Author: kadon

With 44% of S&P 500 companies reporting, revenues and earnings have been a hodgepodge. FactSet revealed 61% of companies reported revenues above expectations and 77% of companies have posted earnings which beat expectations. However, do not forget that expectations have been lowered significantly beginning in late 2018 in anticipation of a 2019 recession which has […]

The S&P 500 experienced its first negative week in the month of July, finishing down 1.23%. The index is still up 18.74 year-to-date. To ease concerns that stocks have moved up too much, too soon, consider this: the index at 2,976.61 is up just 1.56% from last year’s September 20th high of 2,930.75 and has […]

Stocks rallied to new highs last week with all three of the major U.S. stock indexes closing at new all-time highs, the Dow Jones Industrial Average over 27,000, the S&P 500 breaching 3,000, and the NASDAQ breaking 8,200. The new highs hit in an atmosphere of caution rather than euphoria. First, investors have been cautious […]

Markets were relatively flat last week, going into the weekend’s G-20 Summit in Osaka, Japan. Little detail emerged from the summit, other than announcements of the resumption of trade negotiations which had stalled. The welcome restart of negotiations still leaves us a long way from resolution which will likely take years. The best we can […]

The yield on the 10-Year Treasury stood at 3.20% early last November and the S&P 500 stood at 2,800, down about 4% from its late September high. The market timers’ crystal balls flashed images of recession and steep stock price declines. The Fed, we were told, had sealed the deal when it raised the fed […]

Little has happened in the two weeks I was away. Conflicting messages on the economy continued but our stuttering expansion continued. The stock market, while volatile on a daily basis, finished the past 2-week period with a correction of just 0.93%. The bond market left us with slightly lower yields over the period with the […]

There will be a two-week hiatus in the Weekly Update schedule.  Regular updates will return on June 17th. “Headlines, in a way, are what mislead you, because bad news is a headline, and gradual improvement is not.” ~ Bill Gates Recent developments in the trade negotiations have surprised many about the speed with which a […]

The markets have been jolted by raised tensions in the current trade negotiations. Most economists agree the best trade policy is free trade, with no tariffs, no barriers to entry, and no subsidies. Free markets and global trade have proven to be the best way to promote global prosperity. But we were a long way […]

Fight the perverse human urges to react to market movements. When stock indexes are making new highs, as they did several weeks ago, many feel the urge to get on board. When stock prices are moving down, the all too common impulse is to sell before prices move even lower. The evidence which proves such […]

It was reported a record breaking 43,000 people attended Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting in Omaha on Saturday. I have not seen a count for this year’s meeting but in 2018, Yahoo Finance, who streams the meeting live, estimated 35 million viewers tuned in to watch the event online. Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger must be […]