We concluded our last quarterly summary by noting “there will be plenty of good that can be done in 2013”. Although this statement related primarily to the perceived benefits of comprehensive wealth management, the market’s continued strength surely provided some incremental support. By the end of March, most U.S. headline stock indices (S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrials, and the Russell 2000) had eclipsed the previous… Read More

To journey through the fourth quarter of 2012 without knowing the score, one might have reasonably thought that markets were losing ground. After all, the polarizing emotion of our national elections followed by Washington’s clumsy grappling with the “fiscal cliff” surely couldn’t have gone unnoticed. Well, that’s what we all get for thinking; or at least for choosing to fixate on the… Read More

More than forty months into a bull market run, it turns out that most investors still aren’t grasping the magnitude of the global market recovery. For example, when a recent industry survey asked 1,000 investors whether they thought the S&P 500 was up or down during each of the past three years, 66% thought it was down in 2009, 48% thought… Read More

The record-setting heat wave that recently took hold over large swaths of the United States has left millions of Americans feeling a little worn out and lethargic. During the second quarter of 2012, despite periodic episodes of both up and down volatility, global markets can be described in an overall similar fashion. Over the last few months, clouds of uncertainty trapped and… Read More

While our role as your trusted advisor calls for delivery of an “expert” opinion, we’ve used this venue in the past to highlight the fallacy of near-term market prognostication. Entering 2012, many prominent industry professionals and investors alike had settled on a “muddle through” scenario, in which a multitude of macro concerns were being weighed against a backdrop of fairly attractive valuations…. Read More

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” Opening line, Charles Dickens 1859 novel Tale of Two Cities. Investors can’t be blamed if they felt the same way about financial markets in 2011. Indeed, even seasoned industry professionals have grown frustrated with the recent experience, which includes a heavy dose of uncertainty and sparse gains. Thankfully, in reviewing the statements that follow, you’ll… Read More

The first known use of the word “gridlock” occurred in the early 1970’s, and is generally attributed to officials within the New York City Department of Transportation. In its original context, the noun refers to a traffic jam in which a grid of intersecting streets is so completely congested that no vehicular movement is possible. By extension, the term has since… Read More

Like many that have come before it, the second quarter of 2011 offered a full palette of potentially grave scenarios. Media headlines and expert commentators alike focused our attention on the “soft patch” being felt throughout the global economy (growth rates below 2% in most developed countries), the fact that domestic unemployment remains challenging (1-in-6 Americans lack the work they desire), inflation that’s… Read More

Global financial markets extended their rally during the first quarter despite significant unrest across parts of Northern Africa and the Middle East, a massive earthquake, tsunami and partial nuclear meltdown in Japan, renewed sovereign debt issues in Europe, and continued inflationary pressures in several key developing economies. Although these exogenous shocks did cause a temporary spike in the “fear gauge” commonly known as… Read More

Wrapping it up into a single sentence, 2010 could be described as the year in which global equity markets managed to tack on impressive gains despite an anemic economic recovery and a host of other macro concerns. Not only did the world survive, but we realized once again how well societies and companies can withstand misfortune and still churn forward…. Read More