The S&P 500 has rebounded by 39.1% from this year's closing low on 3/23 while the Euro Stoxx 50 index is up 37% from it's closing low on 3/18. However, YTD t...

U.S. oil rig count fell to 258 or 62% from December 2019. This is a level not seen since 2009. Crude oil production, using the DOE weekly numbers, was 11.6 m...

Profit margins had been elevated until this year but are still above average. The top panel of the chart shows S&P 500 profit margin in orange and EPS in blu...

Fastenal daily sales were up 6.7% during April. Sales of safety equipment were up 119.7%, more than offsetting the fastener decline of 22.5%. The stock price...

Real yields negative and that doesn't take into account taxes. Currently, the 10-year U.S. treasury constant maturity yield is 0.72% (blue line lower panel) ...

Here's a historical look at stock vs. bond valuations. This simply compares the S&P 500 earnings yield (E/P or inverse of P/E) to the 10-year U.S. Treasury b...

Used car prices in the U.S. during the first 15 days of April fell 11.8% from March according to Manheim. If this holds for the remainder of the month, this w...

The turmoil (pun intended) in the crude oil markets this week suggests it's time for a review of futures markets. The roll yield causes a misunderstanding re...

WTI crude futures crashed today. The May futures contract plunged $55.90, settling at a -$37.63. Yes, you read that correctly, a negative price of $37.63. Th...

Total motor gasoline inventory in the U.S. has surged to highs during a period when inventories typically fall. The chart is a 10 year seasonal chart with th...

As a follow-up to my LinkedIn post 2 weeks ago regarding bank loan loss reserves, results this week from major banks have shown a 4X increase in loan loss pr...

As a follow-up to my post last week on Fastenal, the company reported results. The crucial month of March saw daily sales of $21.5 million, up 0.2% from year...

Rig counts down dramatically following the rapid fall in energy prices. The Baker Hughes U.S. Crude Oil Rotary Rig Count fell 58 rigs, or 10%, in just one we...

The Baltic Dry Index fell from 10-year highs last fall to lows this February. The index is a measurement of shipping rates over various routes for dry bulk c...

Large-caps had already outperformed small-caps since mid 2018 but the ratio of the Russell 1000 to Russell 2000 has surged in the last month during the COVID...

As mentioned in my post yesterday on ISM, timing of surveys makes a difference. Today's jobs numbers are from surveys conducted mid-month. The household surv...

ISM Manufacturing PMI for March at 49.1 down from 50.1 in February but the survey would not have fully reflected the shutdown in the second half of the month...

Crude oil prices down again today. The Midland differential to Cushing plunged as available storage falls. The top panel is the differential to Cushing while...

The top panel shows gold and silver prices individually and the lower panel the gold/silver ratio. Note the ratio shooting well above precious highs. Silver ...

High Yield spreads spikes but still below highs of the 2008/2009 period. How long will economy be shut down? Energy also a large portion of high yield market.