Daily Market Commentary

If you didn't like what you saw during the trading day yesterday, you just had a to wait a few minutes and it probably changed. It was quite the whipsaw day as two separate Federal Reserve members gave opinions, and they didn't necessary say the same thing. Where does that leave us? Jerome Powell is the go to member and had the final say, but with the Dow was down triple digits in early trading, up triple digits in the early afternoon, down triple again a half hour later, and finally closed up ...

Stocks opened the new week sharply lower, but stabilized rather quickly as the S&P 500, down about 17-points near the open, traded in a tight 10 - 15 point range for most of the day afterward, closing down 25. The Dow was down for a third straight day, the Nasdaq, the I-fund, and the Transports lost about 1% each, and small caps lagged with the Russell falling 1.4% and the S-fund gave up 1.23%.

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What was expected to be almost a non-factor after the Fed's more dovish FOMC meeting this past week, the jobs report came out before the opening bell on Friday and it blew estimates out of the water. Of course this set off a couple of thoughts from investors, including elevating hopes that there may be less of a chance of a recession this year than most thought, but also concern that inflation may not be going away anytime soon as the Fed has been focusing on slowing down the labor market to control ...

The FOMO - fear of missing out - rally continued yesterday as the underinvested try to catch up to the indices that are running away from many of the bears. We came into this year with investor sentiment on the very bearish side so when the rally started, there was plenty of cash on the sidelines to keep the rally fueled. Add a more dovish sounding Fed and some decent earnings from Meta and the rally plowed ahead on Thursday. The Dow lagged again, but the broader indices were off to the races ...

Did the Fed pivot? The market did the Fed Flip yesterday. Stocks were lower most of the morning and once the Fed delivered their policy statement, the 0.25% rate hike, and began the press conference, the Dow was down over 500-points and the S&P was down 40+. Fast forward 15 - 30 minutes later and everything turned around. The indices did sell off in late trading to take them off their highs - perhaps profit taking as the S&P, up about 75-points at its highs, ended the day up 43, and ...