MarketChess

08Jul3:38 pmEST

Halitosis Ruins a Market That's Expialidocious

We are winding down a fairly stale summer session today, as Trump's 50% copper tariff likely marks the big news of the day (See: FCX rallying sharply and improving in recent months, as we noted previously here and with Members).  Tomorrow afternoon's Fed Minutes (from the last FOMC meeting in June) figure to be the big known macro event of an...

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07Jul11:35 amEST

Stocks Down, Rates Up

Coming off the long holiday weekend, despite the best efforts of the Treasury Secretary during multiple television appearances to promote imminent trade deals as well as insinuating that he may be the next Fed Chair (or shadow Fed Chair) in order to quickly lower rates, we have stocks lower and rates on the 10-Year Note higher.  For a good...

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02Jul11:51 amEST

It's a Marathon, Man

Most commodity miners are having an impressive session, with the XME (ETF for materials miners) surging 3.67% as I write this after recapturing its 200-day moving average after Memorial Day. Copper, coal, palladium, and platinum are mostly leading the charge.  But let us not forget that gold was way ahead of this move, rallying sharply since...

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01Jul12:56 pmEST

Big Round Top and Little Round Top

Shares of both Ford and General Motors are rallying sharply today and, frankly, look more technically appealing than they have in recent memory. This move is in no small part due to Tesla's trials and tribulations, namely the potential fallout from a Trump/Musk feud which intermittently alternates between being schoolyard amusement and...

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30Jun2:14 pmEST

Who Needs Viagra When There's Netflix?

You can take the title of this blog post in any number of ways. But for our purposes we want to reiterate the gargantuan quarterly candles across most of the Nasdaq itself as well as its constituents. Non-Nasdaq stocks and sectors also apply, given the ferocity of the selloff in March and the snapback since early-April.  Thus, as we wind down...

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27Jun3:18 pmEST

Afternoon Update 06/27/25 {Video}

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26Jun2:47 pmEST

T.I.A. for Your P.G.M.'s

Platinum group metals (PGMs) refer to a group of six chemically similar, precious metallic elements: platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, osmium, and iridium. The PGMs encompass the "other" precious metals, frequently overlooked beyond gold and silver. Thus, a firm like Johannesburg, South Africa-based Sibanye-Stillwater (SBSW, below on the...

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25Jun3:21 pmEST

What You Got Ain't Nothin' New

"What you got ain't nothin' new. This country's hard on people. You can't stop what's coming. It ain't all waiting on you. That's vanity." - No Country for Old Men (2007) The sheer size of the current quarterly candlestick on many major indices and tech/growth charts is truly something to behold, as illustrated on the current SOX...

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24Jun2:44 pmEST

Come and Get Me, Copper

It seems difficult to look through the Iran/Israel ceasefire jubilation in markets this week, with equities squeezing higher while oil gets slammed lower. However, it is worth noting that Fed Chair Powell maintained a (relatively, for him) hawkish stance during the first day of his two-day testimony before the House Committee today. In other...

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23Jun3:03 pmEST

Operation Midday Hammer

On the news that Iran's retaliation today against a U.S. air base in Qatar appeared to be nothing more than face-saving theater, equities reversed back up sharply from red while crude oil plunged, with the USO ETF down by more than 7% as I write this.  I do not doubt the assertion that tensions with Iran may begin to subside if these...

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