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@theMarket: Stocks Should Climb into Thanksgiving
By Bill Schmick,
01:57PM / Friday, November 22, 2024
Last week, traders made profits from the Trump trade. This week they reversed their positions. I expect further upside into the Thanksgiving holiday.   The market's performance was even more impressive considering the disappointing earnings from the number one AI player, Nvidia. The semiconductor giant reported stellar third-quarter earnings this week, but they were just not good enough to keep the stock's upside price momentum going.   Company management said supply chain issues reduced the growth rate in sales to the slowest in seven quarters. All that means, in my opinion, is that revenue will be boosted down the road when the bottlenecks are

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@theMarket: Profit-Taking Trims Post-Election Gains
By Bill Schmick,
03:03PM / Friday, November 15, 2024
A 5 percent gain in nine days on the benchmark S&P 500 Index was met by profit-taking. Traders booked gains in Trump trades as some had second thoughts about continued upside. Who can blame them?   The conviction by many that happy days are here again (or will be by next year) sent markets through the roof in a frenzy of FOMO-generated trades. Technology took a back seat for a change as small-cap stocks soared on the belief that tariffs would force consumers to buy made-in-America products from American companies.   Smaller capitalization companies are distinctly American and are listed on the Russell 2,000 Index. Traders know that a good 40 percent of these

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@theMarket: Will Election Fears Trigger More Downside
By Bill Schmick,
02:12PM / Friday, November 01, 2024
Tuesday's presidential elections and the Fed's decision on interest rates have traders rushing to hedge their portfolios or go to cash. It is a little late in the day to take such action.   Over the last few weeks, I have been warning readers that the days surrounding the election could prove to be volatile. That situation appears to be taking center stage as we close this week's trading. I also urged investors not to get caught up in the panic and I hope you listened.   We are no further along in predicting the election outcomes than last month. The only thing we do know is that the race is too tight to call, and the popular vote will not be a

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@theMarket: Election Unknowns Keep Markets on Edge
By Bill Schmick,
03:18PM / Friday, October 25, 2024
Markets vacillate between betting on a GOP sweep and a Democrat victory with little justification for either outcome. Don't get caught up in the frenzy.   The betting markets have Trump winning but they have been wrong in the past and it is easy to tip the odds one way or the other with a couple of big bets. The polls are no help either because the results are all within a margin of error that makes them useless.   Only 36 percent of the S&P 500 have reported third-quarter earnings. So far, 79 percent of companies have beat earnings by a median of 6 percent. Sales results have also been strong with 58 percent beating estimates. The corporate results have

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@theMarket: As Election Approaches, Markets' Volatility Should Increase
By Bill Schmick,
03:01PM / Friday, October 18, 2024
Investors are increasingly preoccupied with the general elections, which are less than three weeks away. That focus should increase as we go down to the wire, and as it does, so will volatility.     It is getting harder to ignore the election contest. The media, both mainstream and social, spews out a continuous stream of political news. I finally shut down my X account this week because of it. Although difficult, my attention remains focused on the market and not the election.   This week, third-quarter earnings have kicked off, and results have been strong thus far. Of the 58 companies reporting thus far, 76 percent have beat estimates. Banks have

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