January is already behind us. For me it has been a very busy month full of business travel and personal matters to attend. This did not allow me to write a blogpost at each Wednesday or Sunday. I hope to turn this around in February.
At the end of January I did fly to New York city for an all day business meeting in New York city. This allowed me to spend 1,5 day in New York city before heading to another location in the USA. In this blogpost we will tie two topics together : the visit to New York City and a snapshot of the current market sentiment within the stock markets. Last days the markets have been very volatile. From February onwards we will report out again on our monthly performance for our portfolios.
Visit to New York city
If you visit a world city, always check if you can book a FREE tour of SANDEMAN.
The Free Tour of New York starts in front of the Museum of the American Indian, subway station Bowling Green.
New York has played a central role in the history of the United States and the New World, from the earliest explorations through the Dutch and English colonial eras, to the Revolutionary War through the September 11th attacks. This tour walks you through the city’s evolution, telling the stories which allow locals to make the claim that ‘this is the greatest city on earth’.
We were a small group of 4 Indians, 2 Europeans and 1 American to attend this tour. It was very interesting to hear the history and evolution of New York city. I did visit Wallstreet and the bull..did you know there are 3 other cities with a bull ? Let me know which ones?
In the afternoon I did follow an investors’ course (3 hours) from an American investor in a Starbucks coffeebar at Broadway. Then I did walk back up to my hotel for another 2 hours to take a rest.
Next morning it was raining heavily and I did prepare for my next travel.
Let’s move to the market sentiment within the stock market.
Market Sentiment today
“The past couple of days are only the beginning of what could be still a substantive bear market in stocks,” says veteran market pundit Dennis Gartman. “It’s been nine years of a bull market. Can we give back 12%, 15%, 17% over the course of the next several months?” the editor of The Gartman Letter asks in a Bloomberg TV interview. “I’d be somewhat surprised if we didn’t do that.” I share this opinion.
Since 2009 the American S&P500 has increased with 331%. Since end of january we dropped already 7% and bounced up another 3%. We have seen volatility VIX return to the market with a top close to 50. The SPY bounced nice from the 259 resistance level. I heard yesterday a nice quote on CNBC from a Finance professor from Wharton University. You can see this in the graph of Sentiment below.
The stock market goes up using the stairs, but it always goes down with the elevator !
In January retail investors were very optimistic about investing in the stock market. When I read such surveys, it is a sign to be more cautious as the market has been going up from 2008. Where were those investors the past 10 years ?
Market sentiment is turning to more cautious and the coming months will be more a rollercoaster if we go up again..The rate of interest rate increases together with the growth of inflation and treasury yields will be decisive for the market direction in the coming months. Put your stop losses in place to secure your gains.
Final words
Last week one more thing happened stopping me from my day to day tasks.
During past week US visit, I suddenly suffered from an increasing shoulder pain towards a heavy chest pain. On Wednesday I was taken with an ambulance to a US hospital to ensure I was not suffering from a possible heart attack. 7 people attended me at the hospital and I did get full attention. I did heart stress tests and other tests but the cause of the pain was not identified. After full day I was dismissed from the hospital with pain killers. During all week I did hardly sleep due to heavy pains.
Back in Europe, I went to see the doctor immediately. She did put me on rest for one week and now I am still in recovery from a blocked nerf causing paralysis of my left arm and blockage of my neck and chest muscles with heavy pains as a result. …scary.
Health problems during leisure or business travel are never fun as other countries have different health practices. Stay safe and healthy in 2018 !
As always we end with a quote. Thanks for reading and following us.
2 Response Comments
Scary story with the hospital. Good to read that all is ok.
Thanks. Still in recovery mode…slow proces.