Brad Hoppmann

Brad Hoppmann writes the Sector Cycle Radar — a daily market brief that tracks all 11 S&P 500 sectors, calls the rotation as it happens, and pins every claim to the live tape. Two decades in financial publishing taught him that readers deserve receipts, not "trust me" — so every issue ships with its validation data attached. Filed from Taintsville, Florida (pop. < 1,000) with a sharp pencil and a long memory of expensive lessons. Free markets. Honest money. No apologies.

Jul 19, 2026

The Bond Market Already Voted. Now Wall Street Waits On A Single Chip Print Tuesday Night.

Markets have been closed since Thursday. Tuesday at 4:05 PM Eastern, Micron prints — and the year-long chip rally either extends or breaks.

Jul 15, 2026

The Sunday Night Open Did the Job the Cable Channels Could Not Do Through the Weekend — A Six-Point-Seven-Percent Gap-Down in West Texas Intermediate, an Eight-Basis-Point Gift to the Long End of the Treasury Curve, and a Federal Reserve Chairman Who Now Walks Into His First Dot-Plot With a Cleaner Set of Variables Than the One He Faced on Friday

A Monday morning note on the verified Sunday-night repricing of the energy complex under the Islamabad Agreement, the 14-basis-point overnight collapse in the 10-year breakeven inflation rate, the September-cut probability that bounced overnight on Polymarket, what the Empire State Manufacturing Survey at 8:30 AM and the NAHB Housing Market Index at 10:00 AM will tell the buy-side about June activity, and what the historical record says happens to an equity multiple when a wholesale-inflation surge unwinds in the same forty-eight hours a new Federal Reserve Chairman is putting the final touches on his Summary of Economic Projections.

Jul 5, 2026

The Chip Stocks Cracked This Week. The Banks Quietly Took The Lead.

Stocks just closed their best week in two months even as the AI-chip trade fell nearly 10% in two days. The money didn't leave the market — it walked into banks, hospitals, and the grocery aisle, while gold quietly set a fresh record at $4,196.

Jul 4, 2026

America Turns 250 And The Market Takes The Day Off. The Scoreboard It Left Behind Says Plenty.

Stocks just had their best week in two months, small companies had their best half-year in decades, and six of our eleven sector lights now show green, with the banks newly among them. Gold sits at a record $4,196 anyway, and that tug-of-war is the story of the second half.

Jul 2, 2026

The Chip Stocks Just Broke. But the Money Didn't Leave the Market. It Switched Sides, Straight Into the Losers.

The semiconductors that led all year got dumped Wednesday. Micron fell more than 10%, yet the market barely moved, because the cash rotated into the year's most hated stocks: Meta, the banks, beaten-down software. This morning's jobs report decides whether it's the market getting healthier or the old leaders rolling over.

Jul 1, 2026

Wall Street Just Closed Its Best Half Since 2020. But Fewer And Fewer Stocks Are Doing The Winning.

The Nasdaq finished up more than 20% despite a Middle-East war, an AI scare, and stubborn inflation. But Tuesday's record close came as four sectors quietly rolled over — and Thursday's jobs report opens a second half the market may be underestimating.

Jun 30, 2026

The Market Dodged A War, An AI Scare And Hot Inflation — And Just Closed Its Best Half In Years.

But Monday’s bounce was the big names without the rest of the market — a record sixth straight day of weak breadth, and the worst day of the year for the momentum funds. The second half opens on Thursday’s jobs report, and the tape hasn’t decided which way it’s going.

Jun 29, 2026

Big Tech Fell Every Day Last Week. The Money Did Not Leave — It Just Changed Seats.

The chip makers are getting rich selling the “shovels” of the AI boom — and charging Apple, Microsoft and Amazon for them. So investors sold the crowded tech names and bought safer ground: drug makers, power companies, grocers and landlords, while a hot inflation print and Thursday’s jobs report set the stakes.

Jun 24, 2026

A Trillion Dollars Left The Tech Market In One Day. The Stock That Decides Whether It Comes Back Doesn’t Report Until Tonight.

Tuesday’s selloff was the worst in months, but the money didn’t leave the market, it moved into safer, steadier stocks. Tonight Micron’s earnings tell traders whether the chip selloff was a one-day panic or the start of something bigger.

Jun 23, 2026

Wall Street Spent The Long Weekend Pricing An Iran Panic. The Market Showed Up Monday And Said No.

Monday closed quiet. Tonight a chip maker in Boise reports earnings that could decide whether the year’s biggest winners hold or hand back the spring rally.

Jun 22, 2026

Wall Street Spent The Long Weekend Re-Reading The New Fed Chairman. The Verdict Came Back: Rate HIKES, Not Cuts.

A week ago the market expected one rate cut this year. Today it expects two rate hikes. That is what an honest silence from Kevin Warsh sounded like.

Jun 19, 2026

The New Fed Chairman Just Refused to Guess. The Bond Market Hated It. The Chip Stocks Didn’t Care.

Markets are closed today for Juneteenth. What Kevin Warsh said Wednesday changed the Federal Reserve’s communications playbook for the first time since 1987. Now we wait through a long weekend to find out what it means.

Jun 18, 2026

The New Fed Chairman Stopped Guessing. The Bond Market Already Voted. The Chip Stocks Are Waiting on Micron.

Two open sessions and a long weekend now sit between Thursday’s tape and the print of the year. The Federal Reserve admitted it does not know where rates go — and the chip cohort kept buying anyway.

Jun 17, 2026

Kevin Warsh Walks Into His First FOMC Meeting With a Producer Price Index That Is Already Rolling Over Under His Feet, a Retail-Sales Miss That Tightens the K-Shape Story, a Homebuilder Bellwether That Just Cut Its Margin Guide, a European Central Bank Tightening Into a Federal Reserve the Prediction-Market Crowd Now Thinks Is Two Cuts From Easing — And a Single Dot-Plot Sitting Between Him and the Choice Between the 1937 Mistake and the 1979 Mistake

A Wednesday morning note on the verified Tuesday retail-sales miss to est. +0.1% headline / +0.2% control group , the Lennar post-print at -4.1% on the day with the gross-margin guide cut, the Tuesday bond-market bid that pulled the 10-year to est. ~4.42% , the ECB deposit rate landing at 2.25% effective today, why the General Mills BMO print this morning is the staples-pricing-power test of the year, what the historical record says about how a new Federal Reserve Chairman should weight the cleanest disinflation tail in three years, and what the buy-side is positioned for between the 8:30 AM housing data and the 2:00 PM regime decision.

Jun 16, 2026

Twenty-Four Hours Before the New Federal Reserve Chairman Publishes His First Dot-Plot — the Chip Cohort Confirmed the Cleanest Leadership Rotation of the Year, Crude Held the Sunday-Night Unwind Through the Cash Session, and the Bond Market Quietly Began Pricing a Disinflation Tail the Cable Channels Are Still Refusing to Take Seriously

A Tuesday morning note on the verified Monday close of the chip cohort at fresh highs into the FOMC week, the United States Oil Fund proxy giving back another 3.4% on Monday after the Sunday-night gap-down held, what May retail sales at 8:30 AM Eastern and Industrial Production at 9:15 AM Eastern will tell the buy-side about the durability of the disinflation tail, why the Lennar print before the bell is the cleanest single-stock read on the housing-turnover constraint that has held Home Depot and Lowe’s sideways all year, and what the 1937 analogue tells you about how Kevin Warsh should weight a Producer Price Index print whose drivers are unwinding under it in the same forty-eight hours.