by Mark Chandik | Jan 27, 2025
It is not much of a stretch to say that home sales are in the basement. In 2024, the annual number of existing homes sold fell slightly to 4.06 million, the lowest since 1995. It’s important to note that 2024 came in lower than we observed during the height of the...
by Mark Chandik | Jan 21, 2025
It’s prudent to cautiously eye rapid changes in market sentiment caused by short-term traders. A week ago, our summary focused on a strong jobs report, rising bond yields, and general concerns about inflation. There was a sense of despair among traders at week’s end....
by Mark Chandik | Jan 13, 2025
On Friday, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that nonfarm payrolls grew by 256,000 in December, easily surpassing analyst expectations of a more modest increase of 155,000 (Wall Street Journal). The unemployment rate eased to 4.1% last month from 4.2% in...
by Mark Chandik | Jan 6, 2025
In late 2022, a new bull market emerged from the ashes of a nine-month bear market, leading to 2023’s impressive rise of over 26% for the closely followed S&P 500 Index, according to S&P Global (including dividends reinvested). Cautious sentiment that...
by Mark Chandik | Dec 23, 2024
In a speech given nearly 70 years ago, then-Federal Reserve Chairman William McChesney Martin Jr. made a now-famous analogy when he said that during an expanding economy, the Fed should “remove the punch bowl” before the party gets out of hand. First things first, on...
