Pre-emptive Pivot

Pre-emptive Pivot The news this week was the Fed (again) with the surprise change of anticipating rate cuts. Nick Timiraos, the so called ‘Fed Whisperer’ at the Wall Street Journal wrote about Chair Powell’s comments: “Dec 1: ‘It would be premature to … speculate on when policy might ease.’ Dec 13: Rate cuts are something […]
READ POST

And the Winner Is…

And the Winner Is… I read an interesting article on Morningstar that compares Cisco and NVIDIA, asking if Cisco’s fall from grace will be repeated by NVIDIA. The simple answer is – Yes, of course it will. The difficult question is when that will happen. Back at the peak of the internet bubble, as we transitioned […]
READ POST

Munger-isms

Munger-isms The term ‘down home billionaire’ would seem contradictory, unless you were familiar with Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett’s right-hand man at Berkshire Hathaway since 1978 and friend since 1959. Charlie Munger passed this week at age 99, just a few weeks short of his 100th birthday. Warren Buffett once said of Charlie” “Marches to the […]
READ POST

Can’t Wait!

Can’t Wait! With Thanksgiving behind us, Christmas looms as the next big event. Is this a Santa Claus rally or the beginning of a new bull market? One thing we know about this market is that Wall St. is very much like those kids expecting Santa Claus’s arrival. They can’t wait. It seems this market […]
READ POST

U-Turns

U-Turns For the last 18 months, single data points have regularly surprised the markets in both directions, inciting highly uncertain investors to project forward a “changed” economic outlook. This has led to rapid whipsaws of both bond and stock prices, and this past week was no exception. The CPI report triggered a substantial decline in […]
READ POST

Fare Thee Well

Fare Thee Well A couple of weeks ago, Wall St. lost one of its icons, Byron Wein, at the ripe age of 90. Byron had an illustrious career on Wall St., but is probably best remembered for is annual ’10 Surprises’. A surprise was defined as an event that the average investor would only assign […]
READ POST

A Question of Balance

A Question of Balance Balance Sheets are the Rodney Dangerfield of finance – no respect. Everyone pays attention to income statements. Did earnings miss or beat expectations? Balance sheets, on the other hand, are rarely, if ever, discussed. The U.S., like corporations, sets a budget each year, but unlike corporations, there is often little regard […]
READ POST