Powell Happy With The Economy While Investors Flee U.S. Stocks

Powell - Another Down Day For Stocks The 12 day losing streak in oil ended. But stocks continued to fall even though they are oversold. Personally, I’m done trying to go bullish in the short term. Fundamentals of earnings and the economy have eroded. S&P 500 fell 0.75%, Nasdaq fell 0.9%, and Russell 2000 decreased…

Mortgage Applications The Lowest Since February 2017

Mortgage Applications - More Weakness In MBA Applications The housing market weakened this summer. Home price growth is going to fall in the next few months. Affordability is a problem in many cities. The latest housing data comes from the MBA mortgage applications index. This composite index was down 3.2% week over year in the…

WTI Oil Falls 7.1%: Record Long 12 Day Losing Streak

WTI Oil - Stocks Fall Again On Tuesday Corrections continued on Tuesday. Positive comments on trade from Larry Kudlow and the fact that stocks are oversold didn’t prevent losses. The oil market extended its record losing streak to 12 days with a bang. Catalysts of all this weakness continue to be questions about global growth.…

Housing Continues To Weaken

Weakness In The Housing Market There haven’t been any new data points on housing in the past few days. No economic reports came out on Veteran’s day. The next big reports will be the housing price index on November 19th and the starts report on November 20th. Even though there isn’t new data, I have…

Apple & Goldman Sachs Lead Stocks Lower

Apple & Goldman Sachs - Stocks Crater On Veteran’s Day The market was open on Veteran’s day. But the bulls wish it wasn’t as the S&P 500 fell 1.97%. Nasdaq fell 2.78%, and the Russell 2000 fell 1.98%. I was wrong to suggest stocks were a buy on Friday as the CNN Fear and Greed…

Global Growth Falters: Italy Faces A Recession

Global Growth Falters - Classic Late Cycle Economy The latest catalyst for stock market weakness is global growth. Global growth weakness matters a lot more when the American economy is also weakening. Fiscal stimulus delayed this weakness from impacting America for the first 3 quarters. But unfortunately global growth has fallen further. And, the fiscal…

Stocks Decline On Trade Jitters

Stocks Decline - End A Great Week On A Bad Note The stock market sold off sharply on Friday as the S&P 500 fell 0.92%. Nasdaq fell 1.65%, and the Russell 2000 fell 1.82%. VIX was up 3.83% to 17.36. CNN Fear and Greed index fell from 29 to 18 which is extreme fear. This…

Earnings Estimates Keep Falling

Earnings Estimates - Small Caps Undervalued? As you can see from the chart below, the forward PE of Russell 2000 firms is below the forward PE of Russell 1000 firms. At the end of October, the forward PE of Russell 2000 firms was 14.9 and the forward PE of Russell 1000 firms was 15.8. This…

Fed Avoids Discussion On Stock Market Volatility

Fed Changes Little In Its Statement As expected, the Fed kept the funds rate the same which is in between 2% and 2.25%. Since Powell took the helm as chair, the Fed statement has been short. It has provided little detail into the Fed’s thinking. After shrinking in the past few months, the November statement…

Stocks Exit Extremely Oversold Territory

Stocks Exit - Biggest Post Election Rally Since 1982 The stock market rallied sharply after the midterm elections. Dems won the House and the GOP held the Senate. S&P 500 usually rallies 0.7% after the midterms. Instead it rallied 2.12%. This is the biggest increase since 1982 when it increased 3.9%. It’s good to get…