Weekly Market Commentary THE WEEK IN REVIEW: Feb. 18-24, 2024 Nvidia gives markets a spark Markets were floating around early last week looking for direction. After being closed on Monday for Presidents Day, the mood was mostly sour with a negative bias. It seemed like we were looking for — and seeing — negativity everywhere.…

Weekly Market Commentary THE WEEK IN REVIEW: February 11-17, 2024 Markets get a wakeup call After finishing at new records over Super Bowl weekend, the markets got a rude awakening when the Consumer Price Index (CPI) number for January came out last Tuesday. The markets shrugged off Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s warning after the…

Markets drop as inflation stays stuck above 3% Inflation rates appear to be stuck. That’s according to the January Consumer Price Index (CPI) report, which showed inflation increased by 3.1% year over year. Core prices (CPI excluding food and energy) rose 3.9% from January 2023. The increase wasn’t good news for markets, which have been…

Weekly Market Commentary THE WEEK IN REVIEW: Feb. 4-10, 2024 S&P 500 just keeps climbing How high will the S&P 500 go? The index topped 5,000 for the first time ever last week and has risen in 14 of the last 15 weeks, something it hasn’t done since 1972. It was a mostly calm and…

Weekly Market Commentary THE WEEK IN REVIEW: January 28 – February 3, 2024 Powell pushes back — and markets get a dose of reality Remember the “Soup Nazi” from Seinfeld? Well, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell channeled his inner “Soup Nazi” with an emphatic “No rate cuts for you” last Wednesday. He essentially poured cold…

Weekly Market Commentary THE WEEK IN REVIEW: Jan. 21-27, 2024 Expectations for a soft landing fuel new records in U.S. stocks After a rough first couple of weeks to open 2024, markets have been ripping the past week and a half. We’ve settled into an interesting environment where the talk has gone from a hard…

Weekly Market Commentary THE WEEK IN REVIEW: Jan. 14-20, 2024 Consumer spending still going strong The consumer hasn’t gotten tired of spending — at least not yet. December retail sales, released last Wednesday, were strong and easily exceeded expectations. The latest consumer sentiment number also came out last week, jumping to its highest level in…

Weekly Market Commentary THE WEEK IN REVIEW: January 7-13, 2024 Stocks improve while inflation numbers are mixed Stocks moved up in the first full week of trading in 2024. Several tech giants — including Facebook parent Meta and chipmaker NVIDIA — posted solid gains, even as the tech industry experienced layoffs at companies such as…

Weekly Market Commentary THE WEEK IN REVIEW: Dec. 31, 2023 – Jan. 6, 2024 Market stumbles out of the gate Markets had a rough start to the year last week. The drop could have been due to a number of things: Folks taking profits to push capital gains into 2024, concerns over the continuing (and…

Weekly Market Commentary THE WEEK IN REVIEW: Dec. 24-30, 2023 Ring out the old and usher in the new Last week was a short one for trading, bookended by the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Markets closed up again last week, with the S&P 500 marking its ninth straight weekly gain — the longest stretch…