George Hosfield, CFA, discusses Ferguson Wellman's quarterly strategy titled, "Inflation's Flame Flickers," which addresses the narrow market leadership, the impact of higher interest rates on inflation and how assets are priced at this stage of the economic cycle.
George Hosfield, CFA, discusses the firm's quarterly strategy titled "Stalemate," which highlights the Fed's ongoing battle to tame inflation along with our views on the health of the banking industry and capital market expectations for the balance of the year.
Director and Chief Investment Officer George Hosfield, CFA, discusses the Fed raising interest rates, peaking inflation and our view on equities and volatility across all asset classes in our Investment Strategy titled, “Balancing Act.”
The election is over and the capital markets have had a few weeks to digest the results. In this holiday-shortened week the equity markets coasted to new record highs on light volumes with the Dow Jones Industrial Average surpassing 19,000 and the S&P 500 eclipsing 2,200. Small Cap stocks continued their post-election rally, up nearly 13 percent since the election.
This week the markets continued to digest the election news in an attempt to understand how the changes in government will impact the economy and markets. Stocks were up a bit less than one percent this week and bond yields continued to
As the week draws to a close, we wanted to share some perspective on what was a surprising week for our political system. Against this backdrop, the capital markets once again demonstrated they do not like surprises or uncertainty. Following the announcement that Donald Trump had secured the necessary 270 electoral delegates, equity markets sold off
Equity markets fell a little more than 1 percent on the week as the presidential race grew closer with the news of renewed investigations into Hillary Clinton’s use of personal emails during her time as Secretary of State. Additionally, the Fed chose not to raise interest rates when they met on Wednesday, but signaled pretty clearly that they would be tightening in December.
Relatively modest losses in the S&P 500 this week masked enormous volatility in the pricing of underlying companies, thanks to a deluge of third quarter earnings reports that resulted in what felt like a feast or famine result for individual stocks. This last full week of October
Disappointing corporate earnings forecasts outweighed a Microsoft surge and increased deal activity to end the week basically flat for the S&P 500, Dow Jones, and NASDAQ. Worldwide stock markets also turned in lackluster performances for the week. The U.S. dollar climbed to a
A Nobel Prize for Bob Dylan couldn’t buoy the markets this week. Uncertainty in China and a rocky start to earnings season resulted in a down week for stocks. While equities rallied on Friday, the S&P 500 ended the week down close to 1 percent. Pre-announcements from Honeywell, Dover and Fastenal weren’t a positive way to start the week; however, [...]
Mixed economic data led to weaker stock markets around the world this week. U.S. equities were down around less than 1 percent, while international benchmarks were modestly negative as well. One would expect with negative equity markets that interest rates would have dropped as well, but
After another positive week, the S&P 500 finished the quarter up almost 4 percent and is up 8 percent for the year. The 10-year Treasury finished the week in the middle of its recent trading range at 1.59 percent. Mixed economic data kept the Fed on hold for another quarter and put a bid into equities.
Stocks finished the week up over one percent as the Fed held steady on rates but provided positive commentary on the U.S. economy. With the lack of Fed action, the 10-year Treasury yield fell 0.06 percent to close the week at 1.63 percent.
Despite volatility, the stock market appears to heading for a slight gain of around 0.5 percent for the week. Bond yields trended higher, with the benchmark 10-year trading at 1.66 percent versus last Friday’s level of 1.57 percent.
After an unusually long spell of low volatility, stocks and bonds sold off in tandem to end a week that was previously on the quiet side following the Labor Day holiday. Coming into Friday, stocks had essentially earned out the high single-digit returns we foresaw for 2016. Low levels of economic growth globally should renew profit growth in future quarters, but neither stocks nor bonds are cheap at this point.
With today’s jobs number showing a monthly gain of 151,000, it didn’t tip the scales much regarding a Federal Reserve rate hike this year. This number was below expectations of 180,000; however, it was still viewed as solid growth. Wage growth remained a steady 2.4 percent, slightly below last month. The August jobs report number regularly gets revised higher.
The markets were quiet this week investors awaited Janet Yellen’s commentary on the Fed’s annual Jackson Hole summit. As the week came to a close, the S&P 500 sold off slightly, finishing the week down 0.6 percent. Healthcare stocks fared far worse, selling off 2.2 percent following Hillary Clinton’s statements regarding the price increase of EpiPen®, a Mylan
Financial markets were volatile this week, influenced by mixed messages from the Federal Reserve. The Fed minutes released on Wednesday were dovish, suggesting little chance of a Fed rate hike, while San Francisco Fed President Williams
The stock market was up for the week with the S&P 500 returning .20 percent. During the week, the S&P 500 climbed to an all-time high on Thursday. Bonds were higher in price and lower in yield with the 10-year Treasury moving from a
With the opening ceremonies of the Rio Olympics set to begin tonight and on the heels of a strong number in the month of July in which the U.S. added 255K jobs, stocks ended the week with a bang. This was meaningfully ahead of
The circus of two political party conventions and some big economic news did not sway the markets this week. Domestic equity markets remained relatively flat even with the S&P 500 setting another intra-day high. International equity markets
U.S. stocks ended the week near record highs with the S&P 500 trading above 2,170 and the Dow above 18,545. A gain for the week would mark the fourth consecutive weekly advance.
Investor confidence rallied the S&P 500 this week with the index climbing to all-time highs mid-week and returning more than one percent by the week’s end. Bonds were lower in price and higher in yield with the 10-year Treasury moving from a 1.43 percent yield on Monday to a 1.59 percent yield at
