Free Republic

This has been a good year for stocks, no doubt about that. The has gained 19% year-to-date, after a gangbusters November, and the outlook for December, while more moderate, remains positive. The markets have made these gains despite a strong set of headwinds, including the Federal Reserve’s turn to a policy of aggressive monetary tightening and interest rate hikes; the ongoing war in Ukraine; and now the flare-up of war in the Middle East. This stock rally is showing real strength, and the Street is now taking seriously the possibility of a ‘soft landing’ case, with inflation falling to the...

Stocks took their worst beating in months Friday, with the Dow industrials shedding more than 1,000 points and notching their worst day since May. The S&P 500 closed 3.4% lower The Dow industrials dropped about 1,008 points, or 3% The Nasdaq Composite dropped 3.9% All 11 of the S&P 500's sectors finished in negative territory. Only 5 components in the benchmark index closed higher. The major averages each posted roughly 4% losses for the week.

BOSTON (Reuters) - S&P Dow Jones Indices has removed electric carmaker Tesla Inc from its widely-followed S&P 500 ESG Index, citing issues including racial discrimination claims against the company and its handling of a government investigation after crashes linked to its autopilot vehicles.The changes, effective May 2, were described in May 17 blog post sent by a spokesman for the index provider on Wednesday.

U.S. stocks fell Tuesday as technology shares struggled, continuing the April sell-off. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed about 240 points, or 0.9%. The S&P 500 lost 1.1%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite retreated 2.2%.

Stocks should continue to climb a “Wall of Worry”… The atmosphere has changed dramatically since earlier this year. Individual investors are now fearful. They expect lower stock prices to come, and they fear high valuations. Those fears are both overblown, as I explained yesterday . But another misunderstood market fear is weighing on investors’ minds today… Again, it sounds scary, but it isn’t. It’s just another addition to today’s Wall of Worry. Let me explain… The Federal Reserve just started the process of ending its “easy money” policies… It announced plans to reduce its bond-buying program last month. It has...

Stocks traded higher Thursday, extending gains in another record-setting day on Wall Street. The S&P 500 gained about 0.7% shortly after the opening bell, breaking above 4,000 for the first time ever. The Nasdaq outperformed to rise more than 1% as technology stocks jumped. Shares of electric-vehicle stocks including Workhorse Group (WKHS) and Plug Power (PLUG) increased after President Joe Biden discussed the details of his more than $2 trillion infrastructure plan, which would include building out half a million EV charging stations. Thursday's session marks the first of the second quarter and of April. Historically, the month has been...

Stocks rose Wednesday, extending Tuesday’s advances as investors looked ahead to the first actions of the incoming Biden administration. Each of the three major indexes rose, and both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit record intraday highs. Shares of Netflix (NFLX) spiked 12% after the company added more users than expected in the fourth quarter and surpassed 200 million paid subscribers for the first time ever. On Wednesday, all eyes turned to the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, which took place at the West Front of the Capitol just noon before in a scaled-down, socially distant event. In his first...

It’s as if the ABC, CBS and NBC evening news shows have a vendetta against informing viewers about any historic news coming out of the stock market during President Donald Trump’s presidency. The major S&P 500 stock index soared to close above 3,700 Tuesday for the first time in its history (3,702.25), according to CNBC. But that’s not all. Other stocks rose to “all-time highs” as well, including the Dow Jones (30,173.88) and the NASDAQ (12,582.77). The surge in the stock market was riding on the news that Pfizer — involved with President Donald Trump’s Operation Warp Speed — began...

Stocks rose Monday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq hitting fresh intraday highs and adding to last week’s record levels, as market participants reacted to positive developments over a coronavirus treatment, and signs that a vaccine might be authorized in the near-term. Travel, airline and other “reopening” stocks rallied, with shares of American Airlines (AAL), Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH), Wynn Resorts (WYNN) and their peers each jumping. Apple (AAPL) shares advanced to their highest intraday level ever ahead of the stock’s four-for-one stock split. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Sunday said it issued an emergency use...

The Big Three’s ignorance of an astounding market rally reached a climax last night. The S&P 500 closed at 3,389.78, breaking a record set at its February peak (3,386.15). It eliminated all of its losses taken from the pandemic-induced shutdown in the months after. The Wall Street Journal reported that “[w]ith just 126 trading days between peaks, the index makes its fastest-ever recovery from a bear market.” [Emphasis added.] The index’s recovery is indeed V-shaped. The Big Tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite stock index also rose 0.73 percent to close at 11,210.84, setting another record high of its own, according to Fox...

A couple of major signals suggest market selloff soon. As of past couple of days, T-Bond Futures are not correlating with the current rise in the stock market; this has historically meant a selloff eminent. Second, volume analysis suggests the very upper limit of this rally is when the S&P hits 3069 for this week. So, the selloff could come today (5/28/2020) if S&P hits 3069.

Once again, a few stocks lead the many. This is a time for pre-retirees to understand what that means. This is probably a good time to remind you that I am neither a bull nor a bear. I am a realist. So, while some professional investors manage money with an emphasis on “where’s the market going,” I favor a different approach. I cut the market into many smaller pieces, and make decisions based on more of a “weight of the evidence” approach. That is, I don’t stop my market analysis after checking out the S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq NDAQ....

Click here to read the entire article

Stocks are lurching toward fresh records to commence the first trading day in 2020, but that advance has raised some questions about the run-up in values for broad-market U.S. equity benchmarks. Indeed, the S&P 500’s recent gains have taken it to its priciest level relative to its hourly cost for the average worker on record. By that measure, Tuesday’s climb by the S&P 500 SPX, +0.84% to a peak at 3,250.04 would mean that the average employee, at an hourly wage of $28.29, would need to work 114.88 hours to buy a single unit of the index, representing one of...

The two stocks that contributed the most to 2019’s total stock-market returns also hold that position for the entire decade.While it’s fun to look at how the overall composition of the top 10 contributors has changed — with a noticeable shift from the energy sector to finance, for example — it’s perhaps more interesting to note the enduring heft of Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. for investors, as the chart shows. The two companies didn’t just dominate. They actually intensified their hold over the past decade, moving from a share of 8.45% of the total S&P 500 SPX, +0.30% return...

Before the Fed lowered its target interest rate range on Wednesday, Donald Trump was already on Twitter, touching on two of his favorite topics: how the Fed doesn't lower interest rates enough and that the stock market's performance is thanks to him and his Republican pals. The connection between a president and equity markets isn't straightforward. Many factors—the general health of the economy, investors sentiment, interest rates, financial stimulus, and global business conditions, for example—affect how stocks perform. But presidents also aren't unimportant. "Policies may or may not be helpful for economic growth," says Kenneth Orr, CEO of investment research...

There’s one big word we are not hearing this earnings season. There are plenty of issues causing agita for investors this earnings season: China, industrial slowdown, auto sales slowdown. The one word that is not being uttered on conference calls: recession. The U.S. consumer — the engine of global growth — is still holding up, according to CEOs and CFOs who have spoken on their company conference calls in the last few weeks. It’s one reason why the S&P 500 hit an all-time record high on Monday, up more than 20% year to date and completing a rebound from an...

Stocks rose Friday as traders cheered strong quarterly earnings from Intel along with apparent progress on the U.S.-China trade front. The S&P 500 climbed 0.4% and traded near its record close of 3,025. The broad index also was close to reaching an intraday record set in July. The Dow traded 155 points higher, while the Nasdaq advanced 0.6%. The indexes hit their highs of the day after the office of the U.S. Trade Representative said China and the U.S. were close to finalizing parts of a phase one trade deal. Intel shares jumped 7.4% after the chipmaker’s results topped analyst...

Stocks rose to all-time highs on Friday as investors looked to end a record-setting week on a high note after testimony from the top Federal Reserve official signaled that a rate cut was coming. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 200 points. The S&P 500 traded 0.3% higher and was on pace to close above 3,000 for the first time ever. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.5% to a record high. Shares of Dow, Inc. led the Dow Industrials higher, rising nearly 4%. Intel and Caterpillar, meanwhile, climbed 2.3% and 2.4%, respectively. J.B. Hunt Transport Services was the best-performing stock in...

The Dow Jones Industrial Average topped 27,000 for the first time on Thursday as the top three equity benchmarks Opens a New Window. traded higher on Wall Street Opens a New Window. after Federal Reserve Opens a New Window. Chairman Jerome Powell Opens a New Window. signaled the central bank was still moving towards an interest rate cut due to trade uncertainties. Following several days of uneven trading activity over concerns that the Federal Reserve would withhold moving forward on the expected cuts, investors were optimistic after Powell’s remarks that the central bank’s outlook for the U.S. economy is weighed...