Bryan Perry
Drum Roll of Earnings Season Getting Loud This Week
The first two weeks of January were up and away for all 11 market sectors fueled by the grand reopening of China, a rally in bonds, a selloff in the dollar and crude oil catching a fresh bid. The third week of January had the market giving back most of the gains, except for Friday’s […]
Key Developments are Shaping Bullish Sentiment
Halfway through the month of January, the market landscape is much more constructive, even though the last half of December saw a flood of selling pressure that was a huge disappointment to what was a down year for the major averages. 2023 is off to a strong start, with the S&P higher by 4.15% as […]
Inflation Might Already be at the Fed’s Target Rate
Princeton economics professor and former Vice Chairman of the Fed, Alan Blinder, weighed in on the current rate of inflation. Last Friday, he wrote in the Wall Street Journal that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation rate has been an “alarming 7.1%.” “But the U.S. economy got there by averaging an appalling 10.6% annualized inflation […]
The $31 Trillion Elephant in the Fed’s Room
So much of the Fed’s narrative surrounding inflation is focused on upward pressure on wages and the cost of professional services. This was, once again, reflected in last Friday’s release of the Personal Consumption Expenditures Index (PCE) — the Fed’s favorite inflation indicator. What is never brought up at the post-Federal Open Market Committee press […]
Too-Hawkish Fed Stoking Recession Fears
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell gave a downbeat outlook for investors at the most recent press conference after the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. “We continue to anticipate that ongoing increases will be appropriate in order to attain a stance of monetary policy that is sufficiently restrictive to return inflation to 2 percent over […]
Select Stocks Buck Bear Market and Trade to New Highs
The year 2022 has been a challenge for most stocks. Headwinds created by hawkish Fed policy weigh on investors due to high short-term interest rates, mortgage rates, ongoing issues with Ukraine, COVID lockdowns in China, peak inflation (I hope), mid-term elections, uneven supply chain access and fear of a hard landing in 2023 due to […]