The Austrian School of Investment Thought
Stock Market
January Market Review
Once again, the Fed was the story for investors in January. The SPDR S&P500 ETF (SPY) finished the month with a gain of 8% while the NASDQ 100 (QQQ) ETF was up 9%. Yields on the Ten Year Treasury settled at 2.63% down slightly from December’s close of 2.69%. Accordingly the iShares Core US Aggregate … Continue reading
The Fed Put is Back – But What Exactly IS a Fed Put?
Some of us are old enough to remember last October, when Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell steadfastly commanded that “The really extremely accommodative low interest rates that we needed when the economy was quite weak, we don’t need those anymore… Interest rates are still accommodative, but we are gradually moving to a place where they … Continue reading
Weekly Market Update
The Markets (as of market close August 4, 2017) Last week ended with a mixed bag of stock market performances. The Dow, influenced by a favorable jobs report and strong corporate quarterly earnings, surged to a new record high. The S&P 500 also ended last week in positive territory. Tech stocks did not fare as … Continue reading
James Bianco on Bloomberg
Jame Bianco is President of Chicago Based Bianco Research. While not strictly an “Austrian” economist/strategist, he has long been writing and commenting on topics concerning Austrians such as credit expansion, central banking policy, politics and economics. He is certainly in the category of under the radar gurus (as in legitimate guru, not the carnival barker … Continue reading
Weekly Review and Sector ETF Performance
Weekly Review The highly anticipated if hardly dramatic FOMC meeting on Tuesday yielded the expected bump in the federal funds rate by twenty-five basis points. An indication of the potential for three hikes on 2017 was somewhat noteworthy, but then one should remember last December’s rate hike came with the pronouncement of an expected … Continue reading
Weekly Sector ETF Performance
BIA Tracked ETF and Fund Performance Week Ended September 2, 2016 ytd weekly 2016 2-Sep S&P500 SPY 8.23% 0.50% Dow Jones DIA 8.06% 0.57% Nasdaq 100 QQQ 5.30% 0.29% S&P Midcap MDY 14.04% 1.34% Russell 2000 IWM 11.50% 1.18% Dow Transports IYT 6.76% 1.68% 10 yr Treasury Yield ^TNX 2.27% (1/1) yield 1.6% 30yr Treasury … Continue reading
Weekly Sector ETF Performance
BIA Tracked ETF and Fund Performance Week Ended August19, 2016 ytd weekly 2016 19-Aug S&P500 SPY 8.31% 0.04% Dow Jones DIA 8.33% 0.04% Nasdaq 100 QQQ 5.42% 0.05% S&P Midcap MDY 12.71% 0.32% Russell 2000 IWM 10.09% 0.61% Dow Transports IYT 6.42% 1.57% 10 yr Treasury Yield ^TNX -30.40% 3.95% 30yr Treasury Yield ^TYX -24.17% … Continue reading
Weekly Sector ETF Performance
BIA Tracked ETF and Fund Performance 27-May Week Ended May 27, 2016 ytd weekly 2016 27-May S&P500 SPY 3.66% 2.31% Dow Jones DIA 3.69% 2.14% Nasdaq 100 QQQ -1.26% 3.44% S&P Midcap MDY 7.40% 2.95% Russell 2000 IWM 2.07% 3.44% Dow Transports IYT 3.90% 1.34% 10 yr Treasury Yield ^TNX 2.27% 1.85% 30yr Treasury Yield … Continue reading
Weekly Sector ETF Performance
BIA Tracked ETF and Fund Performance 20-May Week Ended May 20, 2016 ytd weekly 2016 20-May S&P500 SPY 1.32% 0.36% Dow Jones DIA 1.52% -0.06% Nasdaq 100 QQQ -4.54% 0.92% S&P Midcap MDY 4.32% 0.77% Russell 2000 IWM -1.33% 1.05% Dow Transports IYT 2.53% 2.41% 10 yr Treasury Yield ^TNX -18.50% 8.19% 30yr Treasury Yield … Continue reading
Weekly Sector ETF Performance
BIA Tracked ETF and Fund Performance 13-May Week Ended May 13, 2016 ytd weekly 2016 6-May S&P500 SPY 0.96% -0.47% Dow Jones DIA 1.58% -1.05% Nasdaq 100 QQQ -5.41% -0.08% S&P Midcap MDY 3.53% -0.86% Russell 2000 IWM -2.35% -1.15% Dow Transports IYT 0.12% -2.98% 10 yr Treasury Yield ^TNX 2.27% 1.71% 30yr Treasury Yield … Continue reading
Is the Gold Trade Back?
One of the longer running and at times nastier debates among the investment community may be set to ignite again. For some reason the debate on whether or not one should own some gold triggers emotions like few others – at least when it comes to finance. Indeed gold enthusiasts or gold bugs are called … Continue reading
Weekly Sector ETF Performance
Weekly Recap: Stocks finished down for the second week in a row. Friday’s jobs report delivered a less than expected growth in payrolls of 160,000. According to Briefing.com Fed Funds futures is pricing a a 50% chance of a rate hike at the December FOMC meeting. Also of note during the week was Puerto … Continue reading
First Quarter 2016 Sector ETF Returns
BIA Tracked ETF and Fund Performance Q1 2016 2015 S&P500 SPY 1.33% 1.24% Dow Jones DIA 2.17% 0.09% Nasdaq 100 QQQ -2.09% 9.43% S&P Midcap MDY 3.74% -2.51% Russell 2000 IWM -1.47% -4.48% Dow Transports IYT 5.96% -16.92% 10 yr Treasury Yield ^TNX -22.47% 2.27% 30yr Treasury Yield ^TYX -12.58% 3.02% MSCI – International … Continue reading
Weekly Sector ETF Performance
BIA Tracked ETF and Fund Performance Week YTD to Date 2016 2015 S&P500 SPY 1.61% -4.31% 1.24% Dow Jones DIA 1.58% -4.02% 0.09% Nasdaq 100 QQQ 1.77% -7.54% 9.43% S&P Midcap MDY 2.64% -3.88% -2.51% Russell 2000 IWM 2.73% -8.37% -4.48% Dow Transports IYT 1.74% -1.22% -16.92% 10 yr Treasury Yield ^TNX 1.76% 2.27% … Continue reading
Stocks Catch their Breath: Weekly Update and Sector ETF Returns
Stocks continued a rally that started last week and finished the week up 2.8%. As has been the trend of recent, stocks followed on the heels of an increase in oil prices, which where buoyed by talk of a possible production freeze overseas. Whether this is a temporary respite or the start of a sustained … Continue reading
Super Draghi to the Rescue: Weekly Update and Sector ETF Performance
Global markets where well into a third straight weekly beating on Thursday when European Central Bank President Mario Draghi came to the rescue. At a regularly scheduled policy meeting, the European Central Bank stood pat on rates, but President Draghi announced the bank would reconsidering its monetary stance and gave hints of the “do … Continue reading
By The Numbers: October 2014
October 2014 could best be described as the big rebound with the S&P500 initiating a strong rally mid month to post a return, as measured by the SPY exchange traded fund (etf) of 2.36% for the month, and a year to date total return of 10.71%. Indeed in mid-month the SPY was down 7.5% from … Continue reading
