Patrick O'Hare's Contributions

With the release of the minutes for the April 26-27 Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, the Federal Reserve floated a trial balloon about possibly raising the target range for the fed funds rate at its June 14-15 FOMC meeting.

The suicide squeeze play in baseball is a sight to behold. It is filled with tension because it involves a binary outcome. The runner trying to make it home from third base will either be safe or out. There is no middle ground.

Should the United Kingdom (UK) remain a member of the European Union (EU) or leave the European Union? That is the very question that will be put to UK voters on June 23. It's a big question that will inevitably invite...

The first quarter earnings reporting period is nearly complete with over 90% of the S&P 500 having reported results for the March quarter. What we have learned to this point is that the first quarter earnings decline was not as...

The Employment Situation Report is considered by many market participants to be the most influential economic release of them all. We can understand why given the message it provides on the most important driver there is for the economy: employment.

It's dollar days for the market, yet nothing is really on sale. The only thing that looks remotely cheap is the cost to insure one's portfolio against downside risk. The CBOE Volatility Index is the tell there. It slumped as low as 12.50 in...

Earlier this month, I hit my 19-year work anniversary at Briefing.com. It was yet another reminder of how fast time flies when you're doing something you love. So much has happened in that time for me, both personally and professionally.

In The Wizard of Oz Dorothy is transported to a strange place and is instructed to find her way home by following the yellow brick road. She does just that by way of a journey that is fun, strange, scary, and fantastical all at once.

Not that long ago, one of the main storylines in the market narrative was that the US economy was headed for a recession. With a string of some better than expected economic data of late, that storyline has been re-written and now...

Thinking about March 2009 could understandably induce some post-traumatic stress for a lot of people. That was a harrowing time to say the least. Still reeling from the Lehman Bros. bankruptcy and the greatest financial collapse...

The capital markets are cranking this morning with newsflow, opting at this time to favor all of the seemingly positive developments. The S&P futures are up 13 points and are trading 0.9% above fair value. The biggest news item of note...

We didn't expect much out of 2015 from a price return standpoint and so far the S&P 500 has lived down to our expectations, declining 0.8% year-to-date. Unfortunately, we're not all that enthused right now by the return outlook for 2016 either.

According to the fed funds futures market, there is an 81% probability of the Federal Reserve ("Fed") raising the target range for the fed funds rate at its December 15-16 Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. That's some heady stuff considering it would be the first rate hike since...

When 2014 was coming to an end, we published our Market View for 2015. In that piece, we said our expectation for 2015 was that market gains would track closer to earnings per share (EPS) growth. At the time, analysts' average estimate pegged 2015 EPS growth at 8.8%, according to...

The major indices came storming back from a lousy month in September, riding a policy rate bandwagon that got increasingly crowded with some spooky, if not altogether scary, economic data. The biggest ghost of all was the September employment report...

Walmart held its annual meeting for the investment community on October 14. The mood going into the event was light. The mood coming out of the event was dark—very dark. Why? Because Walmart issued a nasty earnings...

Everything is right with the equity market world—or so it seems. Since its low on September 29, the S&P 500 has surged 9.7% and it's coming back for more today. Currently, the S&P futures are up 16 points and are trading...

Can you kill a bear that was never a cub? We may find out soon enough if the month of October, which has a reputation for being a "bear killer," keeps going the way it has started. Understandably, many people think of...

The third quarter earnings reporting period is about to shift into high gear, only it isn't expected to produce a whole lot of speed. In fact, the current consensus earnings per share (EPS) growth projection from...

I recently completed a Bankrate survey of market analysts. It contained a number of questions, one of which asked to assign a probability of a bear market occurring over the next 12 months. My response was...