We are fixated on two problems: the price of oil and the frailty of our banking system. We are catastrophizing at a pace I have rarely seen, accelerated by negative commentators who are rarely proven right but are always given the microphone — either because they are super-rich or because they are super-short. Too cavalier?…
The Iran war-driven spike in oil prices crushed stocks last week, culminating in the S & P 500 ‘s first three-week losing streak in roughly a year. There was little place to hide, with nine of the 11 S & P 500 sector indexes lower for the week. Not surprisingly, energy and utilities were winners. Brent…
So, you are telling me that our continent is energy self-sufficient and yet, last week oil screamed higher faster than we have ever seen ? Or that all that new Permian Basin oil doesn’t matter? Or that cars guzzle a lot less now than they did in previous oil shocks? Short term, the answer is,…
There was no shortage of setbacks for stocks last week. Surprising economic data, another batch of earnings, and an intensifying conflict in the Middle East all combined to move the market, mostly downward. The S & P 500 closed out Friday with a weekly loss of 2% as the broad-market index flipped between the positive…
When you get as many things going wrong as there are right now, you do not think about opportunity; you think about safety. I get that. We have the most uncertain of times in the Mideast after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran this weekend. We have a man-made inflationary event — the closing of…
Stocks swung wildly last week as investors wrestled with the impact of artificial intelligence on various sectors and the overall economy. This coming week is a wildcard after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran. President Donald Trump said Saturday that “major combat operations” in Iran started overnight, with American and Israeli strikes on military and…
Did you ever wonder what made you pass on what turned out to be a sure thing? What made you thumb your nose at something that now seems obvious to have had real value when you dissed it? Was it all that difficult to see the opportunity? Or did you remember what happened in 2007,…
The stock market staged a comeback last week, even as Wall Street waded through a flurry of both upbeat and unsettling headlines. The Nasdaq broke its five-week losing streak on Friday, buoyed by strong advances from our big tech names like Meta Platforms , Nvidia and Amazon . The tech-heavy index ended the week 1.9%…
Being dark, as they call it, isn’t all it is cracked up to be. I’m talking about how “Mad Money” has been off the air these last couple of weeks to make way for the Winter Olympics. On a regular Friday edition of the show, I would lay out my game plan for the coming…
All hail Anthropic, the destroyer of everything. What an amazing service. It can wipe out Adobe by allowing you to design something better that has a much simpler commerce system, designed personally for you. That one is child’s play. ServiceNow may call itself the “AI Control Tower” to signify who is in charge, but the…
