Category: Market Commentary

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September started out great and ended with a whimper. The market as measured by the S&P 500 reached an all-time high two weeks ago when the S&P closed at 2011. Subsequently we have corrected 4% on an intra-day basis. Most pundits have been calling for a correction for months and the majority are looking for [...]

As you may have heard, Bill Gross left PIMCO today for Janus Capital. Mr. Gross founded PIMCO; the firm was subsequently bought by Allianz. Apparently, Mr. Gross was forced out. He was the manager of PIMCO’s flagship Total Return Fund, which has underperformed its peers recently, but has a long and excellent track record. Currently, [...]

The first half of 2014 turned out to be positive almost everywhere you looked in the financial markets. After posting a stellar 2013, the bull market and asset inflation have continued. While back to back large double digit annual returns from stocks do not happen often, it is normal to see a positive return in [...]

“As a newsman, I want to salute whoever came up with the term ‘polar vortex,’. It is terrifying but still sounds all science-y. A lesser meteorologist could have overreached with ‘arctic coldnado’ – Stephen Colbert 1/06/14 Hyperbole aside, while the polar vortex of freezing temperatures may have frozen most of the US, it had only [...]

2013 turned out to be a banner year for equity investors. As the nearby chart illustrates, most domestic equity indexes were up by 30% or more, and international developed indexes by 20% or more, while developing market indexes mostly had slightly negative returns. Bonds had one of the worst years in decades, with virtually all [...]

Most likely you are asking the same question we are. What is going on in Washington? And how and when does it end? We clearly have an acrimonious situation in Congress that has caused a government shutdown.  Coupled with the looming debt ceiling deadline of October 17th, this state of affairs is creating mounting uncertainty [...]

September 2013 marks the five-year anniversary of the financial market collapse in 2008; we have certainly come a long way in those five years. With the S&P 500 and the Dow eclipsing all-time highs and interest rates having stayed low for the longest stretch in 50 years, most investors have already received quite a benefit [...]

“For the loser now will be later to win For the times they are a-changin’” – Bob Dylan With a modest improvement in unemployment, a nascent housing recovery and continued accommodative Federal Reserve, the US markets continued to generate positive returns, albeit with considerable volatility in the second half of the quarter.  In the prior [...]