Monthly Market Update

July 2015 Economic Dashboard So, will the Federal Reserve raise short-term interest rates in September or wait until closer to the end of the year? Given the uneven economic data, collapse in commodity prices (often a sign of weaker economic growth ahead) and slowdown in China, will the Fed pull the trigger sooner or later? […]

Special Edition Economic Dashboard: Fourth of July Index This year marks the fifth installment of our Fourth of July Index. Total cost this year came down by $1.52 due to gasoline being $0.66 per gallon cheaper. However, excluding the tank of gas, the total cost of food and supplies was $8.38 higher, an 8.8% increase. […]

For the second time in two years, and the third time since the end of the Great Recession, first quarter inflation-adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) contracted. The Commerce Department reported in April that first quarter GDP grew at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 0.2%, but with its first revision in May, it now reports […]

“Sell in May and go away” is one of Wall Street’s oldest clichés. The basis of this statement is that the market tends to go in a sideways pattern or even decline before resuming its upward path sometime in October. In fact, August and September have the poorest record for performance of any month in […]

The first quarter was volatile compared to the placid markets we experienced from 2012-2014. The main cause of concern for investors is the increasing likelihood the Federal Reserve will end its financial crisis policy of zero short term interest rates. The Board of Governors of the Fed meets ten times each year. Recent meetings have […]

The stock market’s performance has started the New Year in much of the same manner as it did in 2014, with a large decline in January, followed by a sharp rally in February. Among the culprits for the year’s decline was the election of a new government in Greece that pledged to undo the harsh […]

Investors these past two Januarys may disagree with poet T.S. Eliot, who wrote that “April is the cruelest month…” Similar to the poor start in 2014, this past month saw the major indexes fall between 2% and nearly 4%. Defying the old Wall Street axiom that “as January goes, so goes the rest of the […]

At this time last year we presented data about the performance of the stock market in the year following a substantial surge in stock prices the previous year. 2013 was the 6th best year for stocks since 1952, with the S&P 500 gaining 29.6% that year. Our research showed that in the years following an […]

Previous Dashboards have mentioned the remarkable resurgence in crude oil production in the United States in the past five years. New drilling methods in tight shale formations ranging from Pennsylvania to North Dakota and south to Texas have released huge new reserves of crude for domestic consumption. Oil being a global market, the surge in […]

Right on queue the stock market swooned in early October, as it has done many times in the past, earning its reputation as the most frightful month of the year. All three major indexes (Dow 30, S&P 500 and NASDAQ) set a new high on September 19th and each dropped between 8% and 10% by […]

The third quarter ended with a bout of volatility in the stock market as investors began to digest both the prospect of the Fed raising interest rates in 2015 (the date is still being debated) and the rapid rise of the U.S. dollar compared to our major trading partners. A pick-up in economic growth has […]

The major economic issue of this recovery, which began in the spring of 2009, has been the extraordinarily weak labor markets. The recession was called “The Great Recession” for good reason, and the pace of new job creation has lagged previous recoveries for most of the past five years. But employment data of late is […]