Are you ready to be massively entertained?  This week could be “one of those.” This morning, the NY Fed’s Empire State Manufacturing Outlook is just out.  We can dispense with that one through this simple pull quote: “Business activity grew in New York State for the first time in nearly a year, according to firms … Read More

We pick up the story of Ure’s mini deck build today.  Total time on task so far in about 4.5 hours.  A buck and a half of which was screwing in the five-quarter decking.  20-minutes of that was slapping on a coat o Penofin – which is sort of like a penetrating oil finish.  Goes … Read More

Monster Week could be coming up starting Tuesday.  So today we look at the event calendar and consider some of the sizzling fuses that are already lit. Our objective is to get enough sense about what’s just ahead to avoid being run over by it. Oh, and if we make a few bucks along the … Read More

Triskaidekaphobia anyone? Yes, in my view, the world is slowly edging towards World War III – it will likely pop before Turkey Day and after the BRICS meeting in Russia. Early futures were showing the market continuing the rally, but again, color us skeptical.  We have still not (in our Aggregate Index work) returned to … Read More

Wow. That sounds like a lot to cover, but it’s not – really. Let’s all try to remain rational which – while looking at an irrational world – is admittedly a tough thing to do. Irrational Markets We would not be too surprised if the market doesn’t go up for a while today and then … Read More

Our book on anti-aging best practices is nine chapters deep with today’s report.  Where the focus is on people bespoke wish to live longer lives contrasted with what they really do. We will also look in on the day’s round of “the Blame Game’. This is where Donald Trump had a very bad night, and … Read More

Two things are moving along as expected around here: The market rallied like we projected Monday.  And computer issues came out and snagged us.  This latter was not so much an expectation so much as a kind of “feels due” event. I suppose, lacking any real news to talk about (except be sure and pick … Read More

Living for a decade (and some) on a sailboat, you develop a way of “seeing the Outer to understand the Inner.”  As it is again, today.  This particular insight has to do with charter fishing boats – which explains everything in Finance, if you have the patience to watch long enough. Today’s saga began as I … Read More

I have been staring at a pile of lumber down in the wood-fired coffeemaker area in front of the house for the better part of 5-months now. So, with the arrival of cooler weather this week (high of 87 Saturday) I decided to get the first couple of hours in on the deck. Planning Things … Read More

Crappy week for markets – if you were foolish enough to be long (Bullish) stocks after Labor Day. Both the Dow and the NASDAQ were down more than 1,000 points each while the S&P was down more than 200. This morning, we sort through some of the drivers and – in our usual 18-chart collection … Read More

“Markets don’t go down forever” is a commonly used financial saying.  Usually offered as condolences by some still well-off by-stander with no skin in the game.  Empathy is easy when no tuition is due. We’re up only a bit over 9 percent this month.  And we haven’t been trading the past two days. (Maybe next week.) … Read More

That gets to be an interesting question, really.  Yes we have some new data, but can a (more or less) local jobs picture turn a world in decline? Before we get into the U.S. picture, therefore, a word about Elsewhere.  In Asia, the Japanese Nikkei was down almost 400-points and  shade over one percent.  Hong … Read More

I can’t think of two more important topics this month. Especially as the world careens toward a nuclear showdown, China slobbers on Taiwan, and down on Wall Street, our Aggregate Index work has been right, again. The Nikkei was down more than 4-1/4 percent overnight and the picture in Europe isn’t pretty, either. Now imagine … Read More