Weekly Update – March 21, 2016 After a historically rough start to the year, stocks finally rallied enough to put the S&P 500 and Dow in the green for the year. Extended weakness in the dollar—, which investors hope, could boost economic growth and corporate profits—contributed to the gains. For the week, the S&P 500 rose 1.35%, the Dow added 2.26%, and the NASDAQ grew 0.99%. The last two weeks have been important in terms [...]
Weekly Update – March 14, 2016 Stocks closed out their fourth week of gains as investors gained confidence from higher oil prices and aggressive moves by the European Central Bank. For the week, the S&P 500 rose 1.11%, the Dow grew 1.21%, and the NASDAQ added 0.67%. Last week marked the seventh anniversary of the market bottom on March 9, 2009. To put the recent volatility into perspective, let’s take a look at what has [...]
The market weakness we experienced this past week does not appear to be associated with any one event, but rather seems to be the result of a few factors. Uncertainty around the timing of Fed “lift-off” continues to give the markets concern; markets hate uncertainty, and this is a key area of confusion. The narrative around weaker growth in China, and emerging markets more broadly, has spilled over into commodity and currency markets, causing a [...]
Global markets were jostled around and settle into gains for the week. The driver this past week was the same as it has been in the past few weeks, and that is the ongoing hope/rumors that Europe is getting its arms around the most immediate problem child - Greece. Recall that not too many days ago it appeared that all the ills in Europe had been pushed down that road with the Greek politicians’ approval [...]
Global markets were flat to lower on the week. Going into Friday, the markets were sitting on minor gains. However, Friday erased any gains for the week, and then some. The reversal of good fortune in the markets mostly had to do with the ongoing drama in Greece, as well as weaker than expected consumer confidence numbers here in the US. On a technical basis, it is likely that many professional investors are starting to [...]