Overall and core (excludes volatile food and energy prices) inflation on both the consumer and producer price indexes retreated more than expected last month, helping to reduce the number of interest rate hikes expected by the Fed Funds futures market over the next 12 months to 1.57, down from 1.73 […]

Despite a U-turn in the Middle East peace process that saw both sides again engage in military escalation that led to a more than 4% rise in oil prices, the equity markets held up fairly well last week. True, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gave back some of its recent […]

It is difficult to complain about a spectacular first half of 2026 in which all the Bloomberg benchmarks in the table below turned in double-digit percentage returns, with the Bloomberg 3000 Value Index topping its Growth counterpart by a sizable margin. Interestingly, it was a broad-based advance for the Value […]

We always say it is a market of stocks and not simply a stock market, and the latest trading week vividly illustrates the point. Despite The Wall Street Journal pessimistically summing up the week that was by writing,… The S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite fell in every day of a […]

Stocks sank on Wednesday, with one market pundit proclaiming, “The Fed is at a point where it can’t ignore inflation. I’m not surprised the world has shifted to a higher interest rate mindset.” And stocks rallied on Thursday, with another market pundit asserting, “The fact that the 10-year yield is […]

While this writer confesses to making numerous appearances on the network over his 39-year career, it is always fascinating to hear the talking heads on CNBC TV explaining with remarkable precision why stocks were rising or falling on a particular day. No doubt, financial pundits desire to sound intelligent, and […]