Highest Labor Force Participation Rate Since August 2013

Very Strong Jobs Report Because Of Positive Revisions Let’s look at it the October labor report. This employment report was very strong. It explains why stocks rallied sharply on Friday. And it fully explains why the CNN fear and greed index hit 80 on Friday. There were fears that this jobs report would end the…

Contrarian Traders Take Note!

On the surface the S&P has hit all time highs today.  However, Don points out the major sector rotation in key sectors below the surface.  Many interest rate sensitive sectors saw a sell off today including all of the sectors Don maintains short positions in.  What's next for contrarian traders?

MSCI ACWI 1 Point Away From Record As S&P 500 & Nasdaq Hit Record Highs

Hugely Positive Day For Stocks Friday’s action really stuck it to the bears and made them feel terrible. S&P 500 hit a new record high as it increased 0.97%. Stocks have had an amazing year and even the returns since the peak in January 2018 aren’t looking bad.  S&P 500 up 6.75% from that peak.…

Manufacturing PMIs Improve In October

Job Cuts Increase (YTD Total Highest Since 2015) Job cut reports have been quite sold in recent months versus the start of the year. October reading wasn’t great, but also wasn’t as bad as earlier in the year. This report was basically more of the same. Job cuts are modestly elevated, but not worrisome.  In…

Market at Highs - Hedge, Hold, or Fold?

Stocks end the week exploding higher to new all time highs. Don explores now what? Should you hedge your longs, hold on for the ride or take profits? Don examines the current risks in the market and how you should assess your risks in the weeks and months ahead...

Starbucks, Facebook, And Apple All Rally On Earnings

Stocks Decline Slightly On Thursday Stocks probably fell on Thursday because they were overbought. S&P 500 to fall 0.3%. Besides being overbought, the negative headline that hurt stocks was the Bloomberg report. It stated that China is doubtful there will be a long term trade deal.  President Trump tried to calm the situation by tweeting,…

Low Inflation Supports Recent Rate Cuts

Very Weak Chicago PMI Bears are having a field day with the Chicago PMI report because the PMI fell from 47.1 to 43.2. That missed estimates for 48.3 and the low end of the consensus range which is 47.6. A big negative stat being put out is that 8 of 9 times the PMI was…

The Risk-Off Safety Trade is Back in Swing

After the Fed Wednesday, price initially rallied but sold off Thursday.  As of today's session, we saw broad-based money flow shift more defensive to the "Risk-Off" side as discussed in tonight's video.  Gold and Bonds surged with a breakout off support while Stocks and Oil fell from resistance.  Will Friday's Jobs Report stop this risk-off…

Stocks Finally Don’t Sell Off In Reaction To Powell’s Presser

Stocks Rise Slightly After FOMC meetings, Powell’s press conferences have sent stocks lower on average. This time Powell didn’t push stocks lower as the S&P 500 was up 0.33% on Wednesday. There wasn’t much room for him to surprise markets negatively. The market expected a cut and a pause afterwards.  That’s what Fed and Powell…

125,000 Jobs Added & 1.9% GDP Growth

MBA Housing Applications On the heels of the very strong September pending home sales report, the MBA housing applications report in the week of October 25th showed solid improvement after yearly purchase growth dipped in the previous week. Specifically, the composite index had weekly growth of 0.6% after it fell 11.9%.  Purchase index was up 2%…