Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 1.29.16 (+ bonus beauty)

Our weekly summation, and pay particular attention to #2 under "Negatives" where the recent Japanese action to implement negative interest rates is explained, thereby satisfying my query from Friday's post.  And this Sunday's bonus is not necessarily related to investing but does qualify as some serious eye candy as Sir David Attenborough of the BBC takes us on a two minute tour of some of the planet's most alluring wonders.  If they say that the purpose of work is so we can live and the purpose of art is to give us something to live for, then this video is an example of why we work.

10 Weekend Reads: Flint and Ted Cruz

Today's suggested readings courtesy of Barry Ritholtz include notable articles on the poisoned water crisis in Flint and insights into the man most responsible for igniting Ted Cruz's candidacy.  There are also interesting dissertations on hedge funds, Microsoft's plans for future global domination, and the history of employment statistics.  Happy reading!

Wall Street surges at end of awful January

Thur/Fri:
A stellar Facebook quarterly report coming in after the bell on Wednesday set the stage for what has become one of the most potent two-day rallies in history with the Dow bolted up 125 Thursday and a very big 396 today.  This was mostly on news of terrific Q4 reports from a number of companies but also oil getting its biggest help in a long time from speculation that the OPEC nations may cut production to help the global glut in crude.  (Hey, about stopping production all together until the glut is worked off?)

Wall Street sinks after Fed fails to impress

If yesterday was a case of irrational exuberance with the China stock market tanking and yet Wall Street surging, today was that of irrational panic to the tune of 222 points down on the Dow.  To think the Fed actually had the nerve to report good news -- despite the January turmoil, all objective U.S. economic indicators are in sufficiently good shape to make a change in Fed interest rate policy unwarranted.  Investors were really hoping for some dial-back and when instead the bank talked optimism, a massive sell off began.  This was despite the fact that more economic good news came in this morning, particularly for oil which surged when Russia agreed to discussions pertaining to taming the oil glut and additional data showed that demand would finally be on the rise again.  The good news is that we didn't lose as much as we gained yesterday.  And there may be more good news tomorrow since Facebook came out with a good Q4 report after the closing bell.  Volume was in line with recent averages at 8.8 billion.

Oil fuels 'schizophrenic' rebound on Wall Street

I'm not sure that "schizophrenic" is quite the right word or if it's more accurate to say that it's the same irrational exuberance (or panic) that has plagued the market for some time now.  It is evident that whatever happened yesterday to cause the market to plunge 208 points happened almost exactly the same today but in reverse, causing an amazing 282 point jump.  As they said yesterday - it was all about oil.  Today too -- all about oil.  Today's exuberance was indeed irrational since the Chinese markets plunged big time again overnight, which should have sent our markets reeling.  Instead, investors decided to shrug off the six percent China slump and instead focus on all the positive things happening right here in the U.S.  Q4 reports have started coming in strong with 3M, J&J, and P&G all landing unexpected KO's.  Crude rose 3.7% on news that the Arab nations might start cooperating on reducing production thereby helping to tame the global supply glut.  Q4 expectations remain low with profit forecasts down 4.9%, all of which will likely change in a positive direction day by day as more companies like J&J exceed estimates.  Today's volume was the same as yesterday's with 7.9 billion shares traded.

Wall Street resumes 2016 slide as energy stocks tumble

The slide was very consistent all day long as oil hit yet another major snag with news from Iraq that that country's oil output had reached a record high last month.  All three major indexes took a hit of over 1 percent including a 208 point slump in the Dow.  As it has been for some time now and as articulated by today's expert from L.A., "Today is all about oil" as crude fell another two dollars.  At least at 7.9 billion shares, volume was closer to more normal averages of late.  A number of heavyweight Q4 reports are due later this week along with more signals from the Fed regarding future interest rates so eyes will be wide open for awhile.

Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 1.22.16 (plus "Outcome vs Process")

It's time for the week's wrap up and fortunately this week wrapped up on a much more positive note than last week.  As a reward for those of you not panicking, today's Big Picture column featured a trip back to Finance 101, a refresher in the basic investment strategy of "outcome vs process" and why it is always better to be focused on the latter rather than the former.  Hope everyone had a great weekend.