There is a lot of negative news to digest and the market is taking it pretty well. That said, there is only so much the market can bear with unpredictability reigning supreme thanks to political factors that seem to be sliding out of control with no firm strategy. It is fortunate the Republicans and Democrats got a stimulus budget in before the recent set of issues.

Not completely, however, seldom has such manipulation been so blatant or transparent.

The market has endured a lot of negative news and still has negative news. However, it has not slipped and will most likely not slip into a bear market precisely because a lot of the bad news is already taken into account. It is more likely it will fluctuate in a trading range until, hopefully some of the bad news is resolved. The real threat of a bear market is when there is too much good news and too little of adverse factors aren't taken into account.

Actually oil has gone up. Next year it will likely rise as well. If it weren't for aggressive US expansion it would have jumped substantially already. The issue is US expansion is slowing and despite arguments to the contrary, oil demand continues to grow.

The Federal Reserve has already been reshaped as the last move by the Fed has shown it to be driven by political motivation. This is why the market sold off despite the cut. Their lack of direction from here furthers the argument. They will find out moving and predicting Washington DC is harder than predicting the economy.

No wonder the market sold off despite the cut. The fact they basically showed the world they are pawns of politics has made their cut meaningless compared to the fact they now are as insightful about economics as the politicians which is frankly scary. They might as well said frankly we are cutting and we will act next based on the political environment of Washington DC not economics. Stay tuned. As you can see the market reacted badly to the message as it should. They could have cut rates to zirp and the market would have fallen given their message which screams "we are now willing hostages to politics".

The Federal Reserve should be embracing a tighter monetary policy given the clear government stimulus and now massively increased deficit spending on top of the tax cut stimulus. There is little justification for their cut besides to appease politicians. This is one reason the market dropped. Because it is obvious and the fact they don't know what to do from puts them in the same camp as politicians because they are cow towing to them. This is one of the worst things to happen to the Federal Reserve in decades.

Second, the Federal Reserve had good justification for reversing QE and tightening. This is to build up their ability to make moves to help the economy if it falls into a recession. By weakening their hand they are adding not subtracting from the threat of an unknown recession and this works against the long term market. Stocks selling off from their horrific move is justified, especially given the threat of more inflation from tariffs which is clearly more a tax on Americans than anything else. Of course this was announced after their rate move, so we can't judge them for lowering rates in the face of further inflationary threats from this.

However, combined, it is clear the Federal Reserve should have been looking at tightening not loosening. Doing the opposite has confused the market especially since they can't think of a good reason besides the potential threat of economic weakness. If they thought this was the case, wouldn't they be better served preparing for it by making rate cut move that would make a difference? Instead they weakened their hand, added market uncertainty, and showed they are acting as a political pawn. Disgusted is how the market reacted, and rightly so.

Apple's earnings are decent. The issue is that there remains worry about their losing market share and increasing dependence on cell phone side sales, although good for margins and better than nothing only reveals the level of dependence they have on cell phones. The issue for Apple is now, what's next? Sure watches are a little add to profitability but it is not enough to offset cell phones and is once again dependent on cell phones.

Apple's valuation is good given its its current profitability. It is a decent buy if they can show convincing arguments that it will indeed remain as profitable as it is today. Their CEO has done wonders to keep Apple on track financially as the company just continues to incrementally upgrade their products from existing technology rather than sparking any major tech revolution since Jobs passed away.

You may be right. I certainly wouldn't bet on the Fed having a stiff upper lip these days against political pressure.

That or they are afraid global warming will turn their purchases into underwater assets both monetarily and for real.

The market is ok. Given the government budget it is spending stimulus now. The market looks like the summer rally may persist.