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Market Recap
Printable Version Weekly Recap A week of modest gains but the volatility certainly picked up in the hot sectors such as the FANGs and precious metals. And we finally saw interest rates tick higher as the Treasury market wrestled with a surge of new issuance. On the economic front, the data was generally decent. Weekly Unemployment Claims New applications for US unemployment benefits fell below 1m for the first time…
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Market Recap
Printable Version Weekly Recap Something of a mixed week in the markets with growth/tech doing well while small and value underperformed. The major economic news obviously was the first take on second quarter GDP. As expected – it stunk!! The size of the U.S. economy between March and June shrunk by -32.9% (blue line below) at an annualized rate. The change year-over-year was -9.5% (red line below). This is one…
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Market Recap
Printable Version Weekly Recap The equity markets continue to churn in a range between 3,000 and 3250 on the S&P 500. The rapid advance in April and May ground to a halt as infection rates started to trend up in June. On the economic front the general theme is a moderation in the V-like bounce off the March lows. For example, the latest manufacturing reports from around the country shows that this…
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Market Recap
Printable Version Weekly Recap I’m probably not alone thinking that 2020 is starting to feel like the longest year ever. We are only just approaching the half-way point. With two more trading days to go in the quarter, the markets seem to be closing on a soft note. Global equities dipped this week on renewed fears about 1) rising COVID infection rates in the U.S., and 2) the possibility of more trade battles…
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Asset Class Review for the Week Ending 6/19/20
Printable VersionEquities started the day in the green, but steadily lost ground throughout the trading session. Despite today’s slip up, most asset classes finished the week with a positive return. Below is a brief weekly recap of the major asset classes. Equities NASDAQ The NASDAQ led the pack this week thanks in part to stocks like Microsoft, Amazon, Apple and Facebook. Because these 4 stocks make up about…
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Market Recap
Printable Version Weekly Recap After three straight up weeks the markets corrected sharply on Thursday. An up-move in COVID-19 infections in some US states triggered worries about a second wave of the virus. Global equities moved broadly lower with only government bonds and precious metals acting as a safe harbors. It is telling that it doesn’t take much risk aversion to push bond yields towards the lows of this cycle. It wouldn’t take…
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Market Recap
Printable Version Weekly Recap This marked the third consecutive week of a +3% or greater advance for the S&P 500, leaving many scratching their heads about the disconnect between the markets and the economy. Furthermore, over the last few trading days we’ve seen the economic sensitive sectors such as small-cap and value stocks take the lead from growth stocks. Even airlines have taken off, so to speak, and interest rates have hooked higher…
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Asset Class Review – Does Volatility Make Things Seem Worse?
Printable VersionWith all the chaos going on the past few months, we thought it’d be worthwhile to take a step back and look at how all the major asset classes have performed over various time frames. Let’s asses the damage and see if maybe the volatility has made market returns seem worse than they really are. Year-to-Date The above chart shows the year-to-date performance of the major asset classes. There have been…
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Market Recap
Printable Version Employment and Housing Solid performance by the global equity markets this week despite lousy news (again) on the jobs front. The weekly unemployment claims number showed that 2.4 million people filed initial claims for the week ended May 16th, a decrease of 249,000 from the previous week (chart below). This report raised the nine-week total to nearly 39 million people. This comes close to 18% of the labor force….
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Market Recap
Printable Version We Are All Moving On-Line More confirmation that April was simply a brutal month for the economy came in today’s retail sales number. Sales nosedived a record -16.4% in April, a fair bit worse than expectations for a 12% decline. Sales fell almost 20% year-over-year (chart below). The only bright spot, as you would expect, were sales at online retailers which surged 8.4%, the second largest increase on record….
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