By Pete Biebel, Senior Vice President
Excuses, excuses. Some are believable, some are laughable. The past several weeks of unusual market volatility have inspired a need for excuses. For the cable business shows, it seems that making excuses has become a full-time endeavor. Perhaps the most incredulous of the popular excuses is, “Stocks are down because […]
By Pete Biebel, Senior Vice President
Following a thankless drubbing during the Thanksgiving Day holiday week, stocks ripped higher last week. The NASDAQ Composite (COMP) led the major indices with a gain of over 5 ½%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and the S&P 500 Index (SPX) each had gains of 5% give or take. […]
By Pete Biebel, Senior Vice President
Thankfully, last week only had 3 ½ trading sessions. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) lost ground on all four days and was off 4.44% for the week. Both the NASDAQ Composite Index (COMP) and the S&P 500 Index (SPX) were down on three of the four days; their losses […]
By Pete Biebel, Senior Vice President
That’s a line from the movie “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” It’s uttered by The Black Knight in the early stages of a sword fight. The irony is that he delivers the line shorty after King Arthur has lopped off the Knight’s entire left arm. Last week’s losses, of […]
By Pete Biebel, Senior Vice President
Last week’s article, “It’s Always Tease, Tease, Tease,” questioned whether the market’s recent rebound was the beginning of a new bull market rally or just a bounce in a continuing downtrend. The first 3 ½ trading sessions last week gave the impression that the bull market was alive and well. […]
By Pete Biebel, Senior Vice President
That’s a line from the song, “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” by a band called The Clash. That song’s title is a refrain that many investors have been repeating over the past several weeks. Thankfully, markets managed to rebound a bit last week with the major averages all […]
By Pete Biebel, Senior Vice President
I’ll be traveling this weekend and will not publish my usual Monday market commentary on 10/29. Hence, I want to offer a brief market update in light of recent market action and knowing that the next regular commentary will not be published until Monday 11/5.
Some thoughts on the market’s October […]
By Pete Biebel, Senior Vice President
In the popular poker game, Texas Hold ‘Em, players are dealt two cards facedown. Then five community cards are placed face-down in the middle of the table. Those cards are revealed in three steps. First, three cards are turned up simultaneously. This is “The Flop;” players then have much more […]
By Pete Biebel, Senior Vice President
Last Monday, in “Lifting the Veil,” I described how recent strength in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) was masking significant deterioration in several previously leading sectors. That week had given many clues that conditions behind the scenes were not as pretty as DJIA made them seem. Among the evidence […]
By Pete Biebel, Senior Vice President
Over the past several weeks, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) presented an illusion of broad market strength. Gains in several of its component stocks enabled DJIA to outperform all of the broader stock indices over the past five weeks. The mirage continued through the first few days of trading […]
