@theMarket: Stocks Make Record Highs Despite a Wall of WorryBy Bill Schmick,
03:31PM / Friday, October 11, 2024 | |
Mixed inflation data, higher unemployment claims, steeper bond yields, the unresolved Israeli counterstrike against Iran, and jitters over the election kept the equity averages volatile throughout the week. Despite those worries, the S&P 500 Index and the Dow hit record highs.
A bullish stock market often climbs a wall of worry. This week certainly qualified. Investors had to contend with a continued rise in yields on the benchmark Ten-Year U.S. Treasury and poor results of a government auction for that bond. The yield this week hit a high of 4.09 percent and has gone straight up ever since the Fed's 50 basis point cut in the Fed funds rate last month. If the Fed 0 Comments
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The Retired Investor: Back to the Future in Nuclear EnergyBy Bill Schmick,
04:44PM / Thursday, October 10, 2024 | |
In the 1950s, nuclear was deemed the energy of the future. Unfortunately, the world's ardor for replacing fossil fuels with clean atomic energy hit a brick wall in the 1970s. It is only recently, after decades of false hopes, that we may be entering a new age of U.S. nuclear power.
Today, nuclear power represents no more than 20 percent of U.S. electricity, and that may be an overstatement. The industry's brick wall occurred in March 1979 at Three Mile Island in Middletown, Pa. A partial meltdown of its Unit 2 reactor released a small amount of radioactivity.
I remember it well. The leak resulted from equipment malfunctions, design-related problems, 0 Comments
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@theMarket: A Week to RememberBy Bill Schmick,
03:02PM / Friday, October 04, 2024 | |
It was a week to remember in financial markets. Hurricane Helene, the longshoreman strike, Iran's ballistic missile attack against Israel, American drones shot down by Houthi rebels, and a massive gain in U.S. jobs — welcome to October.
All the above happened in just the first week of the month. The stock market has hung in there through all of it. However, the events of the week have given heartburn to investors and traders alike.
The massive flooding and rising death toll in Florida and North Carolina were tragic but also negative for overall future growth and employment. The price tag is estimated to be above $34 billion. Insurance stocks did 0 Comments
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The Retired Investor: Economic Storm Clouds Could Be Just Around the CornerBy Bill Schmick,
04:17PM / Thursday, October 03, 2024 | |
The U.S. economy continues to grow, fueled by generous fiscal spending in an election year, robust corporate earnings, and a consumer willing to keep spending. The Federal Reserve Bank's loosening of monetary policy last month also promises to boost growth.
That dovetails with my expectations, at least in the short term. I expect economic growth will continue to show decent numbers when the third-quarter GDP data is released. At the same time, we should see additional modest progress in reducing inflation. September's CPI inflation data, however, could mark the low for this inflation cycle, in my opinion.
That is certainly not the consensus view. 0 Comments
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@theMarket: China Stimulus Boosts World MarketsBy Bill Schmick,
11:32AM / Saturday, September 28, 2024 | |
A week after the U.S. central bank's policy shift, Chinese authorities unleashed their monetary policy dragon. The move caught world financial markets by surprise and launched the Shanghai Composite index up more than 9 percent in three days.
The People's Bank of China (PBOC) launched its largest stimulus package since the pandemic. The PBOC cut interest rates, reduced the reserve requirement ratio, and introduced structural monetary policies to stabilize Chinese markets, which went straight down for months.
Wall Street analysts are overwhelmingly negative on the Chinese market. Investments in Chinese stocks by Institutional investors 0 Comments
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