The Santa Claus Rally, known for the S&P 500 (SPX) tendency to rise during the final five trading days of a year and the first two of the new year, failed to materialize this time, with the index dropping 0.53%. In contrast, the first-five-days indicator offered a more positive outlook,...
Beware When Market Timers Stay Bullish After a Sharp Downturn Recent shifts in market sentiment underscore a critical lesson for investors: sustained bullishness after a market downturn can be a red flag. In early December, stock-market timers exhibited extraordinary optimism, with the Hulbert Stock Newsletter Sentiment Index (HSNSI) reaching a...
Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook issued a stark warning on Monday about risks in the financial market, delivering one of the most candid assessments from a central bank official in recent years. Cook stated that “valuations are elevated in a number of asset classes, including equity and corporate debt markets,...
Are You an Optimist or a Pessimist? Try This Market Investing Test Investing like Warren Buffett doesn’t have to be overly complex. His tried-and-true approach is simple: buy shares of well-run, undervalued companies and hold them for decades. However, there’s a less-discussed element to his success: his optimistic outlook. Buffett’s...
The S&P 500 experienced a historically poor market close to 2024, according to Bespoke Investment Group, ending an otherwise strong year on a downbeat note. U.S. stocks stumbled into 2025, with the S&P 500 SPX -0.22% slipping 0.2% during Thursday’s opening trading session of the new year. This followed a...
The Dow Jones Industrial Average entered December hoping for a “Santa Claus rally” to counter its weak start to the month. But for the second consecutive year, Wall Street’s holiday cheer failed to arrive. By the end of December, the Dow had dropped 5.3%, marking its worst December performance since...
