October 23, 2014
Looking at the data over the past few days, it’s apparent that the economy continues to improve. Consumer comfort is rising, initial jobless claims are up a bit but remain at extremely low levels, job openings are at multiyear highs . . . the list goes on and on.
October 22, 2014
I am currently attending a Goldman Sachs conference, and I was struck by one key point made by the agenda: The U.S. is still the center of the world.
October 21, 2014
And he woke up, and it was all a dream.
With a six-year-old son, I admit I’ve been forced to end stories in that way on more than one occasion, when I get stuck and run out of ideas (or energy). Looking at the market today, though, the events of last week have certainly taken on a dreamlike quality. What just happened?
October 20, 2014
We’ve seen a market downdraft, a bounce back up, and now . . . what next? This is the big question everyone’s asking.
October 17, 2014
Over the past couple of days, I’ve said again and again that the U.S. is in good shape economically, and that the problems rattling the markets are coming from elsewhere in the world. Today, let’s take a closer look at where we stand, and why I think we're well positioned to ride out any market turmoil.
October 16, 2014
Once again, the winds of market turbulence are starting to blow. Once again, barometers (and stock prices) are dropping. Once again, we wonder why we ever thought it was a good idea to invest in stocks.
October 15, 2014
Apart from the stock market—and we got a break on that front yesterday—the big story lately has been falling oil prices.
Not to minimize the market’s losses, but from a long-term perspective, the oil price decline over the past month is the more important story by far, both for the U.S. economy and for the world.
October 14, 2014
Yesterday was another bad one. The market is now below its 200-day moving average, and the selling toward the end of the day wasn't a good sign.
It’s time to think through what this "correction" might mean.
October 13, 2014
After I wrote Friday’s post, the market proceeded to drop even further, and it opened today with another dip. Time to reevaluate where we stand.
First, as always, it’s important to keep things in perspective. As I write this, the S&P 500 is down just over 6 percent from the peak. We’re still up about 2.5 percent for the year, and more than 11 percent for the past 12 months. Even with the drop, we’re in a pretty good place.
October 10, 2014
Over the past few days, the market has taken investors on a roller-coaster ride, and I suspect many of us are feeling a bit queasy. No one likes to be jerked down and up and back down again.
What’s going on?
