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Where To Focus? Daily political storms appear so far to be confined to Washington. And have not (as yet) deranged stock prices. Should these turmoils spread to Wall Street, they could interrupt the stock market’s current uptrend. The market’s buoyance in the midst of a sea of...

Trade War And Peace “Summertime, and the livin’ is easy.” Well. maybe, but George Gershwin wasn’t writing about the stock market. As the market begins its period of reduced volume, it may be subject to price spikes before it reaches the fall’s season of steadying stock prices....

Quarter’s End Approaching the midpoint for 2018, The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 2%; the S&P 500 Index is up 1% and the NASDAQ 100 up 8%. Six months ago, for all of 2017, all three indices were up 25%, 19% and 28%, respectively. Those surges reflected recoveries here...

Dow Reverses Year’s Gains This week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average went negative for 2018. In contrast, the broader S&P 500 is currently up 3% and the NASDAQ 100 12%. Although becoming less representative of the U.S. economy, the “Dow” is the most popular market index and...

Risk, Gain, Loss, All Four-Letter Words Four-letter words have a clouded reputation. “Good authors, too, who once knew better words/Now only use four-letter words” (Cole Porter, Anything Goes) Unfortunately, many investors view “risk” as a four-letter word to be avoided without...

Sideways Motions Halfway through the second quarter, the market has gone nowhere so far this year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is where it started the year while the S&P 500 has eked out a 2% gain. A year ago, their gains at this point were 18% and 11% respectively. Each...

All My Troubles Seem So Far Away All systems are “go” in the financial markets for now. Stocks, bonds, the dollar and oil prices are up. This unusual synchronization reflects the Volatility Index, also known as the “Fear Index,” dropping for six straight sessions, erasing its...

Growing, Growing, Growing The end of April shows stocks down for three of the four months of 2018. Investors remain grumpy, almost ignoring the strongest reports for years of increasing corporate sales and earnings. Caterpillar was a leading example. The company reported record...

Greetings from Earnings Season Both the Dow Jones Industrials and the S&P 500 broke their streak of nine straight positive quarters three weeks ago as the first quarter ended. Each index was off about 2% for the quarter, enough to ignite returning fears on Wall Street....

The Waiting Game J.P. Morgan, when asked what the stock market would do, gave a very accurate prediction, “It will fluctuate.” Despite endless showers of advice and tips, that remains the wisest forecast today. The only differences now are widespread participation that has...

Fear Vs. Evidence, Growth Vs. Value As Mark Twain said about the weather in New England, if you don’t like the stock market now, just wait a few minutes. After zigzagging during the first quarter only to end almost flat, the stock market first plunged on Wednesday as China...

Quarter’s End This is the way the first quarter ended-not with a bang but a whimper. Despite a last minute rally, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the quarter down 2% for the first three months of 2018. This snapped a streak of nine straight quarterly gains, the longest...

‘The Times They Are a Changin’  Tariffs on steel and aluminum were followed by $60 billion of targeted tariffs against China, whom Mr. Trump has labeled an “economic enemy.” After a record period of serenity beginning in late 2016, THIS accumulation of disturbing news events...

Steady As She Goes The stock market’s remarkable streak of 15 straight gaining months came to an end in February, when the S&P 500 gave up 3.9%. Halfway through March, the overall averages have almost erased the previous month’s loss and are very slightly ahead for the year....

The Waiting Game The stock market sometimes behaves like a teenager learning to drive, switching between hitting the brakes and the gas pedal. A historic streak came to an end with the close of trading on Wednesday, the final trading day of February. The S&P 500   fell 2.6%...