When the stock market gets volatile, it’s sometimes hard to decipher what is real. But let’s be totally honest – US economic data (especially the domestic side of it – consumer spending, housing, auto sales, employment, and inflation) is doing well. However, our markets are being dragged down by foreign market developments. In times like… Read More

Although maybe not in the way that Sophocles would have scripted it, Greece is again the center of the world’s attention. With most global stock markets performing well only five days short of the end of the quarter, a standoff between the Greek government and its’ creditors sent markets stumbling into the close. Later, on… Read More

Despite plenty of fears that would send any varmint headed for the safe confines of its hole, stocks had a pretty good showing in the first quarter of 2015, although there was a high degree of dispersion (among different sized companies, factors, and sectors). The S&P 500 finished the quarter modestly higher, with a +1.0%… Read More

In a year that saw such things as Russian imperialism, the rise of a new terrorist group, fears of an Ebola epidemic, a 46.4% drop in the price of oil, the official end of the Fed’s QE program, and slower economic growth everywhere outside the US, the S&P 500 managed to post another respectable annual… Read More

It was a wild ride in the markets during the third quarter. The S&P 500 finished the quarter relatively flat, with a +1.1% total return, which was pretty respectable given the volatility caused by Fed fears and international headwinds. However, domestic mid-caps and small caps did not fare as well, at -1.7% and -7.4%, respectively…. Read More

Equity markets started off slowly in the second quarter (S&P 500 was flat for the quarter until May 20th), but ended up accelerating their overall advance from the first quarter, finishing the quarter +4.7% (+5.2% including dividends). Large and mid-sized companies continued to outperform smaller ones, while value outperformed growth. Following a brutal winter, which… Read More

At a summary glance, the first quarter of 2014 looks a bit boring. The S&P 500 finished the quarter up 1.3% (+1.8% total return, including dividends) with the bond market (represented by the Barclays Aggregate Bond Index) posting a total return of 1.8%. During those 90 days, plenty of surprises awaited investors. March 9, 2009   … Read More

Some years are boring. Everything works more or less like you expect. The year 2013 was not one of those. As you review the enclosed results, it will become quickly obvious that the equity markets in the United States and other developed nations around the world posted one of the best top-tobottom results of the last 20 years. Both the S&P 500 and… Read More

I think we’ve seen this play before. It is at the same time partially fictitious and partly self-fulfilling. If we didn’t know the 3rd Quarter results, we’d likely feel that the political drama was crushing the economy and markets. It hasn’t and this is not inconsistent with the prior 17 times the government “shut down” or experienced “funding gaps” since 1976. The… Read More

With Fourth of July celebrations fresh in our memory, we’ve chosen to utilize one of our nation’s most popular patriotic hymns as the title and theme for our latest quarterly commentary. Originally published as a poem by Katharine Lee Bates in 1895, these descriptive words of a traveling English professor eventually evolved into lyrics. The accompanying tune, composed by church organist and choirmaster… Read More