Wall St. mixed as U.S.-Canada trade talks end

The Dow spent the last day of the “summer” swinging back and forth in a 150 point range finally settling for a 22 point loss at close when talks with Canada to replace NAFTA went awry today.  Not that the deal is off but after so much optimism over trade talks all week, this was a splash of cold water.  For the second day, Amazon had a good session bringing it ever so much closer to that coveted $1 trillion dollar mark and Apple closed with its fifth consecutive all-time high.  As things go in August trading, volume was below average at just under 5.8 billion shares.  But unlike a typical August, it’s just a little below average, being propped up by positive economic fundamentals. 

Wall St. rally ends as risk-selling grows on rising tariff fears

The four day rally has ended and, if you look at the chart, it is plain to see that the crash started right after the announcement of another $200 billion dollars in tariffs against China.  This negated even the progress that was being made in trade talks with Canada.  All three indexes fell, the Dow by 137 points.  On the plus side, Apple reached still another record high and today Amazon passed the $2,000 dollar mark putting it well on the path to becoming the second company in history to reach the trillion dollar mark in market value.  The Fed’s inflation gauge, the PCE price index, posted a 2 percent increase, hitting the bank’s target and signaling the continuing likelihood of additional rate hikes this year.  Being late August, volume remains below average at just barely under 6 billion, and just barely below average. 

Wall Street extends rally, tech leads S&P, Nasdaq to record highs

The promise of continued trade negotiations, now with Canada, kept the market rally going today pushing the Dow up another 60 points.  Apple hit another all-time closing high today selling at just under $223 dollars per share and good grades from Morgan Stanley boosted the FAANG stocks Amazon and Google.  Among the good news with fundamentals is that Q2 GDP has been upwardly revised to 4.2 percent, its highest in four years.  August is traditionally a light volume month and today’s volume was below average at 5.6 billion, but because of the strong fundamentals influencing the market, volume is considered not as light as in a typical August. 

Wall Street ekes out gains as Canada takes trade spotlight

It was a rollercoaster day with the Dow swinging back and forth in a 90 point range while investors try to decide whether to cash in on yesterday’s big gains or to stay the course with all the good news that’s on the horizon as trade talks begin with Canada.  The end result was a near wash with the index up a mere 14 points on relatively light volume of 5.6 billion. 

S&P 500, Nasdaq hit new highs on U.S.-Mexico trade deal

A trifecta on the trade front boosted the Dow another 3 digits to a 259 point gain with (a) the announcement of a deal with Mexico to replace NAFTA, (b) immediate talks with Canada expected to do the same and (c) accelerating talks with the EU on tariffs there.  As the trade disputes have been a major impediment to investor commitment despite strong fundamentals and earnings, this news was welcome all around, so long as market gurus remain optimistic that these deals might actually materialize.  Volume was considerably closer to recent averages at 6.2 billion shares. 

Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 8.24.18 (plus 10 Reasons Why It’s Tough to be a True “Intelligent Investor”)

Below please find the usual weekly summation with jobless claims falling by 2,000 on the positive side of the ledger and existing home sales falling my 100,000 on the negative side.  This Sunday night's bonus is another little mini-course on investing, 1800 words succinctly summing up the Benjamin Graham approach to investing (the same approach Warren Buffett uses) in ten simple steps or, as Buffett himself puts it, "simple, not easy."  This of course could explain any investment strategy or philosophy since it all boils down to one thing -- buy low, sell high.  Simple, yes, but far from easy.  Hope everyone had a great weekend.  We have a very steamy week ahead.

S&P Hoop dee doo!

So there's been much hoop dee doo in the last couple of days about the S&P scoring its longest running bull market in history.  And no sooner was the proclamation made that any number of pundits and wizards emerged to challenge the claim.  In fact, I believe that Barry Ritholtz wrote a column just a few short weeks ago challenging the validity of this "longest running" bull market.  And let's face it, me thinks they've got a point.