Major U.S. indices are breaching record territory today as investors look toward today’s anticipated Fed interest rate hike announcement.  8 out of 11 industry sectors are up, led by technology shares. The energy, telecom and financial sectors were excluded from the gains. On the economic data front, we saw the consumer price index gain 0.4% […]

One of the biggest stories of this week is the debut of Bitcoin futures trading on the Chicago CBOE this past Sunday evening. Traffic was so heavy that the CBOE website had gone down temporarily, and we saw price jumps so sharp that two halts were needed. You’ll likely see a cacophony of praise and […]

Technology shares are recovering from recent pullbacks, and broader index movements were mostly flat without any sharp swings in either direction. There were slides in the energy sector due to slipping oil prices and uncertainty around details of the OPEC deal. The investigation into Russian meddling in the U.S. election had produced two more potential […]

The DJIA and S&P 500 hit all-time highs in earlier trading, following an overnight passage of the much awaited tax-reform bill. This bill was one of the bigger carrots for investors and spurred the initial post-election rallies.  The tech-heavy Nasdaq, however, dropped as major technology companies and internet services saw losses above 1%. FANG stocks […]

Tax-reform optimism is setting the tone for trading both today and yesterday, as we’re seeing the DJIA and S&P 500 inch up toward record territory. The Dow reached 23,910 in earlier trading, with all components of the index gaining. The S&P 500 hit 2,629- led by financials. The tech-heavy Nasdaq, however, took a dive and […]

After a weekend of high-traffic retail spending and pushing through into Cyber Monday, we’re seeing strong gains in the consumer discretionary and financial sectors. Although we may be seeing an online-spending record set today, the energy sector is pulling back. This may be in part due to anticipation of a November 30 OPEC meeting, in […]

We’re seeing the typical trends in pre-holiday trading today, as investors await the release of November FOMC minutes due at 2 p.m. Eastern Time. There is a broad expectation that this report will point to a likely short-term interest rate hike next month. In corporate news- we’re seeing sharp declines in both Hewlett Packard Enterprise […]

After German political tensions turned down over the weekends, investors are looking toward tax reform plans and switching to a risk-on attitude. Although major U.S. indices are recovering from previous slides, we’ll see a drop in volume as we approach the Thanksgiving weekend. The Euro (EURUSD) had dropped but since recovered after a breakdown in […]

Two major factors are compounding today’s broad market drops across all major indices: a questionable timeline for tax reform and a series of crude oil data which dropped benchmark prices. We’ve moved past earnings season at this point, so investors are much more sensitive to economic data and other political news that were previously sidelined […]

Although investor sentiment and attention is focused on parsing tax reform debates, there were a round of major moves in equities today.  We’re seeing two big merger and acquisition stories today- with Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) rejecting a Broadcom Ltd. (AVGO) takeover bid as well as a potential Hasbro Inc. (HAS) takeover of rival toymaker, Mattel […]