1) Another day with more grim headlines and negativity about the economy... Many corporations are cutting back and suspending guidance amid an uncertain outlook. An article on the front page of today's Wall Street Journal specifically mentioned the CEOs of American Airlines (AAL), PepsiCo (PEP), and Procter & Gamble (PG) – among other big firms […]

1) Yesterday brought another big swing in the markets on trade-war developments... In the morning, markets rallied strongly on news that President Donald Trump's administration was considering cutting the steep tariffs on China. (At one point, the S&P 500 Index was up about 3.4%.) In this article yesterday, the Wall Street Journal gave more details […]

Tesla (TSLA) is back in focus again... The electric-vehicle ("EV") maker reported first-quarter earnings after the market close yesterday, and the stock jumped as much as 9% this morning. (The full shareholder deck is here, and here's the story from the front page of today's Wall Street Journal: Tesla Profit Sinks, Hurt by Backlash Over […]

1) As I read the Wall Street Journal and the business section of the New York Times, I have been struck by the volume of articles regarding economic uncertainty... The underlying theme is how the turmoil triggered mainly by the Trump administration's tariff policies are creating uncertainty and resulting in cautious behavior almost everywhere. Here's […]

1) The main reason I've still been saying to "sit tight" amid all the recent market turmoil is that I worry that the Trump administration's tariff plans have put us into uncharted economic waters. Businesses large and small are constantly making critical decisions about investments, sourcing, pricing, and so forth. And right now, most are […]

1) While consumer sentiment is poor, consumer spending – which accounts for nearly 70% of our GDP – remains strong. That's according to a couple measures... The first is the government's retail sales report for March – just take a look at this chart from Creative Planning's Charlie Bilello in a post yesterday on social […]

1) Compared with what we saw last week, the markets have been quieter over the past couple days... And I don't want to cause more stress among my readers by sharing more bearish indicators (believe me, there are plenty). So instead, I'll highlight this New York Times article from last weekend that has some good […]

During times of market turmoil, it's critically important to keep a clear head and a long-term perspective. That's easy to say... But it's hard to do when we're bombarded by a 24/7 news cycle, which tends to reinforce the prevailing narrative in the financial media. And that narrative is generally negative these days. Take a […]

1) As you would no doubt expect by now, the tariff details keep changing... Late on Friday, it appeared that President Donald Trump's administration was exempting a range of Chinese-made electronic products like iPhones from its 145% tariffs. And that could – at least temporarily – benefit companies that manufacture certain electronic devices outside the […]

1) Well, the reality is setting in... Markets gave back some of their huge gains from Wednesday, with the S&P 500 Index falling 3.5% yesterday. Investors are coming to grips with what I wrote in yesterday's e-mail: Just because a huge catastrophe – think a 2008-style financial crisis – is likely off the table doesn't […]