Category Archive

The summer season is now officially underway. And despite robust gains already this year, capital markets are primed and ready for a hot stock summer.

It seems like a frivolous stock market novelty. Companies like GameStop and AMC Entertainment with their relatively small market caps and even more meager sales in the context of the overall marketplace suddenly found themselves returning to the financial news spotlight.

It has been a primary downside risk for financial markets for more than a year now. But after repeatedly coming in hotter than expected in many reports so far in 2024, the latest reading on inflation surprised the markets by coming in cooler than expected on Wednesday.

The U.S. stock market got off to a bumpy start in 2024 Q2. No sooner did the calendar flip to April and the S&P 500 descended into a pullback. Over the course of the first fifteen trading days of the new quarter, the S&P 500 retreated by nearly -6%. Knowing that stock market corrections within a broader uptrend last anywhere …

A passing glance at the U.S. market might make an investor think that it’s all about technology stocks all of the time.  But the S&P 500 Index is made up of eleven sectors, all with their unique and individual forces driving their returns.

The bond market sustained its latest broadside from the U.S. hot economic data warship on Thursday. Not only did the advance reading for 2024 Q1 U.S. GDP come in weaker than expected, but inflation readings also came in hotter than expected.

The long overdue correction has finally arrived. No sooner did the market peak at 5264 on the last trading day of March than the calendar flipped to the start of the second quarter and the market has been moving sustainably to the downside. Now that the correction is underway, how low can we reasonably expect the market to go? Why …

When thinking about portfolio diversification, investor minds often focus on how much in bonds to own against their stock allocations. But as we saw most recently in 2022, limiting our diversification thinking exclusively to these two asset classes can have its limits. The good news is that capital markets offer a variety of highly liquid asset classes that are widely …

Hard to believe the first quarter of 2024 is drawing to a close. As we pass the 3/4 pole in our 8 furlong race through the calendar year, it is worthwhile to assess the key market events that are now behind us and what lies ahead in the horse race to the year-end finish line. Starting gates. A key market …

Actual FY 2023 Preliminary FY 2024 Y-O-Y Change Receipts 1735 1856 121 Outlays 2458 2696 228 Deficit -723 -830 -108 Source: Congressional Budget Office The 2023 Annual Report of the Federal Reserve Bank was released in March and the results were unnerving.  The nation’s central bank lost $116 billion in 2023—that is, it paid out much more to its depositor …