Author: Deep

This is an important day. It’s important we hold some gain, even a modest one. On Friday, the markets sank, but it’s not that they sank, it’s where they sank to. We ended essentially at the August lows (let’s not quibble about a few points here and there), which were the lows for last year. Inflection points Dow: 15,666 (August low) S&P 500: 1,867 (August low) Nasdaq: 4,500 (August low) Now, you can believe in technical analysis or not (a lot of you think it’s a bunch of voodoo, I know). That doesn’t really matter. What matters is when the…

As the thick of earnings season begins this week, be prepared to hear that the strong U.S. dollar is the culprit behind many disappointments. This will be a tough year for earnings partly due to continued dollar strength, said Steve Wood, chief market strategist at Russell Investments. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of global currencies, is up more than 7 percent over the past year. In 2015, the dollar enjoyed its fastest rise in 40 years, and it continues to gain steam against the world’s other major currencies. The greenback has skyrocketed 20 percent since…

Last year, Toronto-based Sprott Asset Management’s energy fund sometimes had only 30 percent of its cash invested, as oil and gas stocks fell fast and furious. That’s changed. Heading into this year, the fund was effectively fully invested, portfolio manager Eric Nuttall said. “I really do think the risk has swung from being invested in energy stocks to not being invested in energy stocks,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” just before the new year. “The best risk-to-reward opportunities are buying those names that are today perceived as being over-leveraged. As oil recovers, the perception will swing from the…

Concerns about the stalling Chinese economy, which have punished stock prices around the world in 2016, won’t cause a U.S. recession, said Roger Altman, founder of investment banking advisory firmEvercore Partners. “The chances of a U.S. recession are quite low,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” citing internal Evercore odds of about 20 percent. “It’s not the likely scenario at all.” Altman was not as optimistic about the U.S. stock market. “It’s probably going to be a difficult year for equities because most of the juice has been squeezed out of the corporate-profits lemon.” He expects revenue growth of 1 percent…

Despite cutting its global growth forecast for the year, theInternational Monetary Fund doesn’t see China’s growth slowing in 2016 more than the IMF had predicted, its chief economist said Tuesday. The IMF held its 2016 growth target at 6.3 percent for China in its updated World Economic Outlook, which was released Tuesday. “In the advanced economies group, we do see an uptick for 2016 and 2017, but less of one than we would’ve predicted three months ago,” IMF economist Maurice Obstfeld told CNBC’s “Worldwide Exchange.” “When we forecasted China back a year ago,” he continued, “we were pessimistic relative to…

The U.S. stock market is poised for more pain despite a rise at the start of this week’s trading, CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Tuesday. “I think we’ll find that oil, which is in control, will go back down. There’s just too much; no reason for oil to rally. None,” Cramer said on “Squawk on the Street.” Crude oil prices bounced back after hitting their lowest levels since 2003. Last week, U.S. oil prices fell about 10 percent. WTI in 2016 U.S. equities kicked off the week trading sharply higher, after falling more than 2 percent Friday, on the heels Chinese…

Value investor David Katz joined CNBC Pro for an exclusive interview to share his investment strategy for 2016. Katz, who manages $680 million at Matrix Asset Advisors, a New York-based investment firm he founded in 1986, thinks the recent market volatility has created opportunities in a group of stocks. “We’d be pretty aggressively buying into this weakness,” said Katz, who believes it has paid off to get long certain stocks into similar dips, particularly for those investors with a long-term horizon. The money manager describes the sell-off in the market this year as being disconnected from the economic realities, especially…

China can hurt the markets, and oil prices have become so low that there is a severe amount of stress in the credit market. But Jim Cramer thinks there is something bigger that triggered the sell-off on Friday. “Don’t kid yourself about what this sell-off is really about. It is about a recession, the potential for a recession and what it will mean for corporate profits,” the “Mad Money” host said. The backdrop of the market has become much more negative since December. Ever since the Fed began tightening, there has been a spike in the dollar, a slowdown in…

After its worst two-week start to a year ever, the Dow Jones industrial average stands just below the key psychological level of 16,000. More important to the math geeks, the Dow is almost three standard deviations below its 50-day moving average, a condition it’s been in for just 0.6 percent of the trading days of the last 35 years, according to Kensho, an analytical tool used by hedge funds. Dow Jones industrial average with 50-day moving average So conditions are ripe for a rebound. And if there is a snap-back, the following Dow members should lead the way based on…

heck out which companies are making headlines before the bell: Bank of America — The banking giant reported mixed quarterly results, posting earnings per share of 28 cents on revenue of $19.5 billion. Analysts polled by Reuters were looking for 26 cents earnings per share on revenue of $19.86 billion. Bank of America’s stock rose about 1.8 percent following the release. Morgan Stanley — The company’s stock rose over 3.5 percent in the premarket after posting better-than-expected quarterly results. Morgan Stanley reported adjusted earnings per share of 43 cents for the previous quarter on revenue of $7.7 billion. Wall Street…