April 2016 Financial Markets Summary “I can’t get no satisfaction. ‘Cause I try and I try and I try and I try. I can’t get no satisfaction. When I’m drivin’ in my car, and that man comes on the radio, he’s tellin’ me more and more about some useless information, supposed to fire my imagination. …
Economic and Investment News Bits Are we out of the woods, yet? After a tough January and half of February, stock markets have rebounded in the last month, with the Dow and S&P 500 both gaining more than 8%, while smaller stocks gained more than 10%. Developed international stocks jumped 11%, and emerging market stocks…
March Madness or Market Madness? Think you can pick the perfect bracket or the perfect investment strategy this year? There doesn’t seem to be a clear front-runner for the tournament nor the markets. The 2015-2016 NCAA season was rather strange where Top 10 teams suffered 74 losses, the most since the Associated Press launched their…
March 2016 Financial Markets Summary “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was…
Economic and Investment News Bits “I’m not convinced the current pessimism is warranted. Unemployment numbers have been good, there’s a new report of strong job openings, and better yet, there’s reasonable wage growth, enough that American employees are quitting their jobs to take higher-paying positions. That’s all good news. But you’ll be hard-pressed to notice…
February 2016 Financial Markets Summary It’s the Fed’s fault. Or the European Central Bank’s. Or the Bank of Japan’s. Perhaps ISIS. More likely China. Maybe Putin and Russia. Probably the folks in Washington. Could be fears of recession. Conspiracy theories are everywhere in this era of 24/7 news channels. We don’t like uncertainty. We want…
This quarterly call provided an update on asset class returns so far for the year and the past few years. We focused our time on the current market environment, the reasons for this correction and the potential outcomes. We also discussed the implications of the rising interest rate environment. Please click the link below to…
Economic and Investment News Bits “With consumer spending accounting for roughly 70% of economic growth, it’s always about the consumer. The data are promising. Continuing job growth, accelerating wages and low inflation have real income expectations rising for the first time in 20 years,” (Source: Linda Duessel). “We believe China will remain on course, with…
January 2016 Financial Markets Summary As we noted last month, a casual observer would think not much happened with the stock and bond markets in 2015. With the exception of emerging market stocks and commodities, most ended the year not too far from where they started. The devil, as they say, is in the details. …
Economic and Investment News Bits Today the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time in almost a decade by 0.25%, while signaling that the pace of subsequent increases will be gradual and in line with previous projections, which are four 0.25% increases in 2016. Initial market reaction was positive, but it would not…
December 2015 Financial Markets Summary We were discussing the year’s markets with a colleague recently. A common observation was that if an investor only looked at the markets in January and again at the end of November (see the year to-date numbers below), the conclusion would be that things were pretty boring and that not…
Economic and Investment News Bits What a difference a month makes! It has been a tough year for both the stock and bond markets. Many factors have played a part in the higher volatility and flat-to-lower values. Through the end of September, domestic and international stock indexes were down at least 5-7%. Then, in a…
November 2015 Financial Markets Summary Today’s headlines and tomorrow’s reality are seldom the same. We have included this thought in our monthly commentary for a long time. The fact is that it’s true, and we certainly have seen this come to pass in the last two months. It was just a few weeks ago that…
Economic and Investment News Bits “U.S. regulations have made the entire U.S. population guilty of crimes they have never heard of, often for the most innocent and innocuous activities. The federal and state governments continue to push upwards of 1,000 pages per day of new rules, regulations, and other proposals. These include operating lemonade stands…
This quarterly call provided an update on asset class returns so far for the year and the past few years. We focused our time on the current market environment, the reasons for this correction and the potential outcomes. Please click the link below to see the slides and hear our thoughts. 3rd Quarter 2015 Investment…
