What's Holding Back Wall Street Bulls? It’s a strange week when Wall Street’s optimism feels…cautious. With a projected S&P 500 rise of 9% by 2025, you’d think the mood would be euphoric. Yet, the consensus seems oddly restrained, like runners pacing themselves too conservatively in a race where the finish...
The “Missing” Data That Scares the Fed If you have been looking for clarity in the financial headlines lately, you might have noticed it is in short supply. We are currently watching a fascinating staring contest between economic data that looks decent on the surface and the underlying numbers that...
The Lights Are On, But What Do We See? Washington is back online, and the data printers are warming up after the longest government shutdown in history. For 43 days, it felt like economists were trying to navigate a blizzard without a map, relying on patchy private reports and squinting...
Markets, yields, and the election—Barclays has a bold prediction. With the U.S. elections just days away, analysts at Barclays are projecting a scenario of relative market calm in the aftermath, expecting a mild rally that could drive both bond yields and stock prices higher. Despite concerns of potential unrest, the...
As we dive into this week’s edition of The Market Pulse, the focus is squarely on the shifting dynamics of the market in response to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's recent Jackson Hole speech. After two years of anticipation, Powell signaled a potential pivot towards rate cuts—a move that...
A full decade since the first retail stores fell victim to the inexorable march of ecommerce and Amazon Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), the retail apocalypse shows no signs of abating. The last decade has been brutal to the American retail industry, as countless traditional malls continue to shutter at record highs....
Welcome to this week’s edition of The Market Pulse! Just as we thought the economy might achieve the elusive “soft landing,” inflation is back in the spotlight, threatening to derail the rally. With Middle East tensions, port strikes, and rising energy costs, Thursday’s consumer-price-index (CPI) report could be the...
The one sentence from Powell that could ruin the holidays. Welcome to a critical week for your portfolio. We find ourselves staring down the barrel of the final Federal Reserve meeting of the year. While many of us are busy untangling holiday lights or figuring out if eggnog actually tastes...
Markets Cool as Rates Rise and Powell Speaks After the post-election rally set U.S. stocks soaring, the market hit a speed bump last week. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reminded investors on Thursday that rate cuts aren’t a given, injecting caution into a market that had been buoyant since Donald...
As September rolls in, traders around the globe find themselves gripping their portfolios a little tighter. Historically a month that has sent shivers down the spines of even the most seasoned investors, September 2024 promises to be particularly perilous. With the Federal Reserve’s anticipated interest-rate cuts hanging in the...