The third quarter started out well, with stocks rising and interest rates slightly declining. Even in the face of interest rate hikes by the European Central Bank (ECB), the Federal Reserve (Fed), and the Bank of England (BoE), the markets continued a steady march higher towards recovery. But by the middle of August, markets did an about face, reversing all those gains and more. Read More

By Ryan Bouchard with Cliff Aque Markets have been in a brutal tug-of-war since the end of 2021 due largely to the aftershocks of the COVID pandemic. When the pandemic first hit, the global economy came to a standstill. At the time, governments and central banks did a lot (too much, in hindsight) to try… Read More

The month of April proved to be a particularly stormy continuation of market volatility, bringing with it negative returns in both the stock and bond markets all around the world. In the United States, the S&P 500 declined over 8.7% and the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index was down almost 3.8%, while the tech-heavy NASDAQ 100 Index was down over 13.3%, its worst single month since October 2008. Read More

The year 2021 was one of persistent optimism. It began with the hope the pandemic would wane and the world would look more normal by the end of the year. Although we’ve continued to make good progress toward that goal, COVID remains stubbornly persistent and fiendishly adaptable. The US stock market was fairly resolute in… Read More

It’s impressive to see how far we’ve come since the pandemic began, but many storylines continue to unfold. From near complete global lockdowns to the discovery, large scale production, and now global distribution of the vaccine, slowly but surely, progress is making its way through the global economy. Early on, the rebound in the US… Read More