Weekend Update – May 1, 2016


There was potentially lots that could have moved the market last week.

Earnings season was getting into full swing as oil continued its march higher.

As if those weren’t enough, we had an FOMC Statement release and a GDP report and even more earnings to round out the week.

But basically, none of those really mattered.

The FOMC expressed some confidence in the economy even as the GDP may have said otherwise the following day and earnings were all over the place with the market not being very forgiving when already lowered expectations weren’t met or were being pushed out another quarter.

Again, none of that mattered.

What really mattered was when Carl Icahn, who unlike Chicken Little, calmly told the world that he had sold his entire stake in Apple (AAPL) for fears of what China’s “attitude” might be with regard to the company.

The initial interviewer misinterpreted Icahn’s comments to mean that he was worried about the Chinese economy itself and that may have been exactly how traders interpreted Icahn’s words, although a second interviewer correctly interpreted Icahn’s comments and got him to add clarity.

Icahn confirmed that he was actually worried about the possibility that China would be less of a reliable partner for Apple and not that he envisioned a new round of meltdowns in the CHinese economy or in their financial institutions.

Big difference.

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Weekend Update – April 24, 2016

Most of us can recall a time when we were embarrassed, unless you need for denial is a stronger than your memory.

It’s probably much worse when there are a lot of people around as witnesses.

It may be even worse if your antics are under embargo, finally being released at 2 PM, say on a Wednesday, and then really called into question the following day with the planned release of the GDP.

There’s nothing like being under the spotlight, especially when purposefully bringing attention to yourself and then somehow messing up.

I imagine, that even as poised and calm as she appears as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, a young Janet Yellen may have been as easily subject to embarrassment as a child as any of us.

Obviously, I also imagine that the hairdo hasn’t changed over the years.

Of course, it could be really helpful to know what the actual GDP statistic will be and having your performance altered to meet the demands of reality.

This coming week has an FOMC Statement release which is followed barely 20 hours later by news of the GDP for the first quarter of 2016.

As the FOMC meeting gets underway on Tuesday, there is no doubt awareness of the consensus calling for lackluster GDP growth and the Atlanta Federal Reserve’s own decreased estimate just a few weeks ago.

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Weekend Update – April 17, 2016

I find myself uttering the phrase “Any day now,” more and more, but I know that I’m not alone in doing so.

Over the past few years there have been any number of reasons to believe that whatever predominant theme had the lion’s share of the headlines would soon run its course.

Nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky, so its only reasonable to expect that each passing day brings us closer to the conclusion of whatever current trend we’re mired in. But unlike the prisoner counting the days down, we’re in an open ended system.

The prisoner looks toward a future that he knows, with a great degree of certainty, will come along, pending good behavior. After all, the sentencing judge told him when that day would arrive. On the other hand, those of us who only have the potential to be white collar criminals are reliant on the past repeating itself and we use the past as a guide for forming our expectations.

Lately, that model hasn’t been very good.

Those who have been of the belief that history repeats itself have started taking a long and longer view if they’re still to hold onto their belief that repeating history is inevitable.

For the longest time the refrain was brought up over and over again as we found ourselves waiting for a 10% correction.

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Weekend Update – April 10, 2016

There probably aren’t too many people willing to admit they remember The Osmond’s song “(Just Like A) Yo-Yo.”

The really cool people would look at you with some disdain, as the only thing that could have possibly made the yo-yo tolerable to mention in any conversation was if it was somehow in connection to the song of that title by “The Kinks.” 

With her dovish words just the prior week, Janet Yellen set off another round of market ups and downs that have taken us nowhere, other than to wonder who or what we should believe and then how to behave in response.

That’s been the case all through 2016, as another week of ups and downs have left the S&P 500 just 0.2% higher year to date. Of course, that’s within a 17 month context in which the S&P 500 has had no net movement, but has certainly had lots of ups and lots of downs.

Reminds me of something.

For those that do recall happier times with a yo-yo in hand, you may recall “the sleeper.”

“The Sleeper” was deceiving.

There was lots of energy involved in the phenomenon, but not so obviously apparent, unlike the clear ups and downs of the standard yo-yo move.

Both, though, ended up going nowhere.

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Weekend Update – April 3, 2016

 I used to love comic books, but I was definitely never in the market for comic books based on great literature, unless a book report was due.

Normally engaged in less high brow reading pursuits, I knew enough to focus on key phrases found in the great works of literature. Those often held the theme and offered insight without having to commit to reading from cover to cover.

Unfortunately, sometimes those phrases from different comic books tended to coalesce and my graded book reports were often characterized by large red question marks.

Lyrics to a song may have no relationship to famous snippets from great works of literature, but this week reminded me of the “Talking Heads” always poignant question that one may find oneself asking:

“Well… How did I get here?”

It was really a week with no real direction, but it was the “Same As It Ever Was” and a perfect ending to the first quarter of 2016, which was truly a tale of two very different markets halves with much ado signifying nothing.

Despite there not being anything really different having occurred from one half of that quarter to the next half your head would have irreparably rolled had you succumbed to the temptation to cut loose, sell and run following the first 6 weeks.

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