Every beginning of a quarter corporations report their financial results from the previous quarter. These sales and earnings establish the successes and failures and are like a report card for companies. It is a short term look at the corporations’ efforts, and though it is only for one quarter, investors generally react to the numbers. […]
There are many ways to look at the job conditions in the U.S. Most of the time the stock market concerns itself with the monthly jobs report coming from the government. Last week it showed, for September, a reduction of the unemployment rate to a 50 year low and we produced a modest number of […]
On the yearly cycle for the stock market September has been the worst month statistically, but the September that just ended was actually an up month. It wasn’t much of an up month but still it was up. October is assumed to be the worst month of the year because it has the dubious honor […]
Out this morning was the consumer income and spending numbers for August. These reports are monthly and though they look back one month they tell us what the consumer is actually doing with their money and how much they are making. The key to understanding these numbers is that we want rising numbers on both […]
Stocks are driven both up and down by the direction of money flow. Recently mutual fund managers boosted their stock allocation by the most since the beginning of the year, and as a result the first two weeks in September were pretty strong. There is competition for invested dollars between stocks and bonds and as […]
In recent weeks we have been reporting on the various jobs statistics in America. The monthly jobs report, which tells us the number of new jobs produced and the unemployment rate, garners the most attention. Then there is the job openings numbers and the ‘quit’ rate that are very revealing. We wrote about them last […]
September’s Consumer Sentiment Index came out this morning with a reading of 92, up from 89 which is good. Far more important, however, is what the consumer is ‘doing’ not ‘feeling’ and that goes into spending. One way to find that out is in the reading of the Retail Sales Report that comes out every […]
Every month we await with nervousness the numbers for the new jobs produced in the month before. Will the number show a strong job market, or will they hint at a slowdown? Market participants search for any hints of a slow economy and the jobs report, though a lagging indicator, is watched closely. Another report […]
President Trump has been and continues to be upset with the Fed because the dollar continues to gain strength against other currencies, and he feels the Fed should react. That strength hurts U.S. exports and helps imports thus weakening his hand in his trade war with China. It also dampens exports to other countries especially […]
The Case-Shiller Report on home prices came out for June, and even though this is a report that provides data that is two months old it is still instructive as a barometer of the housing market. Prices still rose but at a slower pace. The year-over-year number was up 2.1%; down from 2.4% the month […]