Sixty-four. Sixty-four trading days is all it took to wipe out what had been an +11.2% year-to-date gain on the S&P 500 and turn the year into nearly an -8% loss. If Friday had been the last day of the quarter, which it was not, Q4 2018 would rank as the sixth worst quarter in […]
We’re there… This week, amidst one of the worst one-day declines in the past decade, a portion of the treasury yield curve inverted. What is “inversion?” Inversion, also referred to as “going negative,” is the term used to describe a unique shape of a yield curve. Typically, the yield curve is upward sloping, and intuitively […]
“Are we having fun yet?” We were asked this by a client in late October as the S&P 500 was approaching correction territory. We thought it appropriate to take stock of the month since it was the first month since our inception where the US equity market was negative. We, like our clients, are glad […]
Oh, how quickly things change. We originally planned on releasing our Q3 update after the September payrolls release (10/5) because we believed this would give us insight into the Federal Reserve and whether or not they will raise rates (for a fourth time this year and a ninth time this cycle) in December. While we […]
One theme that has been constant over the past nine years (since the official end of the Great Recession) has been the hunt for the next recession. This expansion is officially the second longest in history at 108 months, overtaking the 1960s expansion by two months and bearing down on the longest expansion in history […]
The arguments for owning EM are well-documented – young populations, low debt to GDP ratios, high growth rates, supportive demographic trends (with a few notable exceptions) and plenty of room to increase productivity are just some of the most common qualities cited for owning EM. Despite all these tailwinds, both earnings and market levels are […]
Last Friday, despite finishing the day 6 bps lower, the 10-year hit 3.128% (Chart 1). This is the highest level we have seen since July of 2011. You might remember that in early August 2011, the rating agency Standard and Poor’s downgraded the sovereign debt of the United States for the first time. In the […]
On Friday (5/4), the Bureau of Labor Statics (BLS) released their monthly nonfarm payroll employment data. In April, the United States added 164,000 non‐farm jobs missing consensus estimates of 192,000 jobs. While that number was below the average for 2018 thus far (200K), revisions to prior months added a net 30K jobs. The other major […]
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday proposed overhauling its conflict-of-interest rules for brokers, a move likely ensuring that Wall Street won’t have to comply with much tougher regulations approved at the end of Barack Obama’s presidency. SEC Chairman Jay ClaytonPhotographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg At a public meeting in Washington, SEC commissioners led by Chairman […]
This is the first of a series of articles from life- and business strategist Tony Robbins on sharpening your investing and personal-finance skills. Doctors, lawyers, and certified public accountants in the United States are legally required to act in the best interests of the people they serve. Yet financial advisers get a free pass. There […]