By Cliff Aque, CFA The fourth quarter of 2025 put a bow on a year that looked chaotic in headlines but coherent in markets. Growth held together, inflation cooled without collapsing demand, and financial markets did what they tend to do when uncertainty fades just enough: they climbed. By year-end, most major risk assets were… Read More

Following President Trump’s re-election in November 2024, markets initially rallied on expectations of deregulation and tax cuts. But those require Congressional action—and time. In the meantime, the administration has focused on areas it can affect unilaterally: reducing government inefficiency, ramping up deportations, and, most consequential for financial markets, imposing significant new tariffs. Read More

The S&P 500 Index, a key indicator of the overall stock market, reached 43 new all-time highs in 2024, with the latest at 5,672 at the end of Q3 and the previous on July 16th at 5,667. The market had been rising steadily until mid-July, when weak reports from major S&P 500 stocks, a surprise… Read More

By Cliff Aque, AIF®, CFA® During the Great Financial Crisis (GFC), the phrase “the new normal” gained popularity. However, it has also been used at other times of dilemma: in 1918 regarding the aftermath of World War I, in 2003 after the dot-com bubble, and in 2005 during the avian flu (according to Wikipedia). There… Read More

After three consecutive quarters of only mostly negative returns to report, the fourth quarter finally provided positive returns across most asset classes, but not without continued volatility. The downward volatility that marked the second half of the third quarter, continued into the fourth as the S&P 500 Index fell to its low for the year on October 13th. Read More