The Winter Olympics have closed, without any major disturbances at Sochi other than a traditional Russian fixing of the women’s figure skating competition. Although away from Sochi, the conflict in Ukraine flared up and then subsided. The events in Kiev put a dent into markets early in the week but by the time the bell […]
Baidu (BIDU), Google (GOOG), S&P 500 (SPX), Yandex (YNDX)As expected, volumes remain light as another snow storm yesterday kept the A-Teamers on the slopes and the B-Teamers at their trading desks deciding what kind of food to order in for lunch. Pizza or Chinese? In the meantime, the markets, much to my surprise have advanced rather than flat line or decline slightly during […]
Actavis (ACT), S&P 500 (SPX)It was a perfect storm on Monday for the markets. A confluence of events: snowstorm in the NYC metropolitan region, weak auto sales and disappointing ISM (manufacturing data) led to a panic selloff on Wall Street’s stock markets and run to safety in the gold and bond markets. The fact that it was a Monday, […]
Dow Jones Industrials (DJIA), Manufacturing, S&P 500 (SPX)The Federal Reserve decided to scale back or taper its assets purchases by another $10 billion per month. I had expected the possibility of a pause but apparently, the December economic data was good enough to convince them that less stimulus was necessary. As expected, the market opened weak, rebounded a bit and then went […]
Facebook (FB), Google (GOOG), S&P 500 (SPX)When you read the box score for a sports game you really don’t get a feel for what took place on the field. All that you obtain is the bottom line, the final score. While the bottom line, i.e. the closing prices, is important in the world of investing, the ebb and flow of activity […]
Apple (AAPL), CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), Dow Jones Industrials (DJIA), NASDAQ Composite (IXIC), ProShares Ultra Short Gold (GLL), S&P 500 (SPX)The markets bent but did not break yesterday. The Standard & Poor’s 500 (SPX) at its worst declined over 24 points or 1.34%, only to close off 16.4 points or 0.89%. Initially the raison d’etre for the selloff was attributed to earnings and economic data. However, problems in the emerging markets are beginning to bubble […]
McDonalds (MCD), S&P 500 (SPX)What I considered to be the 6th day of the elongated holiday weekend was about as exciting as watching snow melt, which I can assure you was not occurring around here. The Standard & Poor’s 500 (SPX) traded in a six point range or about 1/3%. Historically, the average daily range is close to 1.5% […]
Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD), Five Below (FIVE), General Motors (GM), McDonalds (MCD), Microsoft (MSFT), S&P 500 (SPX)The three day Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, which because of a lack of any interesting earnings reports last Friday was for Wall Streeters, a four day weekend. Then thanks to a major snow storm in the Northeast on Tuesday, the holiday extended to a fifth day yesterday. With public transportation limited, many schools […]
S&P 500 (SPX), SPDRs Trust ETF (SPY)Believe it or not, the poor start to 2014 is a thing of the past. The S&P 500 (SPX) closed above its December 31, 2013 closing price and set an all-time high in the process. Just two days ago, we were supposedly destined to a massive correction. The best laid plans of bears were thwarted […]
A, Bank of America (BAC), Blackrock (BLK), Dow Jones Industrials (DJIA), Goldman Sachs (GS), Intel (INTC), Invesco European Growth Fund (AEDCX), S&P 500 (SPX), Viacom (VIA), Wisdom Tree Europe Small Cap Dividend Fund (DFE)