You wouldn't call Wednesday morning's CPI inflation report for August "too hot." You would not call it "too cold." Understanding all that, I would not call August CPI "just right" either. I would call yesterday's "slightly" warmer than expected CPI report for August "uncomfortable." Financial markets did not move much at all on the news. But that hardly means that they were comfortable or that traders and investors saw the release as a "Goldilocks" type of outcome. August CPI on a...

Equity markets appeared to rally on Monday, coming off of a rather negative first full week of September. Investors were perhaps mildly optimistic looking ahead to events such as today's (Tuesday's) key corporate clambakes that include Apple's ( AAPL) "Wonderlust" product launch event and the Salesforce ( CRM) "Dreamforce 2023" conference. Both Apple and Salesforce were up less than 1% on Monday. As Apple prepares the launch of the iPhone 15 lineup, as well as the Apple Watch 9, Apple Watch...

Is it just September? Seems only moments (days) ago that we were talking about "Goldilocks" scenarios and all would be well in the land of gummy bears and pixie dust. Even if financial markets had to go through a little volatility first. Well, that "volatility first" part of this market seems to have arrived, though we've seen this act a couple of times before. Correct? Or is this different? The S&P 500 sold off from the end of July through mid-August. The index also sold off in mid-June. On...

On Wednesday, the recent uptrend in equities remained in place. The moves for the session were muted. That said, the market moved the ball in the right direction for the bulls the day after a very modest volume-based confirmation of a change in trend that actually occurred almost two weeks ago. Treasuries largely stayed put on Wednesday. I see the U.S. 10-Year Note giving up about 4.1% this morning, and the 2-Year about 4.87%, meaning that while you slept, Asian and European bond traders...

First a word... As I put words to paper this morning, I have switched over from the financial networks to The Weather Channel. Hurricane Idalia has gained in intensity as it has pushed into the "big bend" area off the state of Florida. The storm has been upgraded to a level 3. The folks on the tube say that this storm could be a level 4 by the time it makes landfall. Let's hope and/or pray (whatever it is that you do) for the strength and unity of those folks in the communities that are about...