The S&P 500 finished the year up a paltry 1.4% on a total return basis (including dividends), but was down 0.7% on a price-only basis (excluding dividends). For anyone who fell asleep at the beginning of the year and woke up on December 31st, it sure would have seemed (by looking at most market levels)… Read More

January 4, 2016 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down more than 400 points as we write. What happened with the change in the calendar? Did retail sales fall? No. Is the housing sector collapsing? No. Was there a decline in manufacturing? No. The only “news” overnight was a sizeable drop in Chinese stock… Read More

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