Kingda Ka at Six Flags in New Jersey is the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the United States. Imagine being on that coaster.
Fear Is Only as Deep as the Mind Allows
Cross Currents
A mixed set of economic data set against ongoing news of coronavirus infections sent stocks and bonds in opposite directions. As quarantines and lost production in China begin to impact supply chains and the likes of Apple, bonds continued their long tenured ascent, helping offset the week’s equity losses for those investors with a well-diversified portfolio.
The (U.S.) Consumer Keeps Coming Up Roses
The U.S. consumer continues to be the sweetheart of the global economy. Personal consumption represents approximately 70 percent of U.S. GDP and this morning’s University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index release suggests the consumer remains both confident and resilient.
(No) Beast of Burden
In stark contrast to the fear-based selling that enveloped markets a week ago, stocks bounced back with a vengeance in the first week of February.
Too Much to Overcome in the Near Term
As investors, we know that near-term sentiment can get ahead of fundamentals, and we felt that was the case early in the year. What would cause the market to pull back was not as easy to determine, but it appears earnings and the Coronavirus are the current catalysts for selling stocks. Now seems like an appropriate time to remind investors how we manage through turbulent times, and how we view market corrections versus bear markets.
Below the Tip of the Iceberg
Adoption of socially responsible, or more commonly referred to as Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing, has gone into a parabolic growth phase.
Does Size Matter?
This week, Alphabet Inc., parent company to Google, became the fourth company to join the “trillion-dollar market value club,” that includes Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon. Besides the significance of their “trillion dollar” size, why do we care so much about the market value of these companies?
Back to the Basics
With stocks, only two things matter: earnings and what investors are willing to pay for a dollar of earnings.
Ten Years After
As investors turn their calendars to 2020, we reflect on the previous decade in this holiday-shortened trading week.
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Last year at this time investors experienced the worst equity selloff on Christmas Eve in the history of trading.
Turbulent Times
On October 29, 2018, Indonesia’s Lion Air Flight 610 crashed 13 minutes after takeoff. Months later in March of this year, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 suffered a similar fate. Both flights were flown using Boeing’s much heralded new airplane, the 737-MAX or “MAX.”
Money Talks
Earlier this month, the U.S. Labor Department released its monthly jobs report, which continued to show the strength in the U.S. workforce.
The Fear Index Fades
Negative interest rates have been in the news this year and have been the source of questions from clients. Negative Interest rates are an extraordinarily unusual phenomenon where an investor pays for the “privilege” of loaning a country money.
Investors Should Be Thankful
As we close out another Thanksgiving week, investors have a lot to be thankful for this year. At this time last year, the Fed was still raising interest rates, global economies were slowing and the S&P 500 was on its way to a negative 13.5 percent return for the fourth quarter.
Mickey Mouse
In April, Disney held an investor event outlining the strategy for their direct-to-consumer streaming service, Disney+. The service not only includes classic Disney films, but also the full library of Star Wars, Marvel and National Geographic. Disney indicated that the service would be priced at $6.99 per month, and projected global subscribers in a range of 60-to-90 million by 2024.
Hope is Not Lost, It is Found
While many eyes were on the impeachment proceedings this past week, we saw encouraging retail sales data and the prospect of a completed trade deal with China push equity markets to another all-time high this week. Even as these new highs are met, many investors have a bad feeling about the market.
Glass Half Full
With some 90 percent of the S&P 500 having now reported third quarter earnings, investors have responded favorably to a plurality of companies delivering better than expected numbers.
Data Deluge
Equities continued to rise steadily for the fourth consecutive week, reaching fresh all-time highs, as market participants digested several meaningful economic and policy data points.
Show Me the Money
While the U.S. consumer remains resilient, CEO confidence has been deteriorating as economic uncertainty has been increasing.
The Ivy League … Grades Have Been Posted
The books are now closed on the 2019 fiscal year for the Ivy League endowments and for the fifth time in the last 16 years, the missed the mark.