Friday, February 18, 2022
More selling this morning in pre-market activity, all but assuring another lower week for investors overall. Lighter volume ahead of a long three-day weekend (Presidents Day is Monday, and the Ahead of Wall Street column will post again not until Tuesday morning of next week) basically assure the week will close in the red by the end of regular trading today.
We still do not have a Russian invasion of Ukraine, now days after many experts in global diplomacy expected carnage to commence. Part of the U.S. State Department’s strategy in the run-up to the conflict has been a quite novel one: to articulate what it sees as a false-flag mission that insists Russia invade their ex-Soviet neighbor in self-defense, or in the interest of the common good. Those narratives have not yet gained traction on the world stage, and possibly have kept troops from crossing into Ukraine at this time.
Oil prices look to finish lower for the first week in the past nine, now trading below $90 per barrel. It may seem a curious development with oil-rich Russia on the brink of war; this would typically point to higher prices per barrel. But much of the gains in oil prices have already been priced in as tensions continue another week, and if Nord Stream 2 is mothballed as part of a larger sanctioning of Russia should fighting begin, this would provide NATO allies (especially the U.S.) to increase pumping and ship it to Germany and elsewhere, which would normally be customers of Russia.
Here at home, the Senate voted 65-27 yesterday to keep the federal government funded through March 11th, three weeks from today. The vote saw 15 Republicans voting with all Democrats to pass the stop-gap bill, which gives legislators to pass a subsequent bill to fund the government through its full fiscal year which ends the last day of September — five weeks before midterm elections.
As market participants forge a market restricting valuations of long-term growth initiatives amid myriad uncertainties — Russia, inflation and even what remains of the pandemic — we don’t see much by way of a bullish rally forming the rest of the trading day. In fact, until the Fed meeting mid-March concludes and we see where we are with rate hikes and depletion of the balance sheet, it’s hard to see many tailwinds for the market at all. Did you miss your opportunity to buy great stocks at a deep discount last month? It looks as if you may have another chance currently.
Questions or comments about this article and/or its author? Click here>>
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Markets Await News from Ukraine, Fed
Friday, February 18, 2022
More selling this morning in pre-market activity, all but assuring another lower week for investors overall. Lighter volume ahead of a long three-day weekend (Presidents Day is Monday, and the Ahead of Wall Street column will post again not until Tuesday morning of next week) basically assure the week will close in the red by the end of regular trading today.
We still do not have a Russian invasion of Ukraine, now days after many experts in global diplomacy expected carnage to commence. Part of the U.S. State Department’s strategy in the run-up to the conflict has been a quite novel one: to articulate what it sees as a false-flag mission that insists Russia invade their ex-Soviet neighbor in self-defense, or in the interest of the common good. Those narratives have not yet gained traction on the world stage, and possibly have kept troops from crossing into Ukraine at this time.
Oil prices look to finish lower for the first week in the past nine, now trading below $90 per barrel. It may seem a curious development with oil-rich Russia on the brink of war; this would typically point to higher prices per barrel. But much of the gains in oil prices have already been priced in as tensions continue another week, and if Nord Stream 2 is mothballed as part of a larger sanctioning of Russia should fighting begin, this would provide NATO allies (especially the U.S.) to increase pumping and ship it to Germany and elsewhere, which would normally be customers of Russia.
Here at home, the Senate voted 65-27 yesterday to keep the federal government funded through March 11th, three weeks from today. The vote saw 15 Republicans voting with all Democrats to pass the stop-gap bill, which gives legislators to pass a subsequent bill to fund the government through its full fiscal year which ends the last day of September — five weeks before midterm elections.
As market participants forge a market restricting valuations of long-term growth initiatives amid myriad uncertainties — Russia, inflation and even what remains of the pandemic — we don’t see much by way of a bullish rally forming the rest of the trading day. In fact, until the Fed meeting mid-March concludes and we see where we are with rate hikes and depletion of the balance sheet, it’s hard to see many tailwinds for the market at all. Did you miss your opportunity to buy great stocks at a deep discount last month? It looks as if you may have another chance currently.
Questions or comments about this article and/or its author? Click here>>