Insights

Historically, September is a difficult month for stocks.  Market started to anticipate this by flattening out in mid-August, but positive interest rate news sent the market soaring again after Labor Day.

Growth stocks seem a little tired.  Give them credit where it is due, they have sizzled over the last few months.  However, in the wake of Nvidia’s extremely-solid-but-not-quite-lights-out earnings report and strong-but-not-pound-the-table-strong forward guidance, investors have decided that the tech sector might need to rest for a little while.

This morning’s Unemployment Report was a shocker!  The 73,000 July figure was disappointing as 110,000 was expected, but it was hardly a market mover in and of itself.  The big negative market reaction was for the revisions to the previous two months.  May was revised down from 144,000 to 19,000, and June from 147,000 down to 14,000.  Those were MASSIVE revisions! 

The second quarter came in like a shark and went out like a kitten.  The first six trading days of the quarter were wracked with tariff fears and selling, then we got the policy reversal, and then investors increasingly traded stable assets for those that had more upside potential.

Of Pianos, Mattresses, and Light Switches - Why it is Especially Challenging to Manage Assets in this Environment