Promoting Useful Knowledge

  I told you Monday was going to be fun. The markets were all over the place on Monday. I looked at the intraday performance of the Russell 3000 names. Here are some quick facts. 35% of the names were down more than 5% on the day at some point. 76% were down 2.5% at some point. Also, 17% were up 5% at some point, and 45% were up 2.5% at some point. The average range for the names in the index was 7.4%. That’s some serious volatility in US equities. I checked the same versus the FTSE Developed Market exUS and it’s there’s much less to the upside. Monday was mostly just a down day, but the US positive afternoon didn’t transfer over to Tuesday. We squeaked out some positive returns on the week in the US, except the small caps. Asia was mostly down, led by China. Here are some more highlights from last week from The Capital Spectator :  * US employers dealing with highest labor costs in 20 years * Petro states set to supply rising share of West’s fossil fuels * German economy sh...

  This week’s opening is going to be a bit shorter than normal, as I’m traveling and not able to sit down and think, but I also have a bit more content. Fellow Americans might have heard this song of late, as it was licensed for a Peloton commercial. Before I go on, this is a must see video . Unless you traded PTON. WARNING, do not be drinking anything when you watch this. Last week wasn’t much fun. US Stock markets had their worst week in like two years. The S&P 500 broke its 200 day moving average for the first time in awhile and fell for the third straight week. Unlike last week, there were no sectors to hide in for equities. According to The Market Ear, about 40% of NASDAQ names are down 50% from 52 week highs. The one thing I have noticed has been the lack of a spike in the VIX. It’s slowly moving up into the 20s unlike the last few downturns where it ripped right into the 30s. I’m wondering if this means more selling to come. You know who else was selling? Crypto owners. ...

Last week Refinitiv hosted our Americas region Sales kickoff, and we heard about many of our company successes from 2021 and what we’re looking forward to in 2022. The best part, hands down, was the talk we had from Debra Searle. Debra crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a rowboat all by herself. She was absolutely amazing to listen to. Instead of putting her in the ‘One for the Road’, which usually ends my posts. I’m putting her story front and center, right at the top. Here is her story from a Ted talk in 2012. I cannot recommend this enough. Choose Your Attitude: Debra Searle at TEDxSalford - Listen time: 21 minutes On to the rest of the post. This weekend I listened to some old songs from high school. Listening to Dr. Dre’s 'Nuthin’ but a G thang', I found the title for this post. You’ll see below, but the first two articles shared are around energy and ESG. We’re seeing the move to the next generation of energy creating all sorts of changes around the globe. A comment from Jeff...

Ouch! US equities took a beating last week.  When the FOMC minutes were released on Wednesday, we saw that they were all looking at pulling back their asset purchase programs, so they have more flexibility around rates. Reducing the $9T balance sheet is looking like a priority.  It seems like Colonel Nathan Jessup was right, we can't handle the truth. Any indication of the Fed slowing it's QE program sends equity owners scurrying. Last week was a fine example of this. I'm wondering if Biden ordered this code red though trying to save the Democrats chances in the mid-terms.  The NASDAQ was the worst of major US indices, falling 4.5%. It was the index’s worst week since February. This one is looking to be wide spread, as the Sentiment Trader chart below shows nearly 40% of the constituents are down 50% from their 52-week highs. S&P 500 was only off 1.8%. It was buoyed by strong performance from Energy and Financials. The Russell 2000 was lower by 2.9%. European equities...