Monday Market Momentum – Still Up into Quarter’s Close

171 points.  

That is the summary of March so far – we’re up 171 (3.9%) S&P points from 4,373 where we closed on Feb 28th, despite the war – and everything else that’s going on.  The S&P has closed higher in 7 of the past 9 sessions with one flat and only a single down day in the past two weeks – last Wednesday when the Fed announce a rate hike but then Powell spoke and saved us from the drop.  

As I have been saying, there’s simply nothing better to do with your money but store it in US Equities.

  “The view is we should just rotate to sectors which are more favorable to the situation, because there’s really not much of an alternative to equities,” said Ilya Feygin, managing director and senior strategist at WallachBeth Capital.  

Yes, I just said that!  Large-cap stocks in the U.S. offer more safety and value than small and mid-cap shares since they tend to generate reliable income for investors, especially companies that can maintain dividend payouts. In addition, the U.S. equity market’s swoon to start the year may have largely priced in a spike in oil prices and softening of economic growth, meaning they aren’t as expensive anymore

“Stocks appear to have largely priced in near-term geopolitical and interest-rate risks,” Gina Martin Adams, chief equity strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence, wrote in a note. “Earnings forecasts are climbing again, as analysts get more comfortable with supply-chain risks and revenue estimates keep improving.”

S&P 500 firms took their bailout money (YOUR tax Dollars) and bought back $882 billion of their own stock last year, up 9.3% from the prior record set in 2018, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.  These massive buybacks reduce the overall share count which we divide the earnings by – making it look like Earnings Per Share is going up – even when earnings are flat because there are less shares to divide them by.  

Keep in mind the market cap of the ENTIRE S&P 500…

Provided courtesy of Phil’s Stock World.