Today’s higher than expected August CPI report, rattled the market dramatically, causing the Nasdaq to drop by 5.2%, the S&P 500 by 4.3%, and the Dow to drop by 4%.  This was the biggest down day since June of 2020 and the 8th daily decline of greater than 3% on the year.  The recent decline...Read More

The stock market has reacted very negatively to Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s hawkish interest rate outlook, with the S&P declining by roughly 6% over the last 4 days.  Weaker economic data and declining commodity prices gave market participants hope that the Fed might pivot, pointing to less rate hikes, but Powell talked a tough game,...Read More

Markets have had a nice rally since the mid-June lows, as signs that inflation has peaked have investors a bit more optimistic that the Federal Reserve won’t have to raise rates as far.  I’m definitely in the camp that the inflation growth rate has peaked and the signs of it are quite pervasive.  With that...Read More

Today’s CPI report was very positive, coming in lower than expected.  This is very good news, if this trend continues the Federal Reserve might slow down on its rate hikes.  In addition, Friday’s July employment numbers were better than expected, although new unemployment claims are starting to rise, as companies are ramping up layoffs in...Read More

Equity and bond markets had a brutal week as today’s CPI report confirmed that inflation has accelerated to a 40-year high, which has traders speculating that the Fed will have to raise rates faster than expected.  In addition to that data, we saw the lowest Consumer Confidence number in the surveys history, which dates back...Read More

  Today’s CPI inflation data came in hot at 8.3%, down slightly from the previous report, but higher than expectations. Inflation is rampant in all the key areas that impact our daily lives such as food, energy, shelter and transportation.  The sting of higher prices and the disruption emerging from the Chinese lockdowns has the...Read More

On Wednesday the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 50 bps, or 1/2%.  Initially the market reacted favorably to this with a strong rally on Wednesday, only to be reversed with the biggest down day since 2020 on Thursday.  Tech/glamour stocks have simply been getting obliterated.  Tesla dropped 8.3% on the day, while Amazon dropped...Read More

I hope that all of you who celebrate had a wonderful Easter last week. I just wanted to provide a quick update, as the markets have been quite tumultuous of late. We are done with Big Bank earnings for the 1st quarter of 2022.  The overall message was enormously positive.  Both consumer and commercial credit...Read More

2022 is shaping up to be quite the crazy year.  While this horrible war in Ukraine dominates media headlines, I can’t help but feeling like inflation might be the dominant theme of the next decade.  Using “government” numbers, inflation is running at about 7.9%.  Shelter is the single biggest component of CPI at 33% of...Read More

Today the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 25 bps.  With inflation so high, it almost certainly would have been 50 bps if not for the concerns over the economy related to the impact of the Russian/Ukraine war, which is exasperating things materially.  There has been some very positive dialogue from both Ukraine and Russia...Read More