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Market Update
Printable Version Another decent week for the equity markets. All the major indexes were in the black for the last five days, and in a way this advance is bullet proof. It almost doesn’t matter the headline, equities move upwards. Take the tech sectors. It is up 13 consecutive days – the longest winning streak since 1989 (chart below). Impressive stuff, but at some point this buying stampede will exhaust itself and…
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Market Update
Printable Version Equity markets rallied on Friday to push the U.S. indexes into the black for the week. Both the S&P 500 and small-cap equity index added +0.1% while the international markets generally outperformed. Friday’s rally also pushed the Dow above 20K for the second week running. John Authers at the Financial Times pointed out that since the election Goldman Sachs has been the best performing stock (up close to 40%). Walmart is the…
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Market Update
Printable Version Round numbers are a funny thing. Dow 20,000 gets a lot of attention, but it’s just another number. Thresholds such as this do mark progress, to some extent. Just consider other round numbers for the Dow: Dow 1,000 – November 14, 1972 Dow 5,000 – November 21, 1995 Dow 10,000 – March 29, 1999 Dow 15,000 – May 7, 2013 We had that Dow 10,000 hanging around for a long…
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Market Update
Printable Version Not a bad start to the year with most major asset classes positive for the week. The S&P added +1.7% while the small-cap Russell 2000 advanced +0.7%. International stocks also performed well. The developed EAFE Index was up +2.3% while emerging equities gained +2.6%. Japan added +3.3% and China gained +3%. Bond yields corrected lower after the rapid move higher late last year. The yield on the 10-year dipped to 2.42%,…
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Market Update
Printable Version The equity markets took some time off this week from their post-election party to ponder the Federal Reserve once again. And while large-cap US equities were content to finish flat on the week, other sectors of the market weren’t too excited about what they heard. The Fed raised rates as expected and said they would like to hike rates three times next year, not twice. On this news the dollar shot higher…
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Market Update
Printable Version The last couple weeks will almost certainly go down in the history books for a number of reasons. The election appears to mark a sea change in a number of political and economic areas, and the market trends since November 8th partially reflect this. Just take a look at the post-election performance for a number of asset classes. Basically, interest rates shot higher right after the election and anything interest sensitive was…
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Market Update
Printable Version It was a rough week for the global equity markets as jitters about the election and upcoming Fed hikes settled in. The S&P closed down -1.9% for the week and has now suffered through the longest consecutive losing streak since the eight-session slide ending October 10, 2008. Back then, though, the slide was -23% before the market bounced +12% after global central banks cut interest rates to try and prop up the…
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Market Update
Printable Version It was a positive week for the equity markets with the S&P gaining +0.3% while developed equities added +0.7%. Japan added +2.0% while Germany and France were up +1.2% and +1.5% respectively. Emerging equities also did well with a +1.9% gain. Commodity prices were fractionally higher while bond yields ticked lower. The yield on the 10-year fell from 1.79% to 1.74% and intermediate-term bonds gained +0.4% for the week. The most notable…
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Market Update
Printable Version It was a mixed week for the global equity markets with the US indexes up roughly +0.5% while most overseas markets were down. The developed EAFE index dropped -1.8% with Japan, Germany, and France off between -2.6% to -3.5%. Emerging equities were down less (-0.5%), but China and Hong Kong were off -2.5% and -3.2% respectively. Commodities were also generally lower. Crude oil dipped -6.0% while gold was off -1.3% and gold stocks…
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Market Update
It was a generally down week for the equity markets with only small-cap US stocks making money. The S&P and EAFE lost -0.7% while emerging equities dipped -2.2%. Renewed dollar strength played a role this week given that the euro lost -1.2% and the yen -1.7%. Commodities, which are sensitive to dollar moves, closed lower. Oil lost over 3%, hurt also in part by a much larger than expected inventory number. Wheat prices (chart below) fell below $4 a bushel, the lowest price in 10-years. The prospect of a strong global harvest is weighing on prices....
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