Slope of Hope Blog Posts

Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.

Overnight Relief

By -

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Day Two of a week that is guaranteed to be action-packed. Hundreds of earnings reports, a Fed announcement with a press conference, a jobs report, Apple, Amazon………and that’s just the scheduled stuff!

I must say, I am a bit surprised to wake up to green all over the screen, considering what a big deal the US/China trade talks are and how the Huawei indictment isn’t exactly great news for that process. Looking at the intraday data of the /ES back to its lifetime high, we remain smack dab in the middle of no-man’s land. The bears have had the stuffing beaten out of them, and the bulls have kind of shot their wad. So we wait.

lon

(more…)

Did AAPL Save the Fed, or Did the Fed Save APPL?

By -

The upcoming week is loaded with potentially significant directional markets catalysts such as earnings from mega-cap industrial names like CAT, BA, and XOM, as well as from technology powerhouses AAPL, FB, AMZN, AMD, and QCOM. At the end of the week, the BLS is scheduled to release the December Employment Report. 

To my mind, though, the most consequential potential market-moving “events” will occur Wednesday afternoon starting at 2 PM ET, when the FOMC releases its next policy statement, and at 2:30 PM ET, when Fed Chairman Powell addresses reporters at the post-meeting press conference.  The Fed will clearly have Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s earnings news from Tuesday after the bell on its mind.

(more…)