Don’t Panic
As of the close of business yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1,136 points, or 6.8%, since the end of 2013. The venerable average was down 5.3% in January, which lead many seers to warn that the market would therefore be down for the full year. I’m here to disagree with that sentiment. I believe that this is simply a long overdue correction in a bull market that began in...
Read MoreMarket Achieves Record Levels
About an hour into trading today, the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average have both surpassed previous all time highs and achieved significant milestones. As I write this around 10:30am, the DJIA is at 15,003, marking the first time in history the venerable index has reached that level. Similarly, the S&P 500 is at 1,616, the first time that index has ever been over 1,600. And...
Read MoreSolid earnings
Lots of big earnings announcements today. DuPont (DD) beat expectations but offered cautious guidance, thanks to Europe (a theme that will follow through many earnings announcements). AT&T (T) also beat expectations. Lockheed Martin (LMT) beat expectations and raised FY guidance but offered cautious outlook thanks to looming spending cuts. Texas Instruments (TXN) beat estimates but offered...
Read MoreMonday news
Lot’s of news today centered around Chinese M&A and earnings. The Chinese are taking advantage of lower prices to pick up some companies on the cheap. The big earnings story was that McDonald’s (MCD) had their first quarterly miss since 2005. Looking deeper it appears the majority of the problem was simply the strong dollar hurting their F/X conversions. Not a big deal to me. The...
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