Wall Street gains, Dow tops 24,000 as tax bill gains steam

Investors are certainly betting big that the tax bill will pass and thus pushed the Dow up past the 24,000 mark with a huge 331 point gain.  This is all fine and good except that, according to UBS, there is only a 20 to 40 percent chance that tax cuts will actually happen.  Due to this combo of the anticipation of tax reform plus quite optimistic economic data all year, the S&P and Dow have registered eight straight months of gains.  Should we be preparing for a correction in the event the tax bill fails?  At least today, not.  Enthusiasm is high and volume is way above average at 9 billion. 

Nasdaq falters as investors flee tech for banks

The Senate took still one more step today inching tax reform a little closer to reality and, though the final outcome is still anything but certain, it was enough to boost the Dow another 103 points as there remains much anticipation among investors that lower taxes are in the future.  With tech taking a momentary beating, there has been a flight to financial stocks as these will be the biggest beneficiaries of tax reform if and when it happens.  Confidence zoomed up today with volume way above average at 8 billion shares.  Even the bad news from Amazon helped boost the market as it was taken as good news for brick-and-mortar retailers with stocks like Target and Macy’s way up.  Why?  It was the “thought that Amazon isn’t going to kill every retailer out there.” 

Surging banks lead Wall Street to highs as tax plan advances Lewis Krauskopf

The Senate committee in charge of doing the first vetting on the tax bill gave it a green light and, despite the fact that there remains many concerns among Republicans about certain provisions in the bill, the green light was enough green for the market to zoom over 250 points.  However, much of this boost as stated by a local strategist right here in Troy was due to overall positive economic data.  “Unemployment and interest rates are low, confidence and asset prices are high.”  Confidence in fact is near a 17 year high.  Volume was above average at 6.7 billion. 

Energy slumps, Amazon shines as Wall Street ends flat

For Cyber Monday, just a little nudge up on the Dow, an even littler nudge down on the others.  Once again, gains in retail were counterbalanced by losses in energy as, once again, stockpiles of crude are suspected of being larger than previously reported thus continuing to compound this very long-lived glut problem.  The good news – best news really – is that all the fundamentals continue looking very positive so no one is predicting the end of this bull market any time soon.  Volume continues to lag below average, which means there’s still more cash out there, which is yet another indicator that this market still has legs. 

Succinct Summation of Week’s Events for week ending 11.24.17 (plus Warren Buffett movie)

Once again below please find the usual Sunday night weekly summation with all three indexes once again reaching new record highs.  Not sure why Americans' concerns about the economy being at an 18 year low is in the negative column.  The bonus this weekend is from HBO.  There is a great HBO produced documentary on Warren Buffett which would ordinarily require a subscription to HBO but I found it on YouTube this weekend and supply the link.  Advise to get one of the many programs that can be used to download YouTube videos to your hard drive because HBO is likely to have this removed as soon as they discover it.  Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend.  

Tech leads S&P above 2,600; Amazon, other retail stocks gain

For Black Friday there was only a half-session with volume at only 2.8 billion so, as usual, nothing that happened today can be taken to the bank.  Wait until Monday.  What did happen today?  Black Friday went very well with shoppers spending near 3 billion and another nearly 7 billion expected on Monday with the retail index reaching an all-time intraday high.  Though much of this was online, even brick-and-mortar did well today and the volatility index is also near an all-time low.  For the kickoff to the holiday season, not a lot of nerves out there right now. 

James Simons: Conquering Wall Street with Mathematics

Happy Thanksgiving everyone and I can't think of a better way to honor the occasion than to present yesterday's Ritholtz column which should very much appeal to all the techies in our group.  This was yesterday's entry but it should appeal to all the engineers in the group who like the purely mathematical approach to stock picking.  Hope everyone is having a great holiday. 

Wall St. flat ahead of holiday; ISPs rise on net neutrality bets

A minor correction in the air as trading remains exceedingly light for the holiday week with the likely repeal of net neutrality dominating market news and driving ISP stocks up.  The day’s shock came by way of Meg Whitman’s surprise stepping down from HP, which sent shares down over 7 percent. Volume at just under 5.2 billion is way below the month’s average, as was expected. 

Tech gains help propel Wall Street to record highs

The Dow up 3 digits again on more better than expected Q3 as the latter winds down.  Cash that’s been sitting on the sidelines all year is starting to move back into the market as confidence increases with the VIX at historic lows and pushing all three indexes to new highs.  Volume was stronger than yesterday but is expected to be well below average all this week. 

Wall Street ticks up, lifted by Verizon, chipmakers

With today’s 72 point boost we are just about back on track to where we were before I went on vacation.  Q3 reporting is more or less over and the fact that most companies exceeded forecasts is what’s kept the bulls running.  Because of the upcoming holiday weekend, volume was quite light and is expected to remain so all week. 

Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 11.17.17

Today I attempt to reboot the Marias blog with the usual Sunday night weekly summation.  Lou Ruckeyser on the old PBS Wall Street Week program used to joke that he had a consistent history of the stock market going down every time he went on vacation.  So the Dow took roughly a 300 point dive during the week I was in PA even though it did recover most of that on Thursday (only to lose much of it again on Friday.)  There is bound to be a correction once it becomes evident that tax reform is going to fail, and lately there are not too many economists who believe it won't.  Anyway the new AOL desktop browser is a complete flop so I have moved to AOL Mail to get my work done now and will endeavor to keep this going on a daily/nightly basis once again. 

Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 11.3.17

So I've been offline since October 19th since AOL discontinued its free desktop browser that I've been using for many years and its new and improved AOL Gold desktop (which you now have to pay for) does not work.  Isn't it often the case that "new and improved" usually translates as "ruined."  So I've been forced to use AOL Mail on the web site and, though it's not nearly as good as the old free desktop browser, it's a whole site better than the new, which is practically useless, and still a whole lot better than the other browsers such as GMail, Yahoo, and Comcast.  I'm getting used to it now so I may well soon be doing this daily blog again.  I will be visiting relatives in Philly for the next ten days or so but will likely resume publishing upon my return.  Meanwhile, tonight I am providing the usual succinct Sunday night summary.  Have a great week everyone!