The process of finding a bottom during a correction is always ugly: big market moves in both directions, hard-won gains wiped out in a flash, individual stocks moving 10% or more in a day (or an hour), and of course, irrational fear all around. (Fear, by the way, is always irrational.) Investors, being human, just […]
I don’t think even the pessimists expected the rout we’ve had over the past 3 trading days. Since the market close on Aug. 3, the S&P 500 index has declined -11.1%, a correction in itself. From its high for the year, the S&P 500 in now down -18.3%, almost exactly as much as it fell […]
What do you say after a day like today? Global stock markets have fallen around -5%, their biggest one-day drop since 2008, and this on top of two weeks of nearly uninterrupted declines. As of today’s close, the S&P 500 is down -12.4% from the April high. What’s even stranger about the whole thing is […]
Dear Client, Last week, all I heard from friends, family and even some clients was that Congress wasn’t going to come to an agreement to raise the debt ceiling, the US would default and stocks would sink. Professional traders all over the world were positioning themselves for just such an outcome. So what actually happened? […]
Dear Client, This is an extra, unscheduled email for those of you who might be feeling nervous after today’s market decline (the S&P 500 was down –2.0%, and is down –3.0% in the past 3 trading days). There was no specific trigger, just a lot of unrelated worries, including the continued stalemate in DC. Also […]
Two down and two to go. I’m referring to the four big concerns that have been weighing on the markets this year: The global economic “soft patch” The US debt ceiling dance Monetary policy tightening in China The Eurozone debt crisis Global Economic “Soft Patch” Although US GDP numbers for Q2 will likely continue to […]
For those of you living in LA, you can say that you survived “Carmageddon” (or, for the musically inclined, “Autodammerung”), the weekend that they closed the 405 Freeway. Except it was a total non-event. Not only did they reopen the freeway more than 16 hours early, traffic was actually far lighter than usual. In fact, […]