Market Updates

Well, it’s official:  the markets entered “correction” territory with both the S&P and Nasdaq officially declining -10% from their July highs in the month of October.  Technically the S&P 500 is still up 9% but the DJIA is now negative for the year; for those keeping track, the S&P Equal Weight Index is -4% YTD. …

The markets continued their decline for the month of September, logging their worst month since last December and the first back-to-back monthly declines in over a year.  Retail stocks, tech, utilities, REITS, and home improvement stocks (Lowes -10%) were all down significantly.  Even The Magnificent 7 that carried the first half of the year weren’t…

We hope you all had a great Labor Day.   Summer is winding down, and apparently, it’s been a fun one if the travel and entertainment numbers are any indication.  Flights, hotels, and cruises all reported booming numbers.  The fun didn’t stop there: Bloomberg reported that they forecast the Taylor Swift & Beyonce summer tours along…

  In our May commentary we mentioned the old saying “Sell in May and Go Away!” The adage points to what can sometimes be mediocre market performance in the summer months. Well, we hope you didn’t actually do that because the S&P has climbed another 10% since then! July logged another strong month that now…

The first half of 2023 is officially in the books.  So far, we’ve seen an explosion in all things AI, a regional banking crisis, and last month the Fed finally paused hiking interest rates.  After 10 consecutive rate hikes, it’s a welcome breather as inflation has come down notably.  We’d like to think it’s possible…

Last month we mentioned just how few stocks were creating all the gains in the markets this year.  That trend continued with the S&P 500 up nearly 9% through the end of May.  However, the equal-weighted S&P 500 index (each of the 500 carries the same weighting regardless of company size) is actually down -0.71%…

We’re only 5 months into 2023 but if I had to summarize this year, so far, it would be the year of disconnects. Let’s start with the economy. April economic data continued to show signs of slowing.  Consumer spending makes up 70% of GDP and has been abnormally high the past couple years but declined…

In our last Market Commentary, we mentioned that it’s typically not the known concerns that hit the markets, but it’s the unknowns that can have the greatest effect.  I think it’s fair to say March ended up being a perfect example of that. I doubt many analysts were worried about banks owning too many US…