Folks, we’re coming up on the end of what has been an exceptionally strong month. In the last few weeks, we’ve seen tremendous moves in equities—the Dow shot up more than 9%, the NASDAQ more than 11% and the S&P more than 10%. After a run like that, we want to see the market stop [...]

Folks, just as markets making their bottoms can be sloppy, so, too, can markets making their tops. I certainly don’t think that we saw a top for gold, but, as I mentioned before, I did feel that the price was getting a little frothy in that 1850-1900 range. As expected, we’re seeing a corrective selloff. [...]

Folks, I’ve been around a long time, and I’ve learned that there are traders’ markets and there are investors’ markets. As the nervous condition continues and the aftershocks from Monday’s pullback are compounded by problems at European banks, this market environment has become unsuitable for traders—you simply cannot properly manage risk when there’s this kind [...]

Folks, earlier this morning we got two lukewarm economic reports. On the jobs front: for the first time since April, the weekly unemployment claims fell below 400,000.  It wasn’t by much—the seasonally adjusted number of new claims came in at 398,000—but even that small downtick caused the markets to jump. As far as housing, the [...]

Folks, we talked a little yesterday about Growthflation—this once-in-a-lifetime global growth story that’s coupled with inflationary pressure on the demand side—and I wanted to pick up on that more today. I believe that if we tune out the day-to-day noise—Greece, the Fed press conference, the pullback in oil this morning—and take a macro view of [...]

Folks, when you have a country with a debt-to-GDP ratio that rises above 150%, historically that country defaults. There’s only one exception, which was Great Britain following WWII—and the only reason they didn’t default was because their close ally, the United States, made sure they didn’t. They did, however, lose their status as a reserve [...]

Folks, despite all the negative news and selling we’ve seen in the last few weeks, the markets are bouncing back a bit this morning. We’re seeing that strategic asset reallocation dynamic at work, with interest rates on the 10-year T-Note creeping up as cash moves out of fixed income and is redeployed into equities. Why? [...]

Folks, as of close last Friday, we saw a market that was down for a sixth straight week. There is lots of negative news out there, including some especially apocalyptic comments from Dr. Doom himself, Nouriel Roubini. I’d like to go on the record of saying that he’s dead wrong. Here’s the God’s honest truth [...]

Folks, when a pullback like this takes place, you have to start looking for signs of what the next catalyst will be—the next thing that will drive a market up or down. I’m seeing a few right now that have me feeling very bullish, so I’m just going to come right out and say it: [...]

Folks, as we jump into a trading week in which there isn’t a lot of data coming out, we’re seeing a market which seems like it may be a little tired. We’ve got an S&P that’s down below that critical 1300 level, continuing a 5-week slide. We’ve got a dollar that’s all over the place. [...]