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.”
One of the four takeaways from our 2019 Economic Outlook is “Increased Turbulence” which has been in full force this winter. In December, the S&P 500 lost 13.5 percent, including the “Christmas Eve Massacre,” making it the worst December since 1931. In a complete reversal, the market returned 8 percent in January, representing the best January return in 30 years.
Opportunity zones have become a trending topic in financial circles of late and we are taking a “walk, don’t run” approach when reviewing the space.
Versus Capital is a partner that we utilize for private real estate and real asset investing on behalf of clients.
The Internal Revenue Service recently announced the annual inflation adjustments for a number of tax provisions for 2019. These went into effect January 1, 2019 and are not intended to be used for 2018 tax returns. We fully recognize that most of our clients are currently preparing their 2018 taxes and we encourage you to revisit some of the major changes associated with the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that will impact 2018 tax planning.
This week, USA TODAY’s Adam Shell announced his retirement as money reporter following Wall Street. On Monday, he shared some parting words for his readers that are good reminders about taking a long-term approach to investing.
Stocks put in a bottom on Christmas Eve of 2018 and have since rallied close to 10 percent. While December of last year was the worst since 1931, we believe that the worst is behind us.
2019 is off to a turbulent start. The first couple trading days of the year were the worst in 18 years, only to be eclipsed by a huge rally today that left equity investors a bit richer for the week, albeit whipsawed in the process.
2018 is in the history books and, if anything, we were surprised at how little changed from the previous year. Unemployment was still at record low levels. Wages failed to increase significantly. Housing prices continued to skyrocket. And while some pundits were talking about the economy starting to slow down, economist John Mitchell assured us that the economy will continue to grow in 2019.
After six years of exceptionally low “turbulence,” volatility returned with a vengeance last year. We expect this bumpy flight path to persist as investors digest slowing economic expansion, materially lower earnings growth and broadening trade and political tensions.
As we look back on 2018, we can summarize the year as one where volatility emerged at the same time equity markets and the economy diverged enormously. In fact, 2018 is estimated to produce the strongest economic growth since the Global Financial Crisis at 3.0 percent.
While expectations were for the Fed to raise the federal funds rate by 0.25 percent, there was a small glimmer of hope that they may hold pat.
When the Federal Reserve meets next week, everyone will be waiting to hear what they have to say about future interest rate hikes.
With a week subdued by a day of mourning, traders hoped market volatility would follow suit: it did not. In less than three trading sessions the S&P 500 traded down five percent, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost more than 1,400 points and small cap stocks lost 6 percent.
This weekend, many world leaders will travel to Buenos Aires, Argentina, for a meeting of the Group of Twenty, also known as, “G20.” Although the G20 does not have the power to enforce policies, the outcomes of G20 summits have been highly influential to global policy.
As the U.S. expansion draws closer to becoming the longest on record, a number of economic and political risks have emerged or intensified in recent months, leading to global equity market weakness.
It was a busy week in Washington with a highly anticipated midterm election followed by the Federal Reserve meeting. The results of both came in as expected although it seems the markets were not synced to that result.
As we expected at the beginning of the year, S&P 500 valuations have contracted year-to-date. Typically during an economic expansion, we see stocks move higher with earnings. Investors are willing to pay more for those earnings with the assumption that growth will continue.
On Wednesday this week the S&P 500 plunged by 3 percent on cumulative fears of slowing economic and earnings growth as well as concerns of a slowdown in China and the Federal Reserve being too aggressive in increasing short-term interest rates.
