Stocks rallied on Monday as excitement continues to build over US/China trade. As noted yesterday, Vice Premier Liu He told Reuters that “substantial progress” is being made and yesterday the administration doubled down on that statement. Larry Kudlow went so far as to say that the December tariffs could be eliminated IF the current trade [...]
First today, a note about an email some of you received on Friday. That was sent in error to my long standing readers, and didn’t come from me. Chalk it up to growing pains with my new team in Baltimore. I appreciate your trust in Morning Thoughts and apologize for the mix up. To the [...]
It’s like the energizer bunny, they keep going, and going, and going… Stocks advanced again yesterday as more solid earnings hit the tape. Reports out of Brussels suggested that the EU and the UK had reached a preliminary BREXIT deal that will lay the groundwork for a divorce, a divorce that has been three years [...]
Economic data reported yesterday suggests that the consumer is “holding back.” The retail sales spending numbers reported yesterday were not what we expected at all… The report showed that retail sales fell by 3% vs. the expected rise of 3% — a complete 180. That has some nervous, and I ask why? OK, yes the [...]
It’s all about earnings! OK, so let’s say it like it is… someone is not telling the truth or someone just can’t do the math OR someone just wants to look good. For months now we have been told NOT to expect positive earnings announcements for the 3rd quarter in 2019. During the last [...]
Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening to wherever you are. Yesterday’s trading left a lot to be desired. It was Columbus day in America and banks and the bond markets were all closed. People took a long weekend and trading was subdued to be sure. Volumes were low and while low volumes can produce [...]
Stocks surged on Friday and surged some more as the speculation over the state of trade was building. What would we hear? What would they announce? Was this going to be THE TRADE DEAL that we have been waiting 20 months for? Was there really going to be a breakthrough? And adding excitement to the [...]
And so Trump does it again. He saw that the market was getting more nervous. He saw what happened to stock futures on Wednesday evening/Thursday morning when they collapsed overnight — the Dow was down better than 300 points soon after midnight. So he begins the process of tweeting — taking it all very slowly, [...]
The news that the Chinese are hinting at discussing some kind of “trade lite” deal sent the algos into overdrive — not really sure why — since China has always said they would welcome pieces of a trade deal. So this wasn’t news. But what it tells you is that the market is SCREAMING for [...]
The US commerce department late Monday added some 28 Chinese companies to an ‘export Blacklist’ because of human rights abuses in Xinjiang – meaning that US suppliers will be barred from providing technology that originates in the US to the Chinese firms identified, which only lit the fuse yesterday causing the algos to hit the [...]