The financial press reported that stocks remained "volatile" on Thursday. But since the Dow ended the day with a loss of "only" 79 points and the S&P 500 fell just 4, the attitude appeared to be, all's well that ends well.

However, at 11:28 am EST, all was definitely NOT well as the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 784 points. And based on the fact that the market had plunged 800 the day prior, this meant that the index had shed 1583 points in less than a day and a half. So, I will say it again, all was not well at that point in time.

Yes, the algos were clearly at work again yesterday morning. But at the same time, the narrative surrounding the China-US trade deal had gotten worse after the arrest of Huawei Technologies CFO, Meng Wanzhou.

If you are like me, the headline of Wanzhou probably wasn't "wow" moment. But to put things in perspective, this was akin to the Chinese arresting Apple's (AAPL) CFO for national security purposes.

It's that last part that causes people to scratch their heads. The charges against Wanzhou are that she violated the sanctions put on Iran. Sure, this is probably an issue that needs to be dealt with. But given that Ms. Wanzhou is the daughter of Huawei's founder, the arrest did indeed appear to be a "wow" moment.

The move came after Trump had appointed Lighthizer as the chief negotiator for the trade "deal" and the now famous "Tariff Man" tweets. When combined, some argue that Trump appeared to be thumbing his nose at the Chinese. As such, concerns about the potential for a trade deal to get done within the already skinny 90-day window, continued to grow.

By mid-morning, the flush lower in the indices began ...

I opined after Monday's "relief rally" that the move had been a bit underwhelming and that uncertainty appeared to have crept back into the market. By Tuesday morning, traders began to realize that Trump may have over-tweeted the trade "deal" ...

While it may sound strange, perhaps the best word to describe the market action on Monday is, disappointing. Yes, the Dow Jones Industrial Average popped 288 points. The S&P 500 gained 1.1%. The NASDAQ 100 surged 1.5%. And oil jumped ...

Unless you've been living in a cave or don't have access to a TV, computer, smart phone, or even a newspaper, you likely know that Presidents Xi Jingping and Donald Trump laid the groundwork for a trade deal Saturday night ...

It didn't take the news-reading algos long to find what they were looking for in Jerome Powell's speech yesterday. And to his credit, the Fed Chairman didn't make it difficult for either the computers or mere mortal analysts to understand ...

Don't look now fans, but there might be some hope creeping into the stock market. With just 23 trading days left in the year, there seems to be some hope that we've seen the bottom of the recent pullback.

To ...

For most investors, 2018 is turning out to be a tough row to hoe. Suddenly, nobody is talking about global synchronized growth, low inflation, the benefits of tax cuts, and 20% earnings growth. No, all that is now so 2017. ...

A busy few days of entertaining family in Colorado provided a reprieve from the keyboard and the markets over the weekend. Thus, I'm going to let the indicators do most of the talking to start this holiday-shortened week.

Briefly, the ...

Monday was another volatile day on Wall Street as the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 602 points. Granted, problems at Apple (AAPL) and Goldman Sachs (GS) accounted for 170 of those points. And yes, the machines were clearly at work ...

When stocks enter a corrective phase, the main question investors tend to ask themselves is, has anything changed from a macro point of view?

One of the problems with trying to answer this question is that corrections generally are born ...

The "State of the Markets"

As we embark on a fresh new calendar year (aka the scorecard in our business), the question of the day is – in my mind, in my mind, anyway – will the bears will be ...

Just when you thought it might be time for stocks to pull back and for traders to perhaps rethink the low-volatility, steady march higher, the major indices blasted to fresh all-time highs yesterday. Just when you thought tax reform (or ...