We're good for the first six months of the year, looking at what the economy is doing, at earnings and at inflation, which should pretty well stay at the level it's at right now. We should continue to see stock market gains.
There are not a lot of catalysts right now ahead of the earnings season. We've had some solid gains in the market and I think people are in a kind of wait-and-see mood.
We got some good earnings news from Cisco and from Pepsi. Oil has also been pretty tame today.
If you have a couple of (refineries) that get shut down, it would be a cause for concern. But the oil companies are spending quite a bit on maintenance.
Multiple rate hikes after May would certainly change the picture.
I'm surprised the market is not moving higher. I'm starting to wonder if the Fed is actually more bullish than anyone realizes.
Despite the bankruptcies, there is still too much capacity in the industry and there has yet to be a major shakeout. It may be a year to three years before things settle down to the where long-term investors should get involved.
Despite the bankruptcies, there is still too much capacity in the industry, and there has yet to be a major shakeout. It may be a year to three years before things settle down to where long-term investors should get involved.
The markets are still trying to figure out exactly what the Fed said yesterday. It left itself quite a bit of wiggle room to either raise rates or not do anything. My guess is we'll see a 25 basis-point hike in May and after that, we'll have to see what the economic data says.
