We’re 9 trading days into 2007 and I thought I’d comment on some of the things I’m seeing in the market. (1) Changing Perceptions About the Fed – When the Fed minutes were released on the year’s first trading day,…
Great! Right after I tell everybody to go long the S&P 500 by buying call options the market has it’s worst day in 6 months. The Jan07 SPY 137 calls that I recommended lost a third of their value today…
I tend to agree with Graham Summer’s Growth Stock Wire missive this morning, “The Correction is Here”: It’s quiet …… too quiet. I don’t mean to rain on everyone’s parade but September has been much too tame so far. There…
The US consumer is holding up nicely thus far as Bed, Bath and Beyond (NASDAQ: BBBY), Circuit City (NYSE: CC) and Nike (NYSE: NKE) all reported strong quarters this past week. Bed, Bath and Beyond, owner of 762 Bed, Bath…
The Fed decided today to leave the federal funds rate at 5.25%. The interesting thing is that the bond market is pricing in rate cuts in the next year or so. Justin Lahart, author of the Wall Street Journal’s daily…
On Friday I wrote: The markets are somewhat confusing right now. For the 9 weeks beginning Monday July 17, the Dow has rallied from around 10,750 to today’s close of 11,560 – a 7.5% rally. Over the same period the…
On Tuesday I wrote: The Street interpreted Best Buy’s results as saying that the American consumer is not dead and will continue to spend on discretionary items. That interpretation seems to have played out this week. The S&P Retail Index…
Before the open today Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), the nation’s largest electronics retailer, announced a pretty good fiscal (ended Aug 26, 2006) second quarter. Same store sales in the United States were up 3.0% in the three months ended Aug…
A few weeks after each Fed meeting, the minutes for that meeting are released. The minutes are not an actual transcript of what was said but a shamelessly doctored summary. As I tried to explain a couple weeks ago the…
After the bell on Wednesday women’s retailer Chico’s FAS (NYSE: CHS) warned that August same store sales are showing a decline of about 3% and that it sees dismal same store sales for its third quarter, according to the Wall…