15 Aug 2003

Posted at 16:19h in The Friday Brief by
Stock investors earnestly began to believe that the U.S. economy was in recovery on March 12th.  Microsoft and Intel were among the volume leaders that day as major headlines read “U.S. stock indexes have biggest gains in five months.”  Sparking the rally were comments from the administration indicating that it would extend diplomatic efforts to disarmIraq, effectively delaying the war.  In the following days many analysts characterized the good market action as a short-term reaction to news war delay, but time has shown know that investors were looking at the larger picture and anticipating economic recovery beyond the war.  

08 Aug 2003

Posted at 16:20h in The Friday Brief by
Yesterday, the Labor Department reported that productivity grew more than twice as fast in the second quarter than in the previous three months as the economy accelerated.  The increase of 5.7% was considerably over analysts’ estimates of 4.1% and the fastest since the third quarter of last year. 

25 Jul 2003

Posted at 16:23h in The Friday Brief by
As we begin the 34th day of this hot, hot summer, corporate earnings and government reports are heating up as well.  In the prior couple of months stock prices have run up in anticipation of both, defying the normal seasonal pattern of sluggish equity returns.