Sentiment

How To Spot A Meltup

Feb 14, 2024 2 min read paid

We are sure that Fed Chair Jerome Powell has recently reread former Fed-Chair Alan Greenspan's December 5, 1996 speech in which he famously asked: "But how do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly escalated asset values, which then become subject to unexpected and prolonged contractions as they have in Japan over the past decade? And how do we factor that assessment into monetary policy?" How

Ed Yardeni

Market Dives As Powell Pushes Back

Feb 1, 2024 2 min read paid

As we expected, Fed Chair Jerome Powell pushed back on market expectations of a federal funds rate cut in March and more to come over the rest of the year. He was less dovish than the market expected. If he had been more dovish, he would have risked inflating a speculative asset bubble. Instead, stocks took a dive today in response to his press conference (chart). Stock prices were already

Ed Yardeni

Help (Still) Wanted

Jan 30, 2024 2 min read

The job market remains strong. That was the message from a couple of labor market indicators today. The most timely was January's consumer confidence survey. The series for "jobs hard to get" dropped to 9.8% of respondents, almost a record-low reading (chart). This suggests that the unemployment rate remained below 4.0% this month. The survey's "jobs plentiful" series jumped to

Ed Yardeni

What's Next?

Jan 4, 2024 2 min read paid

Rollercoaster rides are unnerving on the way up and then thrilling on the way down. Stock markets are thrilling on the way up and unnerving on the way down. The market had a thrilling meltup late last year and a slightly unnerving selloff during the first three days of the new year. Last year's yearend rally has fizzled so far this year. That's mostly because investors

Ed Yardeni

Weakening Global Economic Growth Is A Mixed Bowl Of Nuts

Nov 8, 2023 2 min read paid

We are still aiming for 4600 on the S&P 500 before the end of this year. That's only a 5.0% increase from today's close. Heck, the S&P 500 was up 5.9% just last week. However, that was clearly a combination of a short-covering rally in both the bond and stock markets. It was also a buying panic in the bond

Ed Yardeni

Oil's Slippery Slope

Oct 4, 2023 2 min read paid

The 10-year Treasury bond yield fell for a change today. It peaked at 4.87% at 2:45 am, but ended the day at 4.72% thanks to falling oil prices and a weak September payroll employment report from ADP. Brent crude oil futures settled down $5.11, or 5.6%, to $85.81 a barrel while US West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) fell $5.01, or 5.6%, to

Ed Yardeni

Strikes and Shutdowns and Bond Yields, Oh My!

Sep 25, 2023 2 min read paid

The stock market held up surprisingly well today under the circumstances: The UAW strike is shutting down more auto production. The federal government is heading toward a shutdown on October 1. Moody’s Investors Service warned in a note today that a US government shutdown would be a “credit negative” event for the country. The 10-year Treasury yield surged by more than 10bps to 4.55%, the highest since 2007

Ed Yardeni

Bull/Bear Ratios Tank, So Stocks Move Higher

Aug 30, 2023 2 min read paid

The S&P 500 is up 3.2% since last Thursday's close even though Fed Chair Jerome Powell's Jackson Hole speech on Friday was hawkish. Three sectors have outperformed the S&P 500, namely, Information Technology (4.7%), Consumer Discretionary (4.2%), and Communication Services (4.1%). These are the ones that are home to the MegaCap-8, which were boosted by the drop in

Ed Yardeni

More Investors Move To Correction Camp

Aug 23, 2023 1 min read paid

Investors Intelligence reported that their Bull/Bear Ratio was 2.38 this past week, remaining below the recent peak of 3.01 during the July 18 week (chart). Sentiment has been more cautious since Fitch Ratings downgraded US government debt on August 1 causing the 10-year Treasury bond yield to rise back above 4.00%, peaking at 4.36% yesterday morning The yield was back down to 4.23% this

Ed Yardeni

Market Call: Running Into Resistance & Bond Vigilantes

Aug 2, 2023 2 min read paid

The good news is that almost everyone agrees that an imminent recession isn't very likely. That reduces the downside concerns about corporate earnings. But it increases the downside potential for the stock market's valuation multiple if the bond yield continues to rise. The Bond Vigilantes may be saddling up in response to the widening federal deficit. They don't seem to mind budget deficits when

Ed Yardeni

Up Or Down?

Jul 19, 2023 2 min read paid

Young bull markets tend to be widely hated. That's because many investors who sold during the preceding bear market fail to get back in at the bottom. Quite a few of them might have sold near or even at the bottom. The current young bull market is no exception. So why is the Investors Intelligence Bull/Bear Ratio (BBR) so high? It was 3.01 during the latest

Ed Yardeni

Nothing To Fear But Fearless Investors

Jul 12, 2023 2 min read paid

The S&P 500 climbed to a new bull market high today of 4472 (chart). It is now 10.6% above its 200-day moving average. It is climbing along the upper end of its bull-market channel. Today's CPI news helped to alleviate fears that persistent inflation might force the Fed to persist with rate hiking resulting in a recession. Inflation seems to be more transitory than was

Ed Yardeni

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