Rare Treat – Energy Beats Cloud Stocks

2 Day Losing Streak Right after we mentioned there was a lot of optimism in markets, we had a 2 day losing streak as the S&P 500 fell 66 basis points on Wednesday. This decline was uniform unlike on Tuesday when small cap value led the decline and large cap tech rallied excluding Apple. On […]
Q3 Earnings Season Is Underway

Earnings Season Is Here Earnings season has started, and we’re looking for large beats and an increase in firms giving 2021 guidance. As of Q2 last year, there were 147 firms giving next year guidance. Obviously, that guidance was hogwash because an unexpected pandemic occurred. As of Q2 this year, 138 firms gave 2021 guidance. […]
Stocks Barely Fall Despite Negative News On COVID-19 and Stimulus

Four Negative Catalysts The stock market dealt with 4 negative catalysts on Tuesday. It’s actually surprising that it didn’t fall more. Even with small cap value stocks underperforming, they did well considering the news. Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine testing and Eli Lilly’s therapeutics testing were both paused. Those are normal events, but the stock market […]
Consumer Spending Growth Weakens

Another Improvement In Small Business Confidence Small business confidence in the NFIB report rose from 100.2 to 104 which beat estimates for 100.9 and the highest estimate which was 102. We’ve basically recovered all the losses from the recession as the top chart shows. Every indicator except one increased in the September reading. Expected credit […]
Optimism Brings Market Near Its Record High

Unbelievable Optimism The stock market is back to experiencing optimism as it is closing in on its record high. Monday was led by the big tech stocks, but small cap value also increased. It was a party where stocks like Apple got the craziest, but stocks like Mondelez also attended. It’s tough to explain the […]
Small Businesses Can’t Pay Rent

Small Businesses Are In Big Trouble Apparently, the stock market is fine with a stimulus being delayed until 2021. And it doesn’t matter to the market as long as the uncertainty over whether it will pass is gone. It’s a coin flip where the market wins no matter which way the election lands. Goldman is […]
Repeat Option Activity was ‘Order of the Day’ Monday

Unusual Option Activity Report The option activity wasn’t as unusual as it seemed multiple stocks experience repeat activity on Monday. That means that there has been more than one day or unusual trade that occurred over that period. Seeing multiple days of unusual activity or multiple trades can show even more conviction from traders. I […]
Stocks Are On Fire

Yet Another Rally It appears that the stock market is now on a 3 day winning streak as it increased on Friday. And the stock market is on fire as it has risen 7.4% since September 23rd. Some people need to be reminded that the rally since the bottom on March 23rd isn’t normal. A 7.4% […]
Slowdown Is Here – Stimulus Coming

Weakness In The Labor Market? Past jobless claims data was weak. When there is a weak report, it looks more like there hasn’t been much improvement in a couple months. If next week’s report is strong, it will look less like that, but there is no doubt in the past couple months the rate of […]
Endless Rally On Stimulus Without Anything Passing

Another Small Cap Rally The stock market is getting close to being overbought again which is amazing because a few weeks ago the market was down 10%. It’s amazing how many days the market can rally on the potential for a stimulus. This reminds us of when the market would rally on trade talks without […]