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5 days ago | 
sherwood.news | Nia Warfield |Luke Kawa
While markets were a bit jittery Sunday night following US strikes on Iran this weekend, a relatively minor response from Iran renewed risk appetite as traders saw de-escalation as the most likely path forward. The S&P 500 rose nearly 1%, while the Nasdaq 100 and Russell 2000 closed up 1.1%. West Texas Intermediate prices tumbled 8%. Crude has now completely round-tripped and is trading below levels seen when Israel first attacked Iran.
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1 week ago | 
sherwood.news | Nia Warfield |Luke Kawa
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 were little changed in a listless session ahead of the Juneteenth holiday. The Russell 2000 rose 0.5%. Markets gyrated following a Federal Reserve decision that left rates unchanged and a press conference that provided little illumination on the forward outlook.
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1 week ago | 
sherwood.news | Luke Kawa
US stocks stayed largely flat after the Federal Reserve kept rates in a range of 4.25% to 4.5%, as was universally expected, and cut its growth forecast while boosting the outlook for inflation. The central bank also put out its so-called “dot plot” that lays out officials’ views on where policy rates will go if the economy unfolds according to their expectations (obviously, a big “if”).
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1 week ago | 
sherwood.news | Luke Kawa
Ahead of this afternoon’s Fed decision, where the central bank is poised to keep rates unchanged at a range of 4.25% to 4.5% despite the protestations of President Donald Trump, let’s look at how US economic data have been doing. In sum, poorly relative to the last year, and worse than expected.
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1 week ago | 
sherwood.news | Luke Kawa
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon sits down to meet with employees and customers at the bank’s River Oaks branch in Houston (Brett Coomer/Getty Images)The enhanced supplementary leverage ratio is said to be getting less supple. Banks are on the rise after Bloomberg reported that the US is planning to reduce capital requirements for the nation’s biggest financial institutions.
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1 week ago | 
sherwood.news | Luke Kawa
A fun observation from Morgan Stanley analyst Betsy Graseck: bank executives are ditching their ties again in what could be a positive signal about the market backdrop. From a note to clients:“Ever since Covid brought a more relaxed dress code to the financial industry, we have been tracking the return of the tie at our conference. For the first time since we began tracking in 2021, slightly fewer executives as a % of total wore a tie y/y... a bull market indicator?
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1 week ago | 
sherwood.news | Luke Kawa
OK, the folks in Bentonville might be taking the “everyday low prices” thing a little too far. Walmart gave up early gains on Monday to finish slightly negative, and in so doing extended its streak of sessions with a decline to nine. That ties streaks from 2011 and 2014, and marks the longest such romp in the red since 2004. That ugly run in June 2004 was driven by a cut to Walmart’s sales forecast, with peer Target following suit soon thereafter. This time...
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1 week ago | 
sherwood.news | Nia Warfield |Luke Kawa
US stocks rallied as some of the geopolitical risk premium built into markets late last week dissipated amid reports that Iran is seeking a de-escalation with Israel. The S&P 500 rose 0.9%, the Nasdaq 100 gained 1.4%, and the Russell 2000 ended 1.1% higher on Monday. Communications services was the best-performing S&P sector ETF, with tech, financials, and consumer discretionary also up more than 1%.
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1 week ago | 
sherwood.news | Luke Kawa
I’ve been doing this writing-about-stocks thing for a while, and cannot remember ever seeing something quite like this:Bank of America analysts hiked their price target on CoreWeave by 143%, to $185 from $76, while simultaneously cutting their rating on the stock to “neutral” from “buy.”That $185 price target is by far the highest on Wall Street. None of the analysts with a “buy” rating on the stock have updated their price targets since June 3; most haven’t since mid-May.
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3 weeks ago | 
sherwood.news | Nia Warfield |Luke Kawa
A good-enough jobs report and news of fresh US-China trade talks helped propel the S&P 500 to close above 6,000 for the first time since February. The benchmark US stock index and Nasdaq 100 rose 1%, while the Russell 2000 led the way with a 1.7% advance. All S&P 500 sectors finished positive, with energy, consumer discretionary, communication services, and financials all up more than 1%.
