The Lance Roberts Show Podcast

It's Nvidia earnings reporting day, and as tech companies have driven markets of late, the results, and the company's forward guidance, could have a huge effect. Earnings expectations are extremely high; risk of disappointment is high. The S&P is testing a rising trendline at the 20-DMA, against a negative divergence in relative strength. The dichotomy is unsustainable. The Conference Board re...

The big tech names were a drag on the overall market on Tuesday, with the S&P slipping to test the 20-DMA once again, which has been a rising trend line for the past few months. If the market against tests today, and fails, look for the S&P at 4800-ish, at about the 50-DMA. Note, too, along with that rising trend line, a negative divergence in relative strength. When prices are rising as m...

There are "Dow Days" and "NASDAQ Days;" CPI inflation is still transitory; emerging influence of presidential election on Congress' ability to manage debt & spending, M-2 as % of GDP. There is little expectation for earnings growth this year. Markets remain in bullish trend, but a negative day today could trigger MACD Sell-signal. Time to reduce portfolio risk and wait until correction to put...

Markets were closed on Monday, after ending negative on Friday; the market rallied back to previous, all-time highs after touching the 20-DMA for a healthy intra-day correction. The result was a negative week overall, but just barley. Still, the market remains in a bullish trend, but very close to triggering a Sell-signal. With markets being down at the open, if we do have a negative day, we will...

 The Fed is in no rush to lower rates, based on the latest economic data; we've gone from transitory to permatory inflation; rents are not going to fall, but rates are not going to go up. Fed Gov. Bostick: Rates are not going down until later, based on Labor data. Candid Coffee preview: The problem with Financial Infidelity; does it pay to delay taking Social Security? (It depends...) What's...

The post-Valentine's Day afterglow; Markets are not behaving like it's February (typically a weaker month), so far. The NFIB Small Business Survey belies weaker conditions and negative sentiment; there is a correlation between the NFIB  and Small Cap Index. Markets continue to do well, despite weaker economic activity; bonds showing promise; NVIDIA captures 3rd place in S&P 500, unseating...

Retail Sales were expected to be weaker than expected (sure enough, January Retail sales were down .8%) which could potentially affect today's activity. On a short-term basis, markets are doing fine, bounding off the 20-DMA, and the bullish trend remains intact. The real challenge is the gap between the S&P and the underlying 200-DMA, and the further we move away from that, the harder it will...

Valentine's Day Google searches; January CPI came in a little hotter than hoped, triggering market correction. How does this set up a buying opportunity for Bonds? The primary factor in CPI this time was in Homeowners' Equivalent Rent. A market correction is not a crash. Valentine's Day safe practices at the Ratliff household. Why wannabe retirees might not be as ready to retire as they think. The...

(2/14/24) Markets have been due for a correction for some time; that happened yesterday, taking markets right down to ther 20-DMA, but buying activity at the end of the day may have been a hint of recovery to come. Corrections within a bullish trend can be very short-lived, which doesn't give much opportunity to put capital to work. A bounce that fails below the recent high and takes out the 20-DM...

(2/13/24) It's CPI Day (the Consumer Price Index increased .3% in January; on an annualized basis, CPI dropped from December 3.4% to 3.1% for January.) Actors, do not lie on your application (especially involving roller skates and the Super Bowl Halftime!) Amazon hit with class action lawsuit over upcharge for ad-free viewing. Markets start Monday flat, spike a bit, and end flat. Correction is one...

(2/13/24) Markets didn't do a whole lot on Monday, starting flat in the morning, a brief interlude of buying at midday, and ending flat in the afternoon. The markets' trajectory remains essentially unchanged. Interestingly, Small- and Mid-cap stocks had a pretty good day, up 1.8%, which could be indicative of rotation action into those stocks, and a little "FOMO" activity there. And the S&P 40...

(2/12/24) Markets reached the magical 5,000 mark on Friday, and momentum will continue to carry investors forward, but for only so long; how we're preparing for the eventual pullback. A correction of between 2% and 5%, and up to 10% would not be out of the realm of possibility, and normal in any year. The cost of housing remains a hot-button topic with both Millennials and Gen-Z. Lance runs the ch...

(2/12/24) Markets achieved the much-vaunted 5,000 mark on Friday; but there are details under the surface that warrant investors being more cautious. The market has been positive 14 out of the past 15-weeks, a phenomenon that hasn't occurred since 1972. Remember what happened in  1973-74? This rally is being driven by the Magnificent 7, similar to the '70's "Nifty 50." The point is, markets c...

(5/25/22) Selling pressures continue in the markets, stringing together the most losing weeks since 1928, underscoring the importance of bonds as markets shift from inflation to growth priorities. Correlations and Causations of the Uvalde Shootings: coincidence of increased violence with growth in social media; the velocity of information makes it too easy to react & respond. Why catfish live...

(5/25/22) Bonds have started to turn a corner in recent weeks, picking up their non-correlation relative to equity prices--exactly what you want if you're using bonds as a hedge against a stock sell-off. Taking a look at interest rates for hints of where rates are heading reveals much about the economy, and where it's heading, as well. As slowing in April of the rate of growth of inflation allowed...

(5/24/22) Thanks to Snapchat and Mega, and their impact on FAANG stocks, markets sold off last week's gains. Price action remains negative; is relief on the horizon? LA Port activity smoothing out. Bad geopolitical news further weighs on markets, investors, and advisors: How to handle negative news in making investing decisions. At Davos 2022, Ray Daleo says "cash is trash;" why does the Dollar co...

(5/24/22) Markets were able to hold support at last week's lows--and important test of the bottom, and a set up for a double-bottom. Unfortunately, markets are pointing lower following Snapchat's poor report, which is weighing on FAANG stocks, which in turn are placing a drag on the S&P. A commonality of recent weeks has been a rally that gets sold-into, which has been the heart of the negativ...

(5/23/22) The Dow is now stringing together 8-weeks of losses--its worst performance since the 1920's. Contrary to media claims of a bear market, the 20% drop is but a correction on the road to Bubblization: This will be The Most Forecasted Recession in history. Graduation Weekend at the Roberts' house; Davos 2022 = Pinky & The Brain. When all the experts agree, something else is bound to happ...

(5/23/22) Breaking through the markets' 20% barrier does not a bear market make, regardless of breathless media commentary. 20% off today's S&P is merely a correction, thanks to the lone-term bullish trend of rising prices remains well intact. On Friday, buying came in in the late afternoon, holding onto support established earlier last week. Markets are looking to move higher this morning--an...

(5/20/22) Waiting for the Bounce: Some people just aren't cut out to invest in stocks; Richard Rosso's Investing Opera; Why does Elon Musk want Twitter? Musk says ESG is a scam; ORFN--the anti-woke fund; the truth about Bitcoin; the positives of a Bear Markets: needed cleansing. How we're managing against inflation. Why you shouldn't benchmark to the top. Gasoline prices & biking in Houston; H...

(5/19/22) Retailers' earnings reports are offering sobering insights to how the economy is really doing, and analysts are finally waking up to the realities. Is the Recession near, or is it already here? The benefits of Bonds is now more apparent than ever. The Markets' downward track, and the classic recession cycle at WalMart; why the Fed is using rhetoric instead of rates to address inflation....

(5/19/22) Target and Walmart's warnings about future earnings pulled the rug out from under stocks Wednesday, essentially reversing all of the previous gains, going back to last week. The data suggests a recession is near, if not already here. (We raised cash in anticipation of the worst.) The current level of resistance will be important for markets to break above in order to get the rally back o...

(5/18/22) What misses by Amazon, Target, and WalMart are telling us about the state of the consumer, which is the backbone of the economy. Markets remain in a well-defined downtrend, but are working off an over-sold status. All the free money that came into the economy is gone--here comes the post-sugar rush crash. The part of Keynesian Economics that everyone misses; Why proprietary investment ve...

(5/18/22) Target and Walmart reporting less than expected earnings, and missing by a mile, as they cite higher price pressure and building inventories. This would suggest we have likely seen the peak of inflation, along with slower consumer activity--both are pre-recessionary indicators that are also disinflationary. Target and WalMart stocks are consumer bellwethers, telling us now that consumpti...

(5/17/22) Congress is investigating UFO's while the economy is running off the rails and inflation rages. Market performance and "cash on the sidelines;" the worst start to the year for markets since The Great Depression; the Year of Shortages and high prices now includes a baby formula shortage that was self-inflicted; negative sentiment is so prevalent, it has crept into consumer behavior; why B...