Stock Markets and the Economy
Found 234 Articles.
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The Outlook for Earnings
What’s the outlook for U.S. corporate earnings and what does it mean for stocks? Earnings were in a recession, even while the economy grew, from 2014-2016. Earnings for most companies declined year-over-year during that period. Late in 2016, we finally saw positive and even robust earnings growth. Analysts generally expect such strong earnings growth to […]
Understanding the Latest Employment Reports
Last week’s Employment Situation reports disappointed some investors and analysts. They’re misinterpreting the data. The government reported only 138,000 new jobs created. Also, last month’s reported 211,000 new jobs were revised down to 174,000, well below the numbers of the past year, thus raising concerns among some observers about reduced growth. In addition, average hourly earnings increased […]
Sell in May and Go Away?
Investors who followed the old adage to sell in May and buy again in November missed some nice gains in the last month. The S&P 500 rose 1.40% for the month of May and is up 8.62% for the year to date. The Dow Jones Industrial Average returned 0.71% for the month and 7.41% so […]
Managing Today’s Overlooked Risks
Investors and markets have been calm and steady for a while. That’s generating some profits but means some risks are being overlooked or downplayed. The U.S. economy continues to grow. The low first-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth didn’t reflect the real state of the economy. The bulk of the data reported during the quarter […]
The First Quarter Wrap
The first quarter closed last Friday but the markets were very different in March than earlier in the year. The change altered the overall performance of different assets for the quarter, since U.S. stocks didn’t do much in March. They took a break from the strong rally they had in January and February. But overseas […]
Wake Up Call or a Bump in the Road?
Since last November, many investors became comfortable with what has been called the Trump Trade. Now, they’re a little uneasy. The Trump Trade was to buy assets that seem likely to benefit from the proposed policies of the new Trump administration. The primary beneficiaries were U.S. stocks, especially stocks of companies with mostly domestic revenues. […]
Bulls and Bears Within the Broader Markets
Most investors and the media focus on the broad market indexes, but there are a lot of changes taking place in the stock markets that aren’t reflected in the major indexes. Let’s take a look at these changes, using the Dow Jones indexes. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 5.4% for 2017 and […]
The Big Yawn About the Fed
Today is the market’s 7th anniversary of the 2009 stock index lows. Until recently, the seven-year stock market rise depended on easy Fed policies. Less than a year ago, a report that the Fed was about to raise interest rates would send panic through the markets but that no longer is the case. Last week, Chairman […]
