Market Updates

The Federal Open Market Committee unanimously voted today to keep the Fed Funds target range unchanged at 1.5-1.75%.  This inaction was widely expected by market participants and, according to the FOMC Statement, little has changed in the Committee’s economic view. The link here shows the... Read More →

2019 Review: Strong returns for stocks continued in the 4th quarter of 2019, capping off one of the best years in recent memory. The S&P 500 gained +31.49% on a total return basis for the year.  Following a brutal 4th quarter (especially the month... Read More →

The stock market has begun this week in similar fashion to how it ended the last: poorly. Last week saw declines of 2.6% for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and almost 4% for the Nasdaq. Today, both of those indices fell by around 3%... Read More →

2nd Quarter Review: The recovery from the messy 4th quarter of last year ultimately grinded on during the 2nd quarter of this year for US stocks.  For the quarter, the S&P 500 finished up +4.30% taking the year to date total return to up... Read More →

Review: Stocks have snapped back swiftly following the brutal close of 2018 as the losses from the worst quarter and month for US Large Cap stocks since the Financial Crisis have almost been entirely recouped.  At the end of the 1st quarter 2019, the... Read More →

Review: After one of the worst Decembers in history, investors should be happy to flip the calendar to 2019.  The year of 2018 will go down as the toughest market environment since the Financial Crisis of 2008-09.  After a strong 3rd Quarter where we... Read More →

The main event of a busy market week occurred today as the Federal Reserve Bank hiked interest rates by ¼ of 1%. This was the fourth lift in 2018, taking the Fed Funds rate to a range of 2.25% to 2.5%. As we laid... Read More →

The financial markets picked up today where they left off on Friday.  More appropriately stated, they picked down. Given its propensity for positive performance, December is known as a seasonally strong month for markets.  Such has not been the case thus far this year.... Read More →