Despite hopes for relief, affordability remains elusive. The latest S&P/Case-Shiller Composite-20 Home Price Index posted its smallest year-over-year gain since 2023, suggesting some cooling. But the broader picture tells a tougher story: 🔹 Four cities still remain at all-time highs 🔹 Only two cities have seen prices fall vs. a year ago 🔹 To return […]
Last week’s retail sales print came in at +3.0% YoY — still in positive territory, but notably trending lower for the first time since mid-2023. Retail sales are one of the broadest and earliest reads on consumer behavior — and since consumption makes up the majority of U.S. economic activity, a trend shift here is […]
For context: that’s out of 8,913 trading days — an extreme move by any measure. But the real lesson here isn’t just about oil. It’s about adaptability. Earlier this month, I was long energy — and the position was working well. Then came the weekend: Iran threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, where 20% […]
There’s been growing chatter that weakening air travel signals economic trouble ahead. But when you dig into the TSA data, the story looks quite different. Here’s why it matters: Airline travel is one of the clearest forms of discretionary spending — whether for business or leisure. People typically fly because they choose to, not because […]
CPI came in cooler than expected again today — the fifth consecutive month where monthly inflation has surprised to the downside. That’s undoubtedly welcome news for consumers and markets alike. But it’s important to keep perspective: inflation is cumulative. Month-over-month figures only compare today’s prices to last month’s — not to where we were a […]
Friday’s news of Moody’s downgrading U.S. debt? Retail investors saw it as a buying opportunity. According to JP Morgan’s Emma Wu, retail traders poured $4.1 billion into U.S. stocks in just the first three hours of trading on Monday — the largest single-morning inflow on record. That buying helped erase overnight losses, with the S&P […]
Yesterday, the S&P 500 closed lower—snapping a rare 9-day winning streak. If that feels like a big deal, it’s because it is. Historically, win streaks of this magnitude tend to happen when the market is in an uptrend, typically defined by trading above the 200-day moving average. But this streak occurred while the S&P was […]
If you feel exhausted after last month’s market action, you’re not alone. April delivered some of the most extreme volatility the S&P 500 has seen in decades: We kicked things off with a –12.1% drop in just four days — the 6th largest 4-day decline since 1950. Then came a +9.5% single-day gain, the 3rd […]
In November 2004, the first gold ETF (GLD) launched, now the world’s largest. Here’s a surprising fact: if you’d invested in GLD on that day instead of SPY (the largest S&P 500 ETF), your gold investment would be worth more today—even on a total return basis. For years, the mantra has been “diversification is dead” […]
Two charts caught my attention recently: The number of new houses for sale that haven’t started construction, and The number of completed new houses for sale. Both are eye-opening. New houses for sale but not yet started represent the pipeline of future supply — the earliest stage of the new home process. In the latest […]