Wall Street's rock-solid quarter ends with a loss

Today we saw the Dow drop almost 70 points right away and with some up and down end up almost exactly the same way by close.  Despite much good news including the S&P having a very strong Q1, with the latter index expected to have a 10.1 percent Q1 increase, there is concern that the market can live up to this.  Given that the S&P is trading at 18 times earnings, investors need to see evidence that this can be sustained so all eyes will be on Q1.  That means a lot anticipation in the coming weeks and volumes continuing below average, as happened today with 6.4 billion shares traded.

Wall Street rises, aided by growth data; Nasdaq ends at record

Today seemed to be the reverse of the great Trump Slump as instead of diving out the gate and then recovering, the Dow shot up over a hundred points out the gate and gradually lost ground throughout the session to close 69 points up.  The surge is credited to an unexpected report showing that the recent glowing economic data turned out to be more glowing than they thought, that Q4 GDP increased 2.1 percent instead of the 1.9 percent previously stated.  This provided investors with further affirmation that the economy was on the right path, not at all hurt by the fact that the good news is global.  Wall Street is now hoping Q1 earnings continues to affirm more.  Volume remains below average at 6 billion.

Energy, consumer shares lift S&P 500 to slight gain

This so-called Trump Correction (or Trump Slump depending on who you talk to) has had a fairly consistent pattern.  The indexes crash big time early in the session only to recover later on to show either a very modest gain or loss, indicating that most investors remain highly confident given the influx of positive fundamentals and are simply taking advantage of these almost daily valleys to use as buying opportunities.  After yesterday’s rather huge rally, that’s what happened again today, a correction that was all primed and ready to be sure.  The Dow is down 9 out of 10 sessions now but it’s still way over 20,000 so there’s no particular concern.  Given yesterday’s confidence ratings, it was no surprise that there was a rally today in consumer and energy stocks.  But concern remains that the post-election rally may be peaking and the S&P selling at 18 times earnings is a good indicator that corrections will continue.  Volume was considerably below average at 5.8 billion so many investors remain on the fence looking for more clarity from Trump.

Wall Street posts sharp gains, fueled by strong consumer data

With three whole days to ponder the next move, investors overwhelmingly took a “glass half full” position today after reports were released generally declaring March to be a glowing month for many economic indicators.  Most noteworthy among these was the data showing consumer confidence at a 16 year high, definitely leading credence to the sentiment that the market is on the right track and still has lots of legs.  The result was a steady day-long rise to peak just before close at more than a 200 point gain in the Dow, which then settled down in the last minutes to close at +150.  So, as was noted yesterday, the market has proven remarkably resilient in light of Friday’s defeat of healthcare, investors already shrugging it off in favor of a focus on tax reform.  Volume however remains below average at 6.6 billion.

Wall Street off as Trump agenda weighed; Dow down for eighth day

It seems the Trump defeat Friday lead to neither the hoped for rally nor the dreaded crash. Instead, as investors can sometimes be, the market proved remarkably flexible.  Whereas throughout the last two months and until Thursday, a defeat of healthcare was assumed to mean that tax reform would never get passed, now Wall Street’s instant new attitude is that Trumpcare’s demise will now make tax reform easier.  These folks are adaptable are they not?  But it was not all roses today.  Right out the gate the index crashed almost 200 points.  And as happened at least twice last week, it came back to close just 45 points down.  In other words, this news is all being taken in stride or, as one expert put it so succinctly today, “It’s just incredible what type of short-term memory this U.S. market has and the buying appetite global investors have for the U.S. market.”  This was also reflected in the below average volume of 6.3 billion shares. 

Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 3.24.17

What a week it was, this time the negatives outweighing the positives (not counting the really big positive or negative depending on which way your politics tilt, an event that did not make this list for obvious reasons.)  For this Sunday night I will share tonight's presentation on "60 Minutes," an excellent segment showcasing a teacher in an impoverished Mississippi elementary school who uses chess to teach his underachieving students how to excel.  We need more of this in all of our schools, a lot more of it!  Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Hybrid Investing

In my Saturday post, I ordinarily offer up a pearl of wisdom or two from Barry Ritholtz's finance column, "The Big Picture," as featured in The Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.  Tonight however I offer this terrific program, courtesy of PBS and Consuela Mack's WealthTrack series, on behavioral finance and one expert's take on why so many smart people make so many dumb decisions when it comes to their investments.