Daily Market Commentary

Wednesday saw what we might consider a post-holiday reversal, and I'll get into that a little more below, but suffice it to say, stocks pulled back modestly after last week's pre-holiday rally. We did see some buying after the initial opening decline, so the bulls are not dead by any means, but with the S&P 500 gaining about 17% in the first half of the year, perhaps it won't be so easy in the second half. The dollar was up making the I-fund the laggard, and a pop higher in yields gave the ...

We saw some normal light volume holiday action on Monday as traders and short sellers typically take a day like that off, so the market is mostly impacted by inflows which led to modest gains. The I-fund was flat as the dollar ticked up, and bonds were down as yields rallied on the recent stronger than expected economic data. The rest of the week has an historically bullish bias, but there's always the chance of a post-holiday reversal.

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The stock market ended a big month with another rally on Friday after a favorable PCE prices report gave us evidence of easing inflation. We saw 1% plus gains in most of the broader indices. The soft report also sent yields down helping bonds and the F-fund to a good day as well. The pre-holiday activity felt like pre-holiday action with the bears heading off to their weekend hot spots. Trading volume did tick up, most likely because it was the last trades of the 2nd quarter for money managers. ...

A stronger than expected GDP and fewer jobless claims, combined with end of quarter window dressing and a positive holiday bias, and the stock market took it and ran and we got another rally. The Nasdaq was flat as the 2nd quarter leader may have seen some selling while the lagging, but still very positive for the quarter, Dow, S&P 500, and small caps had a much better day. The I-fund also lagged because the dollar jumped on the stronger economic data, and bonds were down sharply as yields ...

Stocks chopped around quite a bit on Wednesday as money managers jockey for position in what they call window dressing before the end of the quarter. The indices were mixed by the close but up sharply at times, and down at others, closing somewhere in the middle. The dollar rallied adding some pressure to the larger multi-national companies, as well as the I-fund's international stocks, while smalls caps led with a solid gain, which was interesting since regional banks were down again. Bonds ...