Dow hits record high while tech retreats

Investors seems to have become numb to the ever-changing landscape in Washington as the bad news there is not infecting Wall Street at all as the Dow reached still another record high today to gain another 60 points.  Since Friday was also a record high, even a 6 point gain would have made a new record.  Boeing is being credited not to mention that July was a great month, the S&P up nearly 2 percent, the Dow 2.5 percent, the Nasdaq 3.4 percent.  Other than that, the only real news was a lot of profit-taking, especially in tech, which brought the Nasdaq down for the day 26 points.  Volume was a little above average at 6.3 billion shares. 

Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 7.28.17 (plus The Best Investment Writing)

It's time for the weekly summation with Q2 GDP growing at 2.6% but existing home sales falling nearly 2 percent.  I sent everyone quite a pile of reading last night and I'm doing the same thing tonight for today's post on The Big Picture was our guru Meb Faber publishing a great new book which is a compilation of all the best books on investing.  The author of The Ivy Portfolio's new book should be well worth adding to our library and will be available on Amazon tomorrow.  Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Freakonomics: The Stupidest Thing You Can Do With Your Money

So we're back to the old "active is stupid, passive is smart" argument again which, in my opinion, is rooted in the reality that active requires smarts that few people have, whereas anybody with the IQ of a turnip can do quite well using passive strategies.  This is not to say that smart people can't do very well being passive as well but it is saying without any doubt that if you're going to be an active trader, you'd better know what you're doing.

S&P 500 dented by earnings; Dow hits record high

For the second day in a row, the market is up, today to the tune of 33 points on the Dow, even though there was once again nothing but bad news, at least not much else reported.  But the 33 points was enough to put the Dow at another record high, mostly on positive results from Chevron.  But Amazon, Exxon, Starbucks and the entire tobacco sector disappointed.  The Q2 earnings forecast is now up to 10.8%, up from 10.7 yesterday.  The rest of the history is in yesterday’s report but just a reminder that it was at 8 percent just a couple weeks ago.  The market is widely feared to be overvalued so investors are depending on a strong Q2 to justify prices and continue confidence that this bull run still has legs.  Last night’s healthcare failure has investors concerned about the rest of the Trump agenda and we may see that reflected in Monday’s data.  Meanwhile, volume is back to recent averages at 6.1 billion.

Tech, transports drag on Wall Street; Dow hits record

Thu, 7-27-17

Today’s reporting did not offer much in the way of clarity for even though the market had a good day with the Dow up nearly 3 digits again, all the news was bad.  Transportation, tech, Facebook, UPS, FedEx, Amazon, Bristol-Meyers, AstraZeneca, Twitter – all down.  So what caused the big buying spree?  Was it just bargain hunting?  Whatever it was, it again gave the market a renewed confidence for the third consecutive session and with volume considerably above average at 7.7 billion shares.  Once again, the Q2 forecast has been raised.  It is now 10.7 percent.  Yesterday it was 9.9, Tuesday 9.1, and a few weeks ago 8.0 percent earnings growth.  Do they deliberately estimate low so the market will go up?

Wall Street mints records after Fed, strong earnings

Just like yesterday, the Dow shot up right out the gate this morning, this time a hundred points, and staying there pretty much all day to close 97 points up.  The impetus is continued strong Q2, this time from Boeing and AT&T, a Fed statement maintaining the benchmark rate and repeating the commitment to a slow path of money tightening.  The statement also indicated that growth was moderate but solid and job gains good.  It was enough to once again raise the Q2 earnings growth forecast, today to 9.9 percent , up from yesterday’s 9.1, up from 8.0 earlier in July.  For the second consecutive day, optimism was again reflected in the above average volume of 6.6 billion.

Earnings, bank shares propel S&P 500 to record high

It was a big shot straight up 100 points on the Dow today and the S&P reached another all-time high with good reports from McDonald’s and Caterpillar.  Consumer confidence is also up and trading reflects the optimism that the Fed will remain dovish.  One expert summed it up very well, “You have low rates, low inflation, good earnings and we’re up 100 points.”  What’s not to like?  Q2 is going so well that the forecast is now at 9.1% growth, up from 8.8% just yesterday and 8% earlier in the month.  And for the first time in a while, volume is finally reflecting the optimism with 6.9 billion shares traded, above average for a change.