Market Perspective: Non-Farm payroll data showed the U.S. added 243,000 jobs in December. This is not necessarily an amazing number, but relative to the analysts’ expectations it was quite a positive shocker and well received by the market. The S&P 500 futures contract raced 11 handles higher within 1 minute of the release. Adding to the surprise, the Un […]
Market Perspective: Key language was changed during this past week’s FOMC meeting. The present policy rate range of 0.00 to 0.25 remains intact, but the Fed has now extended the duration of the “exceptionally low” rate until late 2014, from the previous mid-2013 projection. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke also laid out the plans for a possible QE3 by stating, “The […]
Market Perspective: Stealthy. That is the best way I can describe this recent market rally, Stealthy. The question becomes; will the anticipatory move vindicate itself? When the FOMC meets, on Tuesday and Wednesday, I believe we will be given strong clues to help solve the mystery. Those clues won’t necessarily be readily available come Wednesday/Thursday, b […]
Market Perspective: The credit downgrade bells rang across the European continent. France and Austria were stripped of their AAA rating. Finland, Luxemburg and the Netherlands kept theirs, but were placed on negative watch, and seven other countries were slashed by one or two notches. The news, although anticipated, quashed Thursday’s rally in the Euro, whic […]
Market Perspective: Since October, the S&P has erased more than 14.5% of its drawdown. The late rally left the index just under steady for the year by the final trading session of 2011. In my opinion, while this was a very impressive move, it was far from a clear cut trend. Prices surged out of the gate in October to go positive on the year, but since th […]
Market Perspective: Somehow the S&P has managed to pull off a second week of gains. This is the first back-to-back positive weekly performance since October. It’s hard to imagine, but despite all of the large moves we’ve witnessed in the market over the past 11.5 months, the S&P closed steady for the year on Friday! December 31, 2010, the E-mini S […]
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