Is the stock market going up because there are more buyers than sellers? No. There are a fixed number of shares in the marketplace. For every buyer of a share, there needs to be a seller of the asset. In fact, a transaction cannot occur without each participant – each buyer and each seller – playing a role in a trade. So why is the U.S. stock market relentlessly powering ahead? Shareholding sellers are only willing to accommodate eager buyers…
I could not be any prouder of my 20-year old daughter. In the recent semester, she received “straight 7s” while studying abroad at the University of Queensland in Australia. (Those are “As.”) More impressively, within a week of arriving back in the United States this past November, she secured two part-time lab assistant positions. That’s right. My kid works while pursuing her biology degree at the University of California in San Diego. Why am I writing about my daughter’s triumphs?…
The previous decade’s financial crisis did not begin in earnest until 2008. Bear Stearns. Lehman Brothers. AIG. And yet, the warning signs had appeared long beforehand. Real estate sales had turned negative on a year-over-year basis in 2006, even as prices kept climbing. Meanwhile, SPDR Select Sector Financials (XLF) logged -21% in 2007, even as the broader S&P 500 had notched a record high as late as October. In mid-2015, European financial stocks peaked. And in much the same way…
In 2013, the S&P 500 closed at a record high at the same time that the 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield closed at a record low. The reason? The Federal Reserve had been buying hundreds of millions of government bonds as part of its quantitative easing (QE) program. Indeed, back in 2013, Fed leaders determined that the country still required emergency-level economic stimulus. Here in 2016, the S&P 500 may close at a record high above 2130 at the same…
Five years ago, several European countries (e.g., Portugal, Italy, Greece, etc.) appeared as if they might default on their sovereign debt obligations. Gold prices spiked. The Japanese yen soared. U.S. Treasury bond yields plummeted. And the S&P 500 fell nearly 20% before globally coordinated central bank activity resuscitated investor appetite for U.S stocks. Today, Europe appears to be on the verge of another euro-zone crisis. This time, the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union has threatened to destabilize the…
For the better part of six years, between December of 2008 and December of 2014, the Federal Reserve created hundreds of billions of electronic dollar credits to pump up asset prices (e.g., stocks, bonds, real estate. etc.). Theoretically, the subsequent wealth effect would encourage businesses to invest in their growth, consumers to spend on discretionary items and the overall economy to improve dramatically. Since the Fed terminated its stimulus program (“QE3”), however, riskier assets have struggled and “risk-off” assets have thrived….
According to the Goldman Sachs Current Activity Indicator (CAI), economic well-being peaked in November of 2014. The erosion from 4.1% down to 1.3% over the last 18 months demonstrates just how vulnerable the U.S. economy currently is. Not surprisingly, economic weakness has taken its toll on stock assets. The S&P 500 has not gained meaningful ground since the Fed officially stopped its bond purchases on December 18, 2014. Smaller company stocks in the Russell 2000? A bit of depreciation over the…
What do China, Japan, India, England, Germany… heck, most of the significant economies around the globe, share in common? Bear market declines in stock prices of 20% or more. Several ETFs demonstrate the breadth of the global depreciation in equities. For example, SPDR EURO STOXX 50 (FEZ) illustrates the doggedness of the downtrend in Europe. The pattern has persisted since the summer of 2014. Meanwhile, iShares MSCI All-Country Asia ex Japan (AAXJ) highlights the struggles in the Pacific, and iShares…
Some charts are more interesting than others. For example, Rob Isbitts at Sungarden Investment Research pointed out that the three-year return for the S&P 500 has dipped below 30%. Why might that matter? When the three-year return disappointed investors with single-digit annualized gains (< 10% per year) in 2001 and again in 2008, bearish stock sell-offs came to fruition. Technical analysts have also taken notice of the “lower lows” in the S&P 500’s three-year return since the end of 2014. The pattern…
How dependent is the U.S. economy on stimulus by the central bank of the United States? Take a look at what has happened in the bond market since the Federal Reserve began to reduce asset purchases as part of its quantitative easing program (“QE3”) in 2014. The spread between longer-term maturity treasuries and shorter-term maturity treasuries has narrowed dramatically. The two-and-a-half year downtrend demonstrates a phenomenon called “yield curve flattening.” And it is warning that the Fed’s halfhearted attempts to…
