I have my suspicions that the New Year is going to bring some interesting dynamics to the stock market. I’ve attempted to address the Current Environment that we are in by discussing where we’ve been historically, why I continue to maintain a large cash position in my clients’ portfolios, and where I think we’re headed [...]
Markets registered what appeared to be a relatively tame week; Friday saw a melt up in stocks. I would attribute most of the melt up in stocks to the bond market being closed for Veterans Day. The last time we had bond markets closed (October 10th), we saw a very similar occurrence of the market [...]
Meteoric Melt Up This past Thursday we saw a huge melt-up in the market on the news that Europe will try to solve their debt problems with more debt. To make matters worse, the headlines all declared that European banks were agreeing to a 50% haircut on their Greek bond holdings. A haircut is where [...]
Another vicious week of volatility… I am not sure if it is worse that the market is swimming in uncertainty or that it appears the market is waiting for a catalyst to send it up or down. When scanning the world it is hard to see where the good news will come from that will [...]
While many American families celebrated the official beginning of summer, those of us charged with maintaining their portfolios were hanging on the news each day as it was released. It was a rocky go, and while the month may have ended (finally), we still have much to watch as the events of June 2011 play [...]
The 1st Quarter in 2011 saw many of the markets continue their upward momentum from 2010. Below are the returns for some of the popular indices as of 3/31/11: Total Returns % 1Q Dow Jones Industrial Average +6.41% NASDAQ Composite +4.83% S&P 500 Index +5.42% Russell 2000 +7.64% U.S. Aggregate Bond Index -0.59% MSCI All [...]
Since the second round of quantitative easing (QE 2) was announced by the Fed, US bonds as a whole (whether corporate or government) have been under pressure. It appears that the market is finally tuning into a few facts. The facts being that inflation is already here, rates are going to have to rise, and bonds hold [...]
Total Returns % 1 Week YTD Dow Jones Industrial Average +0.84% +0.84% NASDAQ Composite +1.90% +1.90% S&P 500 Index +1.10% +1.10% Russell 2000 +0.53% +0.53% U.S. Aggregate Bond Index -0.23% -0.23% MSCI All Country World -0.36% -0.36% Source: Morningstar, Inc. Data through 1-7-11 I hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year. As you [...]
Total Returns % loans for prepaid debit cards 1 Week 1 Month 3 Month 1 Yr Avg 3 Yr Avg 5 Yr Avg YTD Dow Jones 0.32 0.79 9.83 12.66 -3.19 3.89 12.35 NASDAQ 1.78 2.28 17.62 20.39 -1.01 3.17 16.23 S&P 500 1.32 1.98 12.38 14.81 -4.32 1.83 13.39 Russell 2000 2.72 5.80 22.41 [...]
Market Commentary: Week Ending 01-13-12
While the markets were up for the week, we saw the return of Europe in the crosshairs of the rating agencies as many countries received downgrades after the markets closed Friday. Of equally high concern is the rapidly deteriorating situation with Iran. It appears that something bad is brewing there. Consider that a second aircraft [...]