Market Insights
Bringing you the trading news around the world.
Stories
Jerome Powell Plans to ‘Aggressively’ Fight Inflation, Opens the Door to 50-Basis Point Moves
Jerome Powell just opened the door to faster rates hikes as the Federal Reserve looks to "aggressively" fight spiraling prices. "If we conclude that it is appropriate to move more aggressively by raising the federal funds rate by more than 25 basis points at a meeting...
Options Alert: Call Buyer Gives Chinese Tech Stock More Time for a Potential Move
Chinese technology stocks jumped last week, and one big options trader is targeting a former high flier. Check out this unusual options activity in Shanghai-based e-commerce company Pinduoduo (PDD): A block of 15,000 April 50 calls was sold for $1.67 against open...
Tech Stocks Break the Downtrend Despite a Hawkish Fed. Are the Bears Losing Control?
Stocks just had their biggest rally in over a year as a broad cloud of bearishness began to lift, despite an increasingly hawkish Federal Reserve. The S&P 500 rose 6.2 percent between Friday, March, 11, and Friday, March 18. The Nasdaq-100 jumped 8.4 and the Dow...
Housing Market Defies Higher Rates as Strong Demand Fuels Construction Boom
Housing stocks are down sharply this year as investors worry about higher interest rates. However activity on the ground continues to accelerate. The Commerce Department reported that February housing starts rose almost 7 percent to 1.77 million. It beat forecasts by...
After Getting Cut in Half, An Options Trader Thinks this Social Media Giant May Have Bottomed
Social-media giant Meta Platforms has gotten cut in half, and now one big investor seems to think it will stabilize. Check out the unusual options activity detected in the company formerly known as Facebook (FB) yesterday: A trader sold 16,500 8-April 200 puts for...
Bullish or Bearish? The S&P 500 Faces a Death Cross as It Tries to Break a Falling Trendline
The S&P 500 has been in a steady downtrend all year. That makes it a good time to assess the state of the index before the big Fed announcement later today. Bearish and bullish forces are battling each other on this chart. First you have the sharply falling...
Inflation, War, Covid: The Federal Reserve Could Be Raising Interest Rates At a Complicated Time
The Federal Reserve begins a key meeting today as war and coronavirus create an increasingly complicated economic environment. Markets widely expect the Fed to raise its target interest rate by 25 basis points at 2 p.m. ET tomorrow. It would be not only the first...
Stocks Keep Sliding as Inflation Squeezes Profits and Consumers
Stocks fell again last week as investors see more risk from the war in Ukraine and rising inflation. The S&P 500 slid 2.9 percent between Friday, March 4, and Friday, March 11. It was the fourth decline in the last five weeks, miring the index at levels from...
Global Energy Squeeze Revives Interest In Solar Stocks Following a Year of Consolidation
Solar energy stocks were one of the top performing groups in the pandemic year 2020. Now after a long pause, the global energy shock is reviving the group. SolarEdge Technologies (SEDG) is up 36 percent in the last month, making it the top performing member of the...
Jerome Powell Plans to ‘Aggressively’ Fight Inflation, Opens the Door to 50-Basis Point Moves
Jerome Powell just opened the door to faster rates hikes as the Federal Reserve looks to "aggressively" fight spiraling prices. "If we conclude that it is appropriate to move more aggressively by raising the federal funds rate by more than 25 basis points at a meeting...
Options Alert: Call Buyer Gives Chinese Tech Stock More Time for a Potential Move
Chinese technology stocks jumped last week, and one big options trader is targeting a former high flier. Check out this unusual options activity in Shanghai-based e-commerce company Pinduoduo (PDD): A block of 15,000 April 50 calls was sold for $1.67 against open...
Tech Stocks Break the Downtrend Despite a Hawkish Fed. Are the Bears Losing Control?
Stocks just had their biggest rally in over a year as a broad cloud of bearishness began to lift, despite an increasingly hawkish Federal Reserve. The S&P 500 rose 6.2 percent between Friday, March, 11, and Friday, March 18. The Nasdaq-100 jumped 8.4 and the Dow...
Housing Market Defies Higher Rates as Strong Demand Fuels Construction Boom
Housing stocks are down sharply this year as investors worry about higher interest rates. However activity on the ground continues to accelerate. The Commerce Department reported that February housing starts rose almost 7 percent to 1.77 million. It beat forecasts by...
After Getting Cut in Half, An Options Trader Thinks this Social Media Giant May Have Bottomed
Social-media giant Meta Platforms has gotten cut in half, and now one big investor seems to think it will stabilize. Check out the unusual options activity detected in the company formerly known as Facebook (FB) yesterday: A trader sold 16,500 8-April 200 puts for...
Bullish or Bearish? The S&P 500 Faces a Death Cross as It Tries to Break a Falling Trendline
The S&P 500 has been in a steady downtrend all year. That makes it a good time to assess the state of the index before the big Fed announcement later today. Bearish and bullish forces are battling each other on this chart. First you have the sharply falling...
Inflation, War, Covid: The Federal Reserve Could Be Raising Interest Rates At a Complicated Time
The Federal Reserve begins a key meeting today as war and coronavirus create an increasingly complicated economic environment. Markets widely expect the Fed to raise its target interest rate by 25 basis points at 2 p.m. ET tomorrow. It would be not only the first...
Stocks Keep Sliding as Inflation Squeezes Profits and Consumers
Stocks fell again last week as investors see more risk from the war in Ukraine and rising inflation. The S&P 500 slid 2.9 percent between Friday, March 4, and Friday, March 11. It was the fourth decline in the last five weeks, miring the index at levels from...
Global Energy Squeeze Revives Interest In Solar Stocks Following a Year of Consolidation
Solar energy stocks were one of the top performing groups in the pandemic year 2020. Now after a long pause, the global energy shock is reviving the group. SolarEdge Technologies (SEDG) is up 36 percent in the last month, making it the top performing member of the...
Profits Could Jump How Much This Earnings Season?
Earnings season begins today with Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase. It could feature the strongest profit growth in half a generation. Analysts on average forecast a profit increase of 64 percent for the S&P 500, according to FactSet. While that sounds impressive,...
Memory Chip Maker Holds Key Level as Market Rebounds: Chart of the Day
This week was cut short by Independence Day. That makes it a good time to view Micron Technology (MU), which seems to have the spirit of 76. The memory-chip maker had a false breakdown below that level on January 27. It quickly rebounded and returned to test $76 three...
This Retailer Keeps Reinventing Itself. Can you Guess July’s Mystery Stock?
The last year has been the worst of times for traditional retailers, but also the best of times. That's especially true for a company like today's mystery stock. It rose 94 percent between December 31 and June 30, making it No. 3 performer in the S&P 500 during...
Is Energy’s Long-Term Downtrend Resuming?
Energy stocks have rallied since November, but signs of exhaustion could be appearing. The SPDR Energy ETF (XLE) fell more than 3 percent today and is the market's worst-performing sector fund in the last two weeks. The selling comes despite crude oil prices hitting a...
Amazon.com Could Be Preparing for a Breakout: Technical Analysis
Amazon.com has consolidated since last August. Now it may be ready for a breakout, especially with the Nasdaq leading again. Friday’s close of $3,510.98 was AMZN’s second-highest close ever. It was also the highest close since September 2, a potential sign of...
Prices Have Been Rising. Here’s Why it Might Be Good for the Stock Market
Spiking lumber prices had everyone scared of inflation earlier this year. But now the trend could be turning into a big positive for the stock market. Two important things have happened since the big scare in early May: Major commodities including lumber, corn and...
Housing Stocks Could Be Trying To Turn: Chart of the Day
Homebuilders have pulled back following a big rally. Now the chart could be lining up for another move to the upside. The Philadelphia Housing Index has been finding support at its 100-day simple moving average for the last two weeks. It’s also been holding a price...
Facebook Joins the Trillion Dollar Club as Fear Bubble Melts and Ad Revenue Piles In
Facebook's market capitalization just rose above $1 trillion, making it the fifth member of an elite club in the U.S. stock market. FB surged 4.2 percent, adding $40 billion of valuation. It closed at a record high of $355.64 to reach 13-digit status. The only other...
Stocks Roar Back From Pullback, Fueled by Economic Surge and Consumer Rebound
Stocks rebounded hard last week as investors kept their faith in the economy reopening and strong consumer demand. The S&P 500 rose 2.7 percent between Friday, June 18, and Friday, June 25. It was the index's best week in five months, rebounding from its biggest...