Dow sets record-high close; Fed signals gradual rate hikes

Putting aside all the political theater in D.C. for the moment, Wall Street is a lot more interested in the Fed and Q2 than anything else right now.  So with Yellen’s dovish comments this morning before the Congress, the Dow shot way up and stayed there most of the session to close 123 points up.  Real estate proved the big mover today and airlines did pretty well too.  The Fed’s Beige Book showed the economy growing at a “slight to moderate” pace.  Volume is still below average at 6.1 billion shares traded.

Wall Street ends flat as politics drive stocks

First there was the bad news about Trump Jr’s Russian emails that sent the Dow spinning down 130 points right out the gate.  Then there was the good news about the delay in the Senate’s August recess directing some sunshine onto a gloomy day with a hint that the delay might result in some legislative progress.  This latter bit of optimism sent the index slowly up again to break-even by day’s end.  Investors are still looking to tomorrow’s Congressional testimony by Janet Yellen and the beginning of Q2 reporting hoping for some good news.  Volume remains quite light at 5.9 billion.

Wall Street starts week upbeat, boosted by tech shares

Despite the headline, it was really a pretty quiet day with the Dow up and down within about a 30 point range but ending just about even and the other indexes up a tad.  Tech continues to do well and is expected to be the strongest sector for Q2, reports starting later this week.  As usual, investors will be eyeing Yellen’s Congressional testimony Wednesday for hints of the next rate hike.  But overall it was a quiet beginning of the week with a  very light volume of 5.6 billion shares.

Succinct Summation of Week’s Events for 7.7.17 (plus the state of the Internet)

It's time for the week's summation with nonfarm payrolls coming in ahead of forecast and global interest rates moving higher.  The bonus this Sunday for those of you who have the ambition is a 33 minute video presentation of Mary Meeker's lecture on the 2017 Internet trends.  Her entire outline is displayed in the first 30 seconds.  There is a mention that all the slides are available so there may be a mention of a link at the end of the video.  Hope everyone had a great weekend.

How to Call a Market Top

We all know that when it comes to market timing, the #1 magic trick is how to call a top.  Many believe it's not really possible.  For your weekend's amusement, Barry Ritholtz's column offers a tongue-in-cheek step-by-step guide on how to call a market top, while sending the real message about how not to.  Clearly he falls into the category of those who believe it's not possible, and his cautionary notes about how to avoid the problem of calling a market demise when there isn't one are well worth noting.  Keep enjoying this beautiful July weekend.

Wall Street climbs after jobs data as tech, financials rise

Yesterday the Dow plunged 158 points because the ADP private employment report came in with 27,000 fewer new jobs than forecast and this was taken as a predictor of today’s nonfarm report also being weak.  I did mention that this is not always the case and, as we saw today, it was not the case with the economy adding 222,000 new jobs last month which was 43,000 more than expected.  So today the Dow zoomed back up again 94 points and now investors’ main concern is finding all the bargains that have sold off recently.  Tech was up over 1.2 percent again today but netting a minus 3 percent for the week though for the year it’s still one of the market’s biggest winners with a 17 percent gain.  Volume was well below average at 5.7 billion, probably because many traders are still on extended vacation from the 4^th of July.  

Wall Street drops on labor market data, North Korea concern

The Dow dove 158 points today and there’s lots of finger pointing – employment coming in 30,000 below forecast, jobless claims up, nervousness over the Fed and, of course, North Korea.  Naturally the private employment number is taken as a harbinger of the nonfarm report coming tomorrow but that is not always the case.  The 6.6 billion share volume was again below average.