Monthly Market Update

U.S. stocks continued to hit all-time highs during the first quarter, as optimism is high the economy will enter a faster phase of growth. Central to this theme is the new administration and Congress will enact legislation that will spur government spending (notably defense, homeland security and infrastructure), while reforming regulations, healthcare and taxes. Nothing […]

In 2002 New England came out of nowhere as underdogs to win their first Super Bowl title. In a season that included the September 11th terrorist attacks and a rapidly-deflating Dot-com bubble, America united around a team fittingly called the Patriots. Fast forward 15 years and those same Patriots are Super Bowl champions once again, […]

It finally happened! After flirting with the elusive 20,000 level for six weeks the Dow Jones Industrial Average finally crossed the mark at the end of January. Networks plastered the number all over their broadcasts and traders created hats, but what does it all really mean? Frankly, not a whole lot. It’s a nice round […]

Investors welcomed the New Year with the major US indexes at record levels, an unexpected event after a year of many unexpected events (e.g., Brexit, Chicago Cubs, Trump). The broader-based S&P 500 Index recorded its sixth best year of the millennium, amid optimism the malaise that has been the norm for most of this period […]

The election is finally over and like us you probably noticed a result not unlike the Brexit vote: the outcome probably surprised you, no matter which side you voted for, and after a large initial decline the stock market quickly rebounded. The S&P 500 had a 3.70% total return for the month, crossing 2,200 for […]

Like most Americans we are grateful the election will be over on November 8. That said, we continue to maintain that history is the best resource as to the stock market’s reaction to whoever wins the White House. We have reviewed the market’s performance in past election cycles and found the underlying trend of the […]

The third quarter could not match the excitement generated by the surprise vote by the UK to exit the European Union, but the looming presidential election in the US has now taken center stage as the most important geopolitical event on the horizon. Past reviews of how the financial markets react to the eventual winner […]

After a strong but unexpected rally following the Brexit vote in late June, stocks have spent the past month and a half treading water. A market technician will call this sideways pattern a “consolidation” of the surge to new record highs, while investors prefer to call the period boring. Boring beats volatile and the market […]

The strong (yet improbable) post-Brexit rally continued into mid-July, buoyed by a swift installation of a new government in London and improving economic indicators in the US, Europe and Japan. US stocks reached new all-time highs on July 20th, representing a rally of nearly 9% from the post-Brexit lows of June 27th. Stocks began to […]

The second quarter had shaped up to be quite an uneventful period until the June 23 vote by Britain to leave the European Union.  The surprise result created extreme volatility in global financial markets, as investors sold stocks, bought government bonds and dumped the Pound Sterling in favor of the Dollar and Yen.  UK Prime […]