Exhausted Stocks Pause to Digest News
Between the US election, central bank decisions and earnings season, it has been a busy week for world markets. US stocks and the US Dollar have been charging particularly hard. It is not a huge surprise then, that Friday finds traders starting to take profits ahead of the weekend, especially since banks and government offices […]
Positive Earnings Help the NASDAQ To Bounce Back
Earnings results from North American corporations continue to exceed expectations. Companies which reported overnight include Tesla ($0.72 vs street $0.59, up 14.0% premarket), IBM ($2.30 vs street $2.22, down 3.1% premarket), Rogers Communications ($1.42 vs street $1.37), Lam Research ($0.68 vs street $0.81, up 5.3% premarket), UPS ($1.76 vs street $1.63 up 8.8% premarket), and […]
Gold and Silver Soar as the PBOC Cuts Interest Rates
Gold has broken through $2,750/oz with a 0.8% gain while Silver has soared 3.1% in a catch-up rally. Precious metals continue to attract new interest as a store of value in uncertain times and also as a counter to the falling value of paper currencies. The current monetary easing trend continued overnight as the Peoples […]
Stocks Slip as Inflation and Unemployment Data Disappoint
US economic data out this morning paints a mixed picture. Consumer Prices fell from last month but not as much as the street hoped (2.4% vs street 2.3% and previous 2.5%). Meanwhile US weekly initial jobless claims jumped (258K vs street 225K) although that could be hurricane related. The inflation number weakens the case for […]
Pound Plunge, Oil Rally and Employment Data In Focus Today
The China driven rally in equities and commodities of the last week appears to be fading. Hong Kong lost 1.4% overnight, Tokyo, which has been trading opposite to China markets in recent days, bounced back by nearly 2.0%. US index futures are down today, falling 0.1%-0.3%, as are most European indices, including losses of 0.4% […]
China Rally Continues as Canada GDP Beats Expectations
World stock markets continue to rally heading into the weekend. Chinese equities continued to soar overnight on talk of monetary and fiscal stimulus as Hong Kong gained 3.5% and Shanghai soared another 2.8%. Positive momentum has continued into Europe, where the Dax is up 1.2% and the FTSE is up 0.3%. US index futures are […]
US Retreats, Europe Rallies Amid a Flurry of Economic Reports
Coming off two days of gains, upward momentum in US markets appears to be slowing ahead of tomorrow’s Independence Day holiday. US index futures are trading flat to down slightly. US ADP private sector payrolls coming in below expectations (150K vs street 160K) has not been helping sentiment. In other employment related news, Challenger layoffs […]
Stocks Drift Back Ahead of Powell Speech
US index futures are down 0.3%-0.5% this morning, giving back much of yesterday’s 0.1%-0.8% US major index gains. Traders should note that even yesterday, gains appear to have once again been concentrated in large cap technology stocks as the NASDAQ rose 0.8%, while the small cap Russell 2000 fell by 0.8% Over in Europe this […]
US Investors Celebrate Juneteenth and a New High for the S&P 500
US markets are closed today for the Juneteenth holiday. Traders there went into the holiday in a celebratory mood with the S&P 500 reaching a new all-time high and Nvidia’s* (NVDA) market cap surpassing Microsoft* (MSFT) for the first time. Currently, US index futures are quiet but positive trading flat to up 0.2%. Over in […]
US Retail Sales Slump Suggests a Slowing Economy
Between yesterday’s US index gains of 0.5%-1.0% and tomorrow’s Juneteenth US holiday, US index futures are consolidating this morning, trading flat to up 0.2%. Overseas markets have also been on the rise with Milan, Sydney and Tokyo posting gains of over 1.0% with London and Paris up 0.4% and Frankfurt up 0.2%. US retail sales […]