Today’s batch of December economic indicators in the US has mostly eased any downside concerns about the labor market, consumers, and the economy overall. The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow tracking model is now showing Q4-2024 real GDP growth of 3.0%

Both stocks and bonds benefitted from good news across the earnings, macroeconomic, and geopolitical fronts today. Financial stocks jumped as big banks kicked off Q4 earnings season with better-than-expected results, and the S&P 500 rose 1.8%. Treasuries rallied, as December’s CPI

On the economic data front, today was mostly a Goldilocks day. December’s PPI was lower than expected. The NFIB survey of small business owners showed rising optimism and animal spirits. However, the Treasury reported that the federal budget deficit

Stock market valuation and beauty have a lot in common: They are both in the eyes of the beholder. At the end of the original version of the movie King Kong (1933), the big ape’s death is blamed by his

The week ahead is packed with inflation, consumer, and manufacturing indicator releases. Long-term Treasury yields could climb closer to 5.00% this week if fears about stickier inflation intensify. We’re expecting solid updates on consumer spending. In addition, Q4’s S&P

Last year, during August, we anticipated that US bond yields would rebound. Indeed, they have. During December, we expected a stock market correction at the start of the new year. So far, there has been a significant pullback in

I. US FINANCIAL MARKETS The bull/bear ratios have dropped sharply over the past couple of weeks (chart). From a contrarian perspective that’s a bullish development for the US stock market. The US bond yield has been increasing while the

The backup in bond yields since mid-September did not surprise us. But it has surprised lots of other financial pundits, who are warning that this could be bad news for stocks. It could be, especially if the 10-year US

The US economy continues to roar. December’s ISM purchasing managers survey showed that services activity remains strong. The JOLTS data, albeit a bit stale from November, showed job openings jumped. That aligned with the recent rise in measures of

Today was another good day for technology stocks, semiconductor stocks, and the Magnificent-7. In the S&P 500, they were up 1.44%, 3.28%, and 2.01%. We continue to recommend overweighting the LargeCap S&P 500 Information Technology and Communication Services sectors.

The economic week ahead is chockful of labor market indicators for November and December. We’re expecting them to beat expectations. As long as corporate earnings continue to reach new record highs, companies are likely to hire more workers and

The Q4-2024 earnings reporting season is about to start, led by the big banks. We expect that during their conference calls, company managements will discuss how AI may be starting to boost their productivity. In effect, they’ll be trying to

Today’s Wall Street Journal reports: “Now, as Trump prepares for his second administration, American companies have largely gone silent about the importance of the U.S.-China relationship. That is because American businesses no longer see China as the land of opportunity. The

This is the time of year when we all wish one another a healthy, happy, and prosperous new year. The past two years were certainly prosperous ones for equities investors, as the S&P 500 rose 23.3% following a 24.2% gain in 2023. Those gains more

The post-election rally has been losing steam since early December (chart). The S&P 500 peaked at a record high on December 6. From a sentiment perspective, there have been too many bulls. From a technical perspective, breadth has been

The 10-year Treasury bond yield is up 100bps since the Fed started lowering the federal funds rate (FFR), by a total of 100bps, on September 18 (chart). Even the 2-year Treasury yield is up about 75bps. We warned about

January could start the year off with some volatility in the bond and stock markets. There are lots of fundamental and technical crosscurrents and a few possible riptides. The Q4 earnings reporting season during January should show a solid

We’ve been bullish on the stock market since October 2022. We remain bullish, targeting 7000 on the S&P 500 by the end of next year. That puts us near the head of the pack (chart). Here’s more on earnings

There may soon be fewer jobs for economists in both the US and China. On Monday, December 23, Elon Musk (one of the “DOGE Boys”) tweeted that the “Fed is absurdly overstaffed.” The Fed seems to wear that fact

I. The Light Side In a November 19 post titled “Yardeni And The Long History of Stock Market Prediction Problems,” Lance Roberts, the Chief Investment Strategist for RIA Advisors, wrote that I am a permabull. The slant of his article was

Wednesday was a bad day for stocks after the release of the FOMC’s Summary of Economic Projections (SEP), which showed two cuts in the federal funds rate in 2025 rather than the four cuts shown in September’s SEP. Friday was

Despite yesterday’s 25bps cut in the federal funds rate (FFR), we’re not raising our subjective odds of a stock-market meltup. While we’re cautious in the short run through January, we’re sticking with our odds of the Roaring 2020s (55%),

Since the December 5 QuickTakes titled “Contrarian Indicators Showing Too Many Bulls,” we’ve been warning that bullish sentiment is too high and setting the stage for a pullback. In Sunday’s QT titled “Game of Drones,“ we reiterated: “Is it time to panic in the

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) cut the federal funds rate (FFR) by 25bps today, as widely expected. That takes the target range for the overnight rate down from 5.25%-5.50% to 4.25%-4.50%, a full percentage point lower since the

Consumer spending rose again in November, with real retail sales rising more than 3.0% y/y (chart). Rising real labor and nonlabor incomes, plus a strong wealth effect from record highs in stock and home prices, have boosted spending for

Last Thursday, we wrote, “After today’s PPI, we won’t be surprised if Fed officials plant a story in The Wall Street Journal over the weekend titled something like “Fed Officials Might Vote To Pause Rate Cutting Following Hot Inflation Data.” We were

The main focus of the economic week ahead is the FOMC’s interest-rate decision on Wednesday. The most likely outcome will be a 25bps cut of the federal funds rate (FFR) to a target range of 4.25%–4.50%. After a full

Look up in the sky. It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s Superman! Nope, it’s lots of drones flying over New Jersey, New York, and Maryland typically between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. They are reportedly the size of

After today’s PPI release, we won’t be surprised if Fed officials plant a story in The Wall Street Journal over the weekend titled something like “Fed Officials Might Vote To Pause Rate Cutting Following Hot Inflation Data.” The current consensus seems to

Today’s CPI report for November matched expectations. The CME FedWatch tool shows 95% odds that the FOMC will cut the federal funds rate (FFR) by 25bps next week, and the Fed doesn’t like to surprise market expectations. The Nasdaq front-ran our