As T.S. Eliot warned in The Wasteland, April is the cruelest month, as the thaw of winter gives way to hope as the world returns to rejuvenation. April has delivered the first quarter corporate results and it is no exaggeration to state that revenue and earnings have exceeded expectations. However, the equity market results have failed to respond to the robust numbers as the SPOOS have gained a mere 1.25% and remain unchanged on the year. The NASDAQ 100 has been a much better performer as the TECH sector continues to cruise.
Posts Tagged ‘NASDAQ’
Notes From Underground: Is April The Cruelest Month?
April 29, 2018Notes From Underground: Riding High in April
April 25, 2018In building on the discussions in Tuesday’s POST it is important to note that the debt discussion that has taken place in Notes From Underground is gaining traction as an important piece of the financial narrative. The failure of the SPOOS, NASDAQ, and DOW to gain traction with the robust earning releases is forcing the perplexed to confront the impact and collateral damage from Ben Bernanke’s Portfolio Balance Channel, also known as QE or large-scale asset purchases.
Notes From Underground: Synchronicity
February 5, 2018We have had many false key technical signals over the last 12 months. BUT LAST WEEK there have been THREE KEY REVERSALS. The DOW, S&Ps AND NASDAQ all made all-time highs and closed below the previous week’s low. SYNCHRONICITY indeed. Pay close attention as the world is all aflutter with fears of higher interest weeks forcing a reassessment of equity values. I believe Monday’s massive selloff IS A RESULT OF THE MASSIVE EFFECT OF THE RISK PARITY PARADIGM. I have warned that all the synthetic mimics of DALIO’s risk parity profiles were going to create a small door in which to exit. I am posting a podcast I recorded with Anthony Crudele on January 30, but just released this morning. Learn from actual traders, CHI GIRL and YRA HARRIS.
Notes From Underground: Month-End, Quarter-End … Oh My
June 29, 2017In Thursday‘s post I am reissuing part of a post from June 11 in which I cited a very important signal from the Nasdaq 100 futures. The signal suggests the equity markets have been in a much more defensive mode as rallies have failed and new selling has emerged. Well tonight I warn of a possible new development and that is in the DAX FUTURES. The German index has been my favorite long equity position because the fundamentals are most positive for Germany: negative interest rates, current account surplus and a very strong fiscal position. The strong EURO this week seems to be a potential drag for German stocks, but the biggest factor is that the continued use of negative interest rates at the Draghi-led ECB makes the high-yielding German equity market a desirable choice for investors. HOWEVER, IF THE DAX DOES A MONTHLY OUTSIDE REVERSAL THIS WILL SIGNAL A MAJOR WARNING FOR ALL GLOBAL EQUITY MARKETS.
Notes From Underground: Wake Up! Wake Up! For Your Light Has Come
June 11, 2017This line comes from the Jewish liturgy of welcoming the Sabbath. I use it here to make a note to my readers about a possible signal that the NASDAQ 100 sent on Friday. Now I don’t hold myself out as anything but a third-rate TECHNICIAN (reader of chart formations), but having been taught by one of the greatest technical minds (thanks H.G.), I know to watch certain formations for signals in a POSSIBLE change in sentiment. THE CHART THAT CAUSES CONCERN NASDAQ 100 made ALL TIME HIGHS LAST WEEK BUT CLOSED BELOW THE PREVIOUS WEEK’S LOWS. Do I know when the market will reward a short position?
Notes From Underground: Cramer Unsavory? I Think Not
January 14, 2016Jim Bullard? Now There Is An Unsavory Chap
Today was not like the other days for the break in the equity markets came early. As all the global markets were in sell mode St. Louis Fed President James Bullard hit the airwaves with thoughts about being wrong in his inflation projections. It appears that the selloff in crude oil is providing the Fed hawk with concerns that the SUMMARY of ECONOMIC PROJECTIONS may be softer than the December FOMC meeting revealed. Bullard sounded as if he would not be in favor of the Fed raising rates because of the inflation rate turning away from the spurious 2 percent mandate. The unsavoriness of Bullard’s comment is not that he fears a downturn in inflation, and maybe lower growth, but that Bullard seemed to find his DOVISH posture as the U.S. markets were heading toward the August lows. Bullard in unsavory because he called out CNBC’s Jim Cramer for “cheerleading for low rates twenty-four hours a day.”
Notes From Underground: Weak Unemployment Report Creates A Cacophony of Market Reactions
October 4, 2015Before we review Friday’s action, I would like to present a quote from Tolstoy sent from a long-time reader and is representative of the 2+2=5 basis of Notes From Underground. While I have respect for the theoretical basis in the continued search for knowledge, I try to write NOTES with a deeper understanding of the fundamentals that drive markets on a short- and long-term time scale.
Notes From Underground: Yellen, Draghi and the Markets … Playing Those Mind Games Together
May 6, 2015In the midst of a dramatic seven-day bond selloff, extending from Tokyo to Frankfurt, London, New York and all bond markets in between, Chair Yellen chose today to add verbal fire to stoke the bond rout. In the early hours GLOBAL BONDS had tried to stage a rally from the previous days of endless selling. (It seems that the ECB was in buying European peripheral bonds from Spain and Italy.) Once Yellen began her remarks the BOND onslaught began anew. The key paragraph in the Yellen interview: “We need to be attentive–and are–to the possibility that when the Fed decides it is time to begin raising rates these term premiums could move up and we could see a SHARP JUMP IN LONG-TERM RATES” (emphasis mine). Upon the utterance of those six words the markets took note and the selling of all bonds in Europe and the U.S. accelerated.
Notes From Underground: Why All the Noise From Friday’s Unemployment Data?
April 6, 2014Friday’s jobs data was almost as the pundits had predicted. Why was there so much activity when the nonfarm payrolls and average hourly earnings and length of work week were basically the right on the consensus predictions? Yes, I’m aware that the “whisper number” was 250,000-plus due to the removal of harsh weather conditions. However, if that was the case, the dollar should have weakened and the short-end of the U.S. yield curve OUGHT to have outperformed the long end resulting in a STEEPENING of the 2/10 (none of which occurred). The 2/10 curve actually flattened as the U.S. stock markets began selling off, a drop initiated by the Nasdaq 100’s key momentum stocks. The weekly charts of the S&P and the Nasdaq took different turns as the SPOOs closed higher on the week and the Nasdaq closed lower, an indication of some reallocation from the momentum-oriented stocks to the more solid large-cap, earnings-based equities.
Notes From Underground: People Get Ready There’s a Train a Comin’
April 2, 2014This is a tribute to Curtis Mayfield and the Chambers Brothers who recorded the song and made it popular. The TRAIN THAT IS COMING IS THE ENGINE OF VOLATILITY. Tomorrow is the ECB meeting and the regularly scheduled press conference 45 minutes later at 7:30 CST in which ECB President Draghi will use nuance to explain the central bank’s decision. Currently, the market is expecting some type of action by the bank because it seems that the Germans have acquiesced to some type of ECB quantitative easing scenario. When the ECB announces its decision at 6:45 a.m., a statement that leaves policy unchanged will result in the EURO rallying against all major currencies for, based on the Bundesbank’s statement last week, the market is anticipating at least a modest cut in the refi rate of maybe 10 basis points.