Listening to this whole democratization argument and we're seeing this new age of individual investor empowerment, my message again is that this is not new. This was an E-Trade commercial from 1999, //www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm8_MFdFpeE. This one is from either 2007 or 2008, //www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4GZfvXx9Js. For some reason the Reddit crowd is …
[Read more...] about E Trade commercials from ’99 & ’07/Silver/Higher inflation in Europe & Japan?
New home sales in December rose to 842k from 829k in November but that was 28k less than expected and last month was revised down by 12k. The recent peak was 979k back in July. Regionally, there were gains in the Midwest and West and declines in the Northeast and South. Inventories remained lean with months’ supply at 4.3 vs 4.2 in November and vs 3.6 in October. The …
I just saw this: Interactive Brokers has put AMC, BB, EXPR, GME, and KOSS option trading into liquidation only due to the extraordinary volatility in the markets. In addition, long stock positions will require 100% margin and short stock positions will require 300% margin until further notice. …
Initial jobless claims totaled 847k, down from 914k last week (revised from 900k) and that is 28k less than expected, thus about in line when the two weeks are taken together. The 4 week average did rise though to 868k from 852k as a print of 782k fell out. Those receiving PUA fell by about 20k to 427k. Delayed by a week, those receiving continuing claims fell by …
I have to chime in here on the arguments I'm hearing from some on tv that what is going on in GME, AMC and others is somehow a good thing because it reflects the democratization of investing and that it's good that they are sticking it 'to the man.' While there is no question some hedge funds are getting hurt badly and these Reddit traders don't cry for them, this …
[Read more...] about I don’t believe Warren Buffett is on Reddit
I’ll summarize the Powell press conference and Q&A in a few sentences. He overstates the ability of the Fed to help the economy (how exactly do short term Treasury purchases help growth?) and understates the influence of Fed policy on asset prices and the bubbles it creates. The result is that there is little help to the direct economy via current monetary policy …
The FOMC statement was pretty much identical to the one written in December. The change though was on their assessment of the economy. In December they said “Economic activity and employment have continued to recover” and with the caveat “but remain well below their levels at the beginning of the year.” Today, “The pace of the recovery in economic activity and …
For the 8th straight week, Investors Intelligence said Bulls remained above 60. On the week they rose to 61.2 from 60.4 while Bears continued to fall, now at 16.5 from 16.8. The spread of 44.7 pts remains extreme as is the Bull reading. We know sentiment is overall ebullient and we’re seeing it everywhere but again, it will only matter when it does but it …
I think the next big SPAC should be one that only holds equity call options on highly shorted stocks. At the last FOMC meeting Jay Powell said high market valuations were ok because interest rates are so low. I wonder what he thinks about the valuation of GameStop. The Fed has been instrumental in wiping out the entire short selling community, an important …
So the Fed has achieved at least in the housing market the inflation that it wants as S&P CoreLogic said home prices rose 9.5% y/o/y in November. The 20 city index saw a 9.1% y/o/y jump. Congratulations Fed. If you own a home this is amazing and if you are looking to tap the ever rising equity in your home, go spend it but if you are saving for a down payment …
Peter is the Chief Investment Officer at Bleakley Advisory Group and is a CNBC contributor.
