Wall Street ends bumpy week, strong 1st half with modest gain

Yes, bumpy week is one way of putting it.  Bumpy year is another way.  Tech up one day, tech down the next.  Today the Dow took a straight shot up a hundred points before diving in the final minutes to close 62 up.  Tech was down a hair today but still up over 16 percent for the year vs S&P’s 8.2 percent.  The S&P has had its biggest first half since 2013, the Nasdaq since 2009.  The day’s drivers were a modest rise in consumer spending coupled with cooler inflation, signaling a slow but steady expansion.  There’s also the heavy expectation of Q2 coming in with 8 percent growth.  We’ll find out about that in the coming weeks. Volume was a little below average at 6.6 billion.

Wall Street hit hard as tech softness continues

In a day of very heavy trading in which nearly 8 billion shares changed hands, panic once again hit the market with a whopping 300 point dive right out the gate which then began a recovery in mid-session to close 167 down, after yesterday’s big run up of 143 points.  Is this profit-taking, sector rotation, Q2 nerves or a little bit of all the above?  What is plain is that it is more of the same.  One day tech is up, the leading catalyst for the year’s gains, the next day tech is down.  And as tech goes down, the contrary sectors such as financials and energy go up. 

Wall Street stocks surge as banks, tech sectors spark rebound

After the massive sell off yesterday due to the delay (and by some reports demise) of the Republican health bill, cooler heads prevailed today as investors decided the delay (or defeat) may not be such a terrible thing after all.  It seems that bad news does not last long in this market and yesterday’s downturn just means today’s buying opportunity.  That is apparently what happened with tech and financial taking off right out the gate and staying there all day to close 143 points up after yesterday’s 98 point drop.  Q2 very much looms on the horizon with the market quite anxious to see if earnings can justify the current high valuations and thereby keep this bull market going.  Volume was below average at 6.7 billion.

Wall St. falters as Senate delays health vote

Investors are looking for any sign that the Republicans are able to govern and, for some reason, have made the health bill a litmus test for all future gains.  Thus, whenever there is a Republican defeat, investors sell.  When the announcement came down that the vote would be delayed until after the holiday, the Dow dropped 130 points, but did recover by end to close down 99.  It doesn’t really make a lot of sense why the failure of an unpopular bill would prevent the success of a popular bill like tax reform.  But that’s the thinking.  It wasn’t just the delay though.  Tech took another drubbing today with Google getting a gigantic fine from the EU.  And there was even good news.  Consumer confidence rose and Fed Chair Yellen opined that, due to the lessons learns from the Great Recession, there would be no other major econ crises in her lifetime.  (Here’s to your health, Janet, and a good long life!)  Volume was right around the 7 billion mark, in line with recent averages.

S&P 500, Dow edge up; tech weighs on Nasdaq

The Dow zoomed up 120 points right out the gate which started a steady sell off in the tech sector that lasted all day for the index to close almost even with a slight 14 point gain.  It seems tech is up and down from one day to the next these days but it’s still the strongest market driver out there while oil continues the opposite effect.  But as money goes out of tech from time to time it just goes into other more defensive sectors so the end result is a wash.  Depending on who you read, it’s either profit taking or sector rotation.  However, if it’s the latter it seems to be switching every other day.  The 6.4 billion share volume was below recent averages which it would be while everyone sits on the fence.   

Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 6.23.17 (plus inflation)

Here we are at summation time again with the S&P making another all-time high but more or less everything else remaining static as watchful eyes remain fixed on the healthcare theater playing out in Washington the next week or two.  This week's bonus is a report from our friends at Heritage Capital Research that does a pretty decent job of explaining the inflation problem.  I've commented several times why it doesn't make sense that the market takes the recent Fed rate hike as bad news because it will make our low inflation numbers even lower.  When I went to school, higher interest rates meant higher inflation so this complaint struck me as irrational.  This report more or less agrees that it's irrational.  I'll only take issue with their remarks that the Fed has been unclear (perhaps deliberately so) about the inflation goals of all this quantitative easing.  Well, I for one have been reading the monthly Fed reports for years and I think they've been very clear from the beginning.  We need to raise inflation back to normal pre-recession levels.  Perspectives.  Hope everyone had a great weekend.  

10 Weekend Reads (plus student loans)

It's been a while since I've supplied a weekend reading list and this one looks pretty good, the most interesting picks being an unconventional explanation of market bubbles and an article about the Wall Street detective who goes after corporate fraud, two topics that should be of value to any investor.  There's also a very revealing graphic showing the explosion in student loans over the past ten years.  In my travels I've run across many a soul who believes that loans for college and grad school have gotten considerably more inaccessible in recent years.  This picture shows a very different story.  Hope everyone is enjoying this very pleasant weekend.