Last week, news outlets reported the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve’s meeting in January. We all know that when the Fed meets, it’s usually big news. Since the financial crisis, the central bank has been ever-so-gradually raising interest rates, from zero, to where they now sit, in a range of 2.25% to 2.5%. But ever since equities markets fell sharply to end 2018, the Fed has been sending mixed signals. I won’t bore you with the details, but the short version is that Fed Chair Jerome Powell seemed committed to gradual increases… until things… Read More

Last week, news outlets reported the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve’s meeting in January. We all know that when the Fed meets, it’s usually big news. Since the financial crisis, the central bank has been ever-so-gradually raising interest rates, from zero, to where they now sit, in a range of 2.25% to 2.5%. But ever since equities markets fell sharply to end 2018, the Fed has been sending mixed signals. I won’t bore you with the details, but the short version is that Fed Chair Jerome Powell seemed committed to gradual increases… until things got a little ugly. So the question became whether the Fed would continue raising rates gradually or take an even softer stance going forward. So here’s what we learned from the official notes from the meeting… #-ad_banner-#As it stands, the central bank still holds about $3.8 trillion in Treasury bonds on its balance sheet. The “balance sheet reduction” program, where the Fed was holding U.S. government bonds to maturity without making any new repurchases, will likely conclude at the end of the year. (Remember QE, or quantitative easing? Well, this was quantitative “tightening,” if you will.) Still with me? Good,… Read More

The S&P 500 remained above its 200-day moving average (MA) last week. The index is now up about 19% in the past eight weeks.  At Friday’s close, the index was at an important resistance level. That’s the dashed blue line in the chart below. I expect a quick move of at least 5% over the next few weeks. The question is whether the move will be up or down. —Recommended Link— Americans Are Ignoring This Proven Investing Method What’s proven to be safer than stocks and bonds, provides immediate payouts (of as much as $2,800… Read More

The S&P 500 remained above its 200-day moving average (MA) last week. The index is now up about 19% in the past eight weeks.  At Friday’s close, the index was at an important resistance level. That’s the dashed blue line in the chart below. I expect a quick move of at least 5% over the next few weeks. The question is whether the move will be up or down. —Recommended Link— Americans Are Ignoring This Proven Investing Method What’s proven to be safer than stocks and bonds, provides immediate payouts (of as much as $2,800 or more), and can be done every week? Come see the one thing that beats every income investment opportunity I’ve come across in 3 decades of research. This brief report has all the details. ​News should provide the catalyst for a price move. While we normally can’t predict when “news” will occur, we can safely assume there will be something about the approaching China trade war deadline.  On Sunday, CNBC noted…  U.S. and Chinese negotiators met for over seven hours on Saturday to resolve their trade dispute and avoid an escalation of the tit-for-tat tariffs that have… Read More

The bull market is back at full strength… Back in November of last year, I talked extensively about a market breadth indicator called the advance-decline line (AD line) — a technical-analysis tool that charts the number of advancing stocks minus the number of declining stocks. This indicator is a telling sign of what’s going on beneath the surface.  For instance, if the market is hitting new highs, you would look at this indicator to make sure it, too, was advancing and hitting new highs. This would show strong participation in the market and confirm the bullish trend. However, if the… Read More

The bull market is back at full strength… Back in November of last year, I talked extensively about a market breadth indicator called the advance-decline line (AD line) — a technical-analysis tool that charts the number of advancing stocks minus the number of declining stocks. This indicator is a telling sign of what’s going on beneath the surface.  For instance, if the market is hitting new highs, you would look at this indicator to make sure it, too, was advancing and hitting new highs. This would show strong participation in the market and confirm the bullish trend. However, if the AD line fails to keep pace with the underlying index, this is a sign of weakness in the market, signaling a bearish divergence. In my original discussion, I pointed out that the AD line revealed a bearish divergence in late September. A week later, the market selloff began and didn’t let up until December 24.  I touched on this indicator once again in late January, along with another one — the Coppock Curve. These two indicators, along with my Maximum Profit system, were showing bullish characteristics.  We took those bullish signals and loaded up on stocks… and we’ve been nicely… Read More

My young boys ask a lot of questions. I know this isn’t unique. Almost all young children ask questions. And after a while, almost all those questions become extremely repetitive and, in all honesty, annoying. But I’m sure I’m not the only parent who has faced a long stream of “why” questions, which is currently among the favorite questions of my little guys. I patiently answer their questions as many times as they ask because I have found myself in their situation at times. We all have. After all, “Why?” could be among the most important question we ask as… Read More

My young boys ask a lot of questions. I know this isn’t unique. Almost all young children ask questions. And after a while, almost all those questions become extremely repetitive and, in all honesty, annoying. But I’m sure I’m not the only parent who has faced a long stream of “why” questions, which is currently among the favorite questions of my little guys. I patiently answer their questions as many times as they ask because I have found myself in their situation at times. We all have. After all, “Why?” could be among the most important question we ask as investors. —Recommended Link— Your Chance To Learn From The Best Do you want to make up to $4,000 each week in the stock market in only about 10 minutes per week? Stock expert Jim Fink is holding a new LIVE, free training where he’ll reveal his 3 secrets behind his #1 investing strategy for 2019. Join him February 27th at 1:00 P.M. Eastern to learn how to make easy money each week selling stock insurance to nervous-Nelly investors. Spots are limited — Click here to register for free. This week, I want… Read More