@theMarket: Inflation and Tariff Fears Drive MarketsBy Bill Schmick,
02:52PM / Friday, February 21, 2025 | |
Gold continues to make new highs. Soft commodities and materials climb a wall of worry and foreign equities rise from the dead. It is all part of a market mindset that a tariff war is right around the corner.
As April draws near, President Trump continues to reiterate that he is planning to levy tariffs on America's trading partners. Investors are worried. Given Trump's predilection toward hyperbole, the markets are unsure whether to take his statements at face value. He has used threats to get what he wants on so many occasions that April could come and go without any tariffs at all. What to do?
The move higher in some commodities is largely a 0 Comments
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@theMarket: Higher Inflation Signals No More Rate CutsBy Bill Schmick,
04:04PM / Friday, February 14, 2025 | |
For the fourth straight month, the Consumer Price Index registered higher inflation. That has dashed any hope that the U.S. central bank would loosen momentary policy further in the months ahead. And now the country faces even higher prices if tariffs go into effect.
The most recent University of Michigan survey of consumers indicated that inflation expectations for the next year increased to 4.3 percent in February. That is one percentage point higher than January and the highest since November 2023.
Wednesday's Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for January increased 3 percent over the prior year and 0.5 percent over the previous month. That surprised 0 Comments
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@theMarket: Turmoil Keeps Investors on Their ToesBy Bill Schmick,
03:14PM / Friday, February 07, 2025 | |
Two Mondays in a row, investors have had an opportunity to buy the dip in the stock market. In February there may be even more chances to do so depending on geopolitical developments.
For the source of much of this week's volatility, one need look no further than the White House. The number of executive orders has ramped up further. On-again, off-again tariff talks sent traders into despair, and then giddiness.
In the few hours between daily press conferences and announcements, markets held their breath with one finger on the buy button and the other ready to sell. If you throw in geopolitical news on topics such as Gaza, Greenland, Panama, Iran, 0 Comments
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@theMarket: A Roller-Coaster Week in the MarketsBy Bill Schmick,
02:36PM / Friday, January 31, 2025 | |
As January ended, the pace of activity across global financial markets had traders lurching from one event to another. If this is a prelude to what investors can expect from 2025, fasten your seatbelts because this could be a bumpy ride.
Monday opened with a huge move down led by technology stocks. The trigger for the decline was DeepSeek, a small, little-known Chinese private company that announced a breakthrough in artificial intelligence. It created a ChatGPT-like AI model with all the capabilities of companies like OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft but at a fraction of the cost.
The company claims it has spent just $5.6 million on computing power for its 0 Comments
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@theMarket: Markets Head Toward New Highs in FebruaryBy Bill Schmick,
12:22PM / Saturday, January 25, 2025 | |
As we step into the new year, stocks have soared in celebration as Donald Trump took the reins of office. This transition of power has brought a wave of optimism, which can continue, although a mild bout of profit-taking in the near term should be expected.
A flurry of Day One executive orders kept the markets busy parsing the meaning of this one or that one. However, the enthusiasm had more to do with what President Trump did not do than what he did. The greatest fear of investors was that the president would levy 10 percent tariffs across the board on all nations. Some nations, such as China, Mexico, and Canada, were expected to get hit by even higher duties on Day One. 0 Comments
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