Joel Hawthorne, Head Trader and CEO of The Morning Snapshot joined Cheddar News to discuss the state of the retail sector after Walmart and Target's Q3 earnings and what investors should watch in crypto space. 

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Stocks Open Mostly Lower After Target Earnings Miss

well joining us now to discuss all of this is Joel hawthorne, head of head trader and ceo of the morning snapshot, Joel, Thanks so much for joining us this morning? Welcome the show. Major retail earnings, as I mentioned out this week with walmart reporting yesterday and Target today. What do you make of the stock market and how it's responding to today's earnings and the earnings season more broadly here. Good morning. Thanks for having me. I would have to say definitely. I think that right now there's a bit of caution. Uh there's definitely some, we've we've seen just a market that's been very resilient over the past few weeks. Maybe even caught some skeptics by surprise. We saw obviously the market rally off of the FOMC. The Fed raising rates 75 basis points. Just a few weeks ago we saw the C. P. I. Data coming softer than anticipated and that obviously gave the market is shot in the arm in a rally. So I think that there's just all of this buying as we wind down the year. I do anticipate maybe there could be a possible consolidation in the market before either retracing and maybe retesting some lower levels or who knows right. I mean the market is so unpredictable. Maybe we rally into the close of the year with just roughly a few weeks left Joel speaking about the close of the year, we just saw reach earnings results from major retailers like walmart and Target Target obviously showing a big drop in profit as they had to cut prices and clear its inventory. So what are these retail earnings saying about american consumers and the overall sector as we head into again the end of the year, this crucial holiday quarter, I definitely think that there's a bit of tightening of the belt right now. I think that we all know we've been in a lot of these stores. Uh, and we've definitely seen that the influx increase in pricing, but you know, buying necessities is not going anywhere anytime soon. So I think that there's just gonna be a little bit of pain at the register but keep in mind something that's very intriguing here, although we are getting some mixed reviews on some earnings. Um, the actual the price action that we see in the market day today in my opinion, does not reflect the consumer shopping that goes on in the stores. Those two, in my opinion have always been somewhat disconnected. So right now you're seeing a market that is really trading based off some technicals. We have an S. And P. 500 is trading right around near that 4000 mark. We can kind of look and see that even when we look at some some other aspects of the market, uh we can say metal who was training breaking new lows and 52 week lows reporting layoffs and seeing that stock rally amazon as well, just reporting lows and uh excuse me, reporting that they're gonna be laying off some people here soon, 10,000 workers are, So in the coming days that stock is getting a little bit of volatility off of that news. So there's a bit of disconnected, I think from how people spend their money and what the actual market is doing day to day now, the downfall of F. T. X. I do want to shift gears here to crypto the downfall of F. T. X. Is sending shockwaves through the crypto world. Should investors be worried about the state of Bitcoin and crypto? How are you advising your clients in this area? You know, it's funny, I think that there's, uh, I think in that, in that regard, Bitcoin has been trading right around some two year lows and recently broke those lows here on some of that news and some of that fear. One thing that we've seen over the past couple of years is that Bitcoin has really been primarily a risk on asset. So for the retail investor, for the mom and pop investor looking to kind of have some exposure there. Uh, they basically can be a bull in that market, but very, very difficult to kind of take the other side of that position or that trade without liquidating the position. So I think there's gonna be some fear, there's concern. I think a lot of investors in there in that market are losing trust, but I would say that one thing that I approach that market with is just extreme caution, never risking more than I can afford to lose kind of taking the approach is if I were going out with for a great dinner or if I just wanted to kind of do some, some, some shopping, then that's definitely something those are stock that Bitcoin is just an asset that I would say, hey, I'll kind of stick my toe in the water and by increments if you would. So, uh, not really overzealous right now in that aspect now, I want to talk about some data that we've seen as well. Producer price index came out showing wholesale retail prices rose 0.2% october better than expected after better than expected. Consumer Price index data. Um, you know, this is giving investors some optimism that we could see a shift in policy from the Fed. Do you think that's likely? And what else do you think the Fed is going to be looking out for as we enter the end of the year here in order to shape its policy moving forward? We very well could possibly see a bit of a shift of softening maybe some dovish sentiment from the Fed here, uh, in december, definitely something I think that Wall Street is definitely kind of paying close attention to. Um, one thing that I think the Fed is gonna definitely pay close attention to is the unemployment numbers. I think jobs data is very, very key. I think that and I think that's why we're getting so many of the headlines of companies needing to kind of ease their staff if you would. So I definitely think that's something to be on the lookout for. However, as Bond continue to kind of get a bit of reversion to the lower side of the market, you may see some risk on inequities. So I think that this buying momentum that we've seen as a late may be here to close out the year, Joel, thank you so much for that insightful conversation. That's Joel, hawthorne, head trader and ceo of the morning snapshot.