The Fed Chair, Janet Yellen seemed to have given the go-ahead for a rate hike as early as the June meeting. Maybe yes, maybe no. But most probably a trial balloon that will float and then bust by the time the meeting rolls around.

It is a shortened trading week for U.S. markets are equity markets are closed in observance of Memorial Day. However, that does not mean we will not see the “all important” employment report this Friday – expectations have dropped a bit – what do we think? Listen in as we take a look at what was and what will be for the markets.

 

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Last week was a good week for markets ahead of some key reports and a holiday shortened trading week. DJIA up 2%, NASDAQ up 3.4%! Some better then expected economic reports, a more hawkish Fed. But could it be that the move to postpone any Greek debt write-downs for a few years AND postpone the tax hike in Japan was more beneficial to markets? Or maybe oil hitting $50 for the first time since November 2015.

DJIA up for 4 months in a row – first time since 2014!

Trial balloons by Fed and government – thoughts on that as a method of molding markets.

Crawfish Boil and BBQ last weekend at Andrew’s house – Pix:

Crawfish Party 1

Crawfish Party 2

Even with the uneven housing recovery, there has been some slow, but steady improvement and last week we saw some really good reports:

– A 16.6% jump in new home sales in April, putting them at an 8-year peak.

– Housing contract activity surged 5.1% last month, according to the National Association of Realtors, reaching a level unseen since February 2006

GDP – 2nd estimate of the 1st Quarter 2016 activity was revised up (we see this many times that revisions are often to the upside). Still sluggish at 0.80% versus the estimate of 0.50% on an annualized basis.

– Some important takeaways from the GDP Report:

– Net exports continue to slide to the lowest levels in years and years

– Personal consumption is not picking up – which could explain some of the retail sales weakness

– The upward revision had a good bit to do with the change in private inventories

Barron’s cover-page this week – contrary-indicator or?

Barron’s Cover

Hackers infiltrated Time Inc.’s Myspace social network and published user data on an online forum shortly before Memorial Day weekend, the company said Tuesday. The data stolen includes e-mail addresses, user names and passwords for accounts created prior to June 11, 2013 on the old Myspace platform, according to a statement. The breach doesn’t affect any Time Inc. information or financial data, the New York-based publisher said.

– Why is the “old” platform still active and accessible?

– Why is any MySpace platform still active?  Has anyone seen this lately? What is the purpose –> www.myspace.com