahead 2.69%. The Technology Select Sector SPDR...
NASDAQ 100 moves into correction
Traders who bought on the dip at the end of last week were a bit early, the market is saying today. As of noon New York time, the Standard & Poor’s 500 was down 1.91%; the Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 1.56%, and the NASDAQ Composite was lower by a...
Slide in the afternoon doesn’t augur well for tomorrow
The NASDAQ Composite was down an already punishing 2.75% at noon in New York. But the damage wasn’t done for the day. The tech-heavy index closed the day down 4.11% And the big techs, the stocks that had driven the rally up and are now pacing the move down, sold...
Stocks recover to show narrower loss by end of day
The Standard & Poor’s 500 almost got to break-even late in the day today (at 3:28 p.m. New York time) but stocks couldn’t hold the line. Still the 0.81% loss at the close for the index as much better than the 2.99% loss at 10:45 this morning. That was...
Payroll gains for August come in as expected at solid 1.37 million, but pace of recovery continues to slow
The United States added 1.37 millions jobs in August, the fourth straight monthly gain. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected an increase of 1.35 million jobs. The official unemployment rate fell by more than expected by almost two percentage points to 8.4%....
Short-term leveraged options bets still unwinding this morning taking indexes down further
At noon New York time today the Standard & Poor’s 500 was down 1.92% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 1.63%. The NASDAQ Composite was lower by 2.65%. Despite solid gains in the August jobs report this morning that matched Wall Street...
Dow plunges 800 points; S&P 500 down 4.25% at its low for the day–but what happened today?
I love this headline today on Yahoo Finance: “Stocks post worst day since June.” Since June!! What else were you expecting in a rally that has become completely unmoored from any fundamentals in the real world. Remember that when some talking head ties to...
Stocks plunge after new claims for unemployment report
Initial claims for unemployment filed in state unemployment programs totaled 881,000 for the week ended August 29, the Labor Department reported today. On a seasonally adjusted basis. Unfortunately, due to a change in the way the Department of Labor calculates that...
Stocks try another rotation again today–I’m not sure this one will stick with employment claims and August jobs report still due this week
At the close today, the Standard & Poor’s 500 was up another 1.54%. Putting this question at the top of many investors’ and traders’ minds: Is there any way to participate in this blow out rally without real adding an unacceptable amount of...
This rally is built on the Powell Put and, now, the Vaccine Put–what could possibly go wrong?
Yesterday in my post “Now there are two Puts supporting the market as the Vaccine Put joins the Powell Put. Those two bets–that the Federal Reserve will continue to flood the financial markets with cash and will increase the flow if the markets start to...
Adding shares of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK/B) to my Jubak Picks Portfolio
Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B) hit the headlines yesterday on news that it had made a big buy in shares of Japanese trading companies. To me that looks like a typical Buffett value play on commodities and international trade at a time when the market...
Now there are two Puts supporting the market as the Vaccine Put joins the Powell Put
First, there was the Powell Put, the conviction of Wall Street and investors that the Federal Reserve would ride to the rescue to support stock prices if financial markets or the economy threatened to tumble. The existence of a Powell Put didn’t seem arguable as...
The consumer credit crunch rolls on
Capital One Financial (COF), the third-largest U.S. credit card lender, is cutting borrowing limits on it credit cards. The company has said it’s no big deal, telling Bloomberg that “Capital One periodically reviews accounts based on a variety of factors and may...
Powell announces anticipated shift in policy framework at the Fed yesterday: 0% for longer
As anticipated in Wednesday’s rally–the Standard & Poor’s 500 climbed 1.02% and the NASDAQ Composite was up 1.73%–Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday announced that going forward the Fed would let inflation rise to above its...
Adding Pfizer to my Dividend Portfolio today
In Special Report: Meeting Your Retirement Challenge on my subscription site JubakAM.com, I suggested that when temporary factors created an opportunity to buy the shares of a solid, predictable, cash flow generating company, with a yield of 4% you should jump at the...
Market passes baton back to Fed’s Powell Put for today’s rally
On Monday the Standard & Poor’s 500 and the NASDAQ Composite hit new all-time highs on what I’m calling the Vaccine Put, the hope that we’ll see the announcement of an approved coronavirus vaccine by early in 2021 or maybe even the end of 2020...
What rally? Yes, tech has zoomed but the average stock in the S&P 500 was still down 28% from its February peak as of the Friday close.
Forget about a “V-shaped” recovery or a “W-shaped” bounce-pullback-move up again recovery. The talk on Wall Street is now about a “K-shaped” recovery where a handful of companies and their shares sooar ahead but where the average...
It’s another “hope for a vaccine” rally
Yesterdays “good news” press event from President Donald Trump started U.S. stocks on an upward trend this morning. As of noon New York time, the Standard & Poor’s 500 was up 0.73% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was ahead 0.99%. The NASDAQ...
Officially, U.S. government debt passes total U.S. GDP
In January, the Congressional Budget Office forecast that total U.S. government debt would hit 100% of GDP around 2030. At that point U.S. debt stood at about $17 trillion or roughly 80% of GDP. So much for that forecast. As of the end of June, U.S. government debt...
At the most serious end, the mortgage delinquency problem is getting worse
The overall number of borrowers delinquent on their mortgages fell by 340,000 in July. That’s down by 9% from June. (These are figures from Black Knight, which collects delinquency numbers monthly. The Mortgage Bankers Association, on the other hand, releases...
Initial claims for unemployment climb this week: economists had forecast a continued drop in new filings
New claims for unemployment at regular state-run programs rose by 135,000 in the week ended August 15 to 1.1 million. Initial claims for unemployment were 970,000 in the prior week. Economists had expected that initial claims would drop to 920,000 this week. Wall...
Adding two pick and shovel buys for the coronavirus vaccine race
The old saw about how to get rich from a gold rush says, Don’t try to strike it rich mining gold; instead sell picks and shovels and blue jeans to the miners. Same still holds in today’s race to produce an effective and safe coronavirus vaccine. One or two...
Walmart’s caution on an economy without more stimulus
This morning, August 18, Walmart (WMT) reported that comparable store sales climbed 9.3% year over year for the company’s fiscal second quarter that ended on July 31. Sales for its e-commerce unit jumped 97% year over year. That was up from growth of 74% in the...
Barrick Gold raises dividend 14%
Shares of Barrick Gold (GOLD) are up 11.10% today to $29.99 as of 1:30 p.m. New York time on Monday, August 17. The continued climb in Barrick Gold shares comes on the strength of an ongoing rally in gold prices and news that broke on Friday that Warren...
U.S. oil shale rig count continues to drop
The number of active oil rigs in the United States fell by 4 to 172, Baker Hughes reported today. That’s the lowest level since 2005 in the days before the U.S. oil shale boom. The news is likely to get worse for U.S. producers and oil service companies. The...
China’s economic recovery slowed by weak domestic demand
In July China’s industrial output climbed by 4.8% year over year, Beijing announced today. That’s the same rate as in June. This good news in that it shows the post-coronavirus recovery continues in the industrial sector. But it’s bad news in that...
It’s official: Coronavirus stimulus/rescue talks are dead until September
The Senate officially adjourned today through Labor Day, September 7. The House of Representatives had already been out of season, but now Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has announced that she will return to California next week. In the negotiations that collapsed on...
Adding West Pharmaceutical Services to Jubak Picks Portfolio on rotation back to momentum winners
What a difference 72 hours can make. Just a few days ago I was looking to find consumer/cyclical/”re-opening dependent” shares as the stock market looked to be rotating away from recent technology and momentum leaders and toward beaten down shares that...Jim’s Daily Email Alerts:
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