Market Recap   January continues to be soft with losses across most equity and fixed income asset classes. But for the first time in a while international stocks are outpacing domestic equities, and value continues to beat growth by a decent margin.   A few economic reports of note. Retail sales came in soft – down -1.9% in December month-over-month. This was much weaker than expected, but sales are up +16.9% year-over-year, as you…
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  Market Recap   The first trading week of the year got off to a rough start. For once COVID worries seemed to moderate somewhat and concerns about inflation and what it might mean for Fed policy moved front and center. The headline numbers for the equity indexes mask some real pain under the surface. For example, cloud computing stocks were hit with a -10.8% loss and Cathy Woods’ ARKK fund was down another -10.7%…
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  Market Recap   Broad losses for the global equity markets while bonds rallied. The rally in bond prices/fall in yields played out despite a rate hike in the U.K. and a relatively hawkish Fed meeting. Over the last few months falling yields have been positive for growth stocks, but this week we saw some significant selling in the high valuation names. Broader still. the big indexes like the Dow and S&P 500 are masking…
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  Market Recap   A pretty volatile week for equities but little fundamental news to drive the action. The debate about inflation rages on and the political uncertainty about both the Build Back Better plan and the next Fed chair persist. Rumors are we will hear about the Fed choice next week. For what it’s worth, the betting markets are in Powell’s favor, but not by much.     The only major economic report this…
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    Market Recap   All the main U.S. indexes broke to new highs this week, but the rally in the Russell 2000 was particularly impressive. Conversely, the performance of emerging equities continues to underwhelm. And despite a strong jobs report and confirmation that the Fed will start tapering their bond purchases this month, longer-term bond yields declined noticeably.   There were a couple important economic reports. The first was the monthly read on the…
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  Market Recap   The equity markets were generally robust this week despite building worries about supply chains, energy shortages, and inflation. But for all the talk, long-term bond yields are still below the highs seen back in March (2-year yields have moved more). Granted, this week’s push higher could be the start of a run back towards 1.8%, but we shall see.   One area that did set a post-COIVD record were unemployment claims….
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  Market Recap   Somewhat of a listless week for the markets with no clear theme other than a general fascination with what is happening with energy prices around the world.  The main economic report in the U.S. was Friday’s employment report, and it was basically a dud.  The economy added just 194,000 jobs in September, far below the 500,000 expected by economists.  As it turned out, only 2 out of 71 economists polled predicted…
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Market Recap   The third quarter closed on a down note with broad losses in both stocks and bonds in September. Nothing very dramatic, but notable nonetheless that both main asset classes were down in the same month. In general, only Japanese stocks and commodities were in the black during September.   There were a couple interesting economic reports in the last week. The inflation data came in hot again. Friday’s Core PCE report showed…
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