Author Archives: Darren Marchal

Brent Oil Blowout

Looking for fear in the oil market? Look no further than the Brent versus West Texas Intermediate oil spread that blew out to the highest level all-year and the highest since 2015, with Brent holding a $7.30 premium currently above WTI. European and Asian buyers of Brent are pricing in the risks and realities of…

Bitcoin: Tide Might Have Turned

Bitcoin stabilized, went up, went down and now is going up again. The ride has been wild and the opinions on the outlook in the market have been shifting. We hold a steady course and strive to filter out all the noise to give you the most relevant information. An there’s rarely a more important…

Empire State Manufacturing Survey: Growth Strengthened In May

This morning we got the latest Empire State Manufacturing Survey. The diffusion index for General Business Conditions at 20.1 was an increase of 4.3 from the previous month’s 15.8. The Investing.com forecast was for a reading of 15.1. The Empire State Manufacturing Index rates the relative level of general business conditions in New York state. A level above…

Retail Sales Growth Slows As Fuel Costs Rise

Following March’s surprising surge in Retail Sales – after 3 months of declines – April saw spending growth slow notably to just +0.3% from a revised-higher March 0.8% gain. February’s initial decline was also revised to a rise… Core retail sales (ex-autos and gas) also slowed and missed expectations suggesting some spillover from higher gas prices… Under…

Morning Call For Tuesday, May 15

Overnight Markets and News Jun E-mini S&Ps this morning (ESM18 -0.27%) are down -0.15% and European stocks are down -0.15% on growth concerns amid higher interest rates. German Q1 GDP grew at a slower than expected pace and Eurozone Mar industrial production rose less than expected, while weakness in government debt markets continued for a…

Don’t Be A Victim Of Recency Bias

Is it possible that stocks aren’t overpriced? Financial adviser Josh Brown raises the possibility, arguing that earnings can grow into their prices. After all, Amazon, Netflix, Nvidia have seemed overpriced to investors for a long time, but their economic performance keeps improving. As Brown puts it, with all of these stocks in the recent past, “[t]he…