Argentinian Peso Falls 45% Versus The Dollar This Year

Argentinian Peso - Argentina May Default Argentinian Peso - Emerging market stocks and currencies plummeted further even with the decline in the dollar. The MSCI emerging market equity ETF fell 2.66% on Thursday. One of the catalysts for the decline was the chaos in Argentina as its central bank hiked rates to 60%. The country’s…

Core PCE Inflation Increases To 2%

Core PCE Inflation - Personal Income Meets Estimates Core PCE Inflation - The July Personal Income and Outlays report was released on Thursday. This is the most important report I follow because it tells us about income growth, inflation, and consumer spending. The Fed follows core PCE inflation the closest which means if it accelerates,…

Equities - Another Record High

Equities - Stocks Ramp Further Equities - This has been an amazing summer for stocks. The party kept going on Wednesday. The S&P 500 was up 0.57% and the Nasdaq was up 0.99%. Amazon stock was up 3.4% which gives it a market cap of $932 billion. Amazon announced it will be unveiling a free…

Q2 GDP Growth Comes In At 4.2%

Q2 GDP Growth - Revised Higher Q2 GDP Growth - Even though Q2 is long gone, we need to review the Q2 GDP revision because the data is now much more accurate. If you only look at the advanced reports, you’ll be missing out on what actually happened. I expected GDP growth to be revised…

Stocks Overbought

Stocks Overbought - Increase Slightly Stocks overbought - the S&P 500 was up 3 basis points after giving back some of its early gains on Tuesday. The other indexes were also slightly positive. As you can see from the chart below, the S&P 500’s 14 day relative strength index is at 69.49 which puts it…

Consumer Confidence The Highest Since October 2000

Consumer Confidence - Expectations Improve Consumer Confidence - the consumer surveys are quite volatile and divergent. The University of Michigan survey had its current conditions index fall 5.8% month over month. The latest Conference Board survey, which was released on Tuesday, was the best report since October 2000. Supporting the Conference Board survey are the…

Stocks Rally As U.S. & Mexico Form A Preliminary Trade Agreement

Stocks Rally and Ramp On Monday Stocks Rally - Monday was an amazing day for equities as the S&P 500 increased 0.77% and the Nasdaq increased 0.91%. The Russell 2000 was only up 0.16% because the catalyst for the ‘risk on’ trade was the trade deal between America and Mexico. Large caps are helped by…

Global Trade Indicators Improve

Global Trade Indicators Global Trade Indicators - The official trade reports take a few months to come out which is why I can only can say growth slowed from the beginning of the year to May. The official numbers are very important, but if you want up to the minute results, you can review the…

GDP Estimates - Only 1.96% Q3 GDP Growth Expected

GDP Estimates GDP Estimates - Since we discussed the durable goods report which goes right into GDP, it makes sense to review the latest estimates for Q3. The average of 12 estimates in the GDP rapid recap show growth will be 3.4%. The St. Louis Fed’s Q3 Nowcast fell from 3.69% to 3.64%. The Atlanta…

Stocks Decline on Tariff Fears

Stocks Decline - Fall Slightly Stocks decline - The S&P 500 is still in that awkward phase where it hit a record high on Tuesday, but hasn’t closed above its record high in January. I may be making too big of a deal of this because it could be purely fundamentals driving the market. However,…