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The New Year is shaping up quite nicely. The market is up roughly 18% from the December lows, although not back to the all-time highs from early October. As I said in several emails, I think the market reaction to events late last year was overblown. Likewise, I think the January/February recovery is not telling [...]
Despite the historical bias for December being the best-performing month for the S&P 500 going back to 1950, the market volatility certainly hasn’t let up in December 2018. As a matter of fact, the NYSE Bullish Percent, which is our guide to risk levels in the U.S, equity markets, reversed back into a column of [...]
Historically, December is the best-performing month for the S&P 500. However this year, it looks like December is playing the role of the Grinch and leaving us all with a big lump of coal in our stockings! In addition, this year (2018) is shaping up to be a down year for the markets and not [...]
The past two months of this year's market action have been frustrating. However, most of the signs we are watching are positive for US equities in the short, intermediate, and long terms. Domestic equities are still strongly holding their place as the number one spot in the world to be invested. This is important to [...]
A persistent comment/question I hear from clients and others relates to the market’s recent volatility….up 300…down 200…up 175…and so forth. You may remember that following the 2016 election and for much of 2017 there was very little volatility. During that time, I tried to remind people that volatility was not dead…that it would come back. [...]
October 2018, historically a scary month for investors, did not disappoint in terms of bringing on an increased level of volatility to the market, which often delivers many new opportunities to invest at lower prices. February and October are usually the worst-performing months of the year. Typically, in the month of February, after a good [...]
The market’s recent volatility has many wondering whether the moves higher we enjoyed over the past couple of years can be maintained. Common questions include: “What happens when the benefits of the tax cuts go away?” “What happens if earnings growth slows?” As I did in my last email, I’d like to share a short article from [...]
Last week was another one of those weeks when downward moves in the market brought back those lingering thoughts of Is this the start of 2008 all over again? I think the answer is no. One of the market analysts that I follow particularly closely (because he is right so much of the time) is Richard Bernstein [...]
As you may have noticed over the last week, interest rates are moving higher. It began with the Federal Reserve raising the level for its target benchmark to 2.00%-2.25%. This is the third rate hike by the Fed this year. They also signaled rates may rise again in December. Then over the last few days, [...]
I thought you might like to see some interesting longer-term perspectives from Dorsey Wright and Associates (DWA) on interest rates and their connection to the equity markets in which we are fully participating. Earlier this week, the Federal Reserve raised the level for its target benchmark to 2.00%-2.25%. This is the third rate hike by [...]
