“It’s more of a technical correction of oversold conditions. There’s no fundamental reason that today should [bring a] rally.”
– Tom Higgins (subscription required), Chief Economist, Payden & Rygel
In a speech this morning, Fed Governor Donald Kohn said the Fed must be “nimble” in these times of uncertainty for the financial markets and the economy. “Nimble” means maybe there will be a rate cut. And Wall Street likes rate cuts. A lot. Oh yeah – (S&P 2 Day Chart).
After 17 straight quarter point rate hikes going back to June 2004 the Fed paused on Tuesday leaving the federal funds rate at 5.25% (from 1% back in June of 2004). In this post I want to try and explain…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…