The Goldilocks Labor Report: “Just Right!”

It isn’t ever a good sign when markets become manic. August was quite volatile with five days out of 22 (23%) where the S&P 500 intra-day market swings exceeded 2%, and three days when the market closed down more than -2.5% from the prior day’s close. (We haven’t seen such price volatility since 2011!) While, so far, September […]

Reconciling a 1-percent economy with record market highs

The recovery from the Great Recession has been the most sluggish in post-WWII economic history.  This is vividly displayed in the nation’s recent GDP report.    The Commerce Department estimated that the economy grew at a snail’s pace over the last 3 quarters: 0.9% in Q4, 0.8% in Q1, and 1.2% in Q2.  Yet, all of […]

Quarterly Economic Outlook: Q3/2016

The “Brexit” caused market swoon on Wall Street turned out to be a nasty 5.3% two day dive (S&P 500) that was all but reversed in the next 4 trading sessions.  The reason was clear early on – despite forecasts of immediate worldwide economic doom and gloom, the non-binding referendum was mostly a political statement […]

An Overview of Brexit

The Reaction of the European Bourses On June 14th, the FTSE closed at 5923.50.  On June 15th, the world’s major bourses began their run-up in anticipation that “remain” would win in the U.K. referendum.  The FTSE rose 7% from its June 14th level until June 23rd (to 6338.10), the day of the referendum.  The day […]

Recognition shock

The wave of anti-establishment, anti-globalization sentiment, evident in the U.S. primary election cycle, manifest itself bigtime in the U.K. with its vote on Thursday, June 23rd, to exit the European Union (E.U.).  Wall Street hates uncertainty; that is why it loves the status quo.  In the days leading up to this historic British decision, the […]