Blog Posts

Market Recap Investors were in holiday spirits this week with most markets posting decent gains.  The economic data was a mixed bag (like it always is!!), but Fed Chairman Powell didn’t say anything too offensive mid-week, thus, triggering a ...

  In terms of market volatility, this last week will go down in history.  It’s not often you see the S&P rally +6% in one day, the NASDAQ over +7%, and long-term bonds close to +5% (for the Vanguard Extended Duration ETF).  This...

Quite the mixed week with losses for U.S. equities offset by gains overseas.   Haven’t seen that in a while!!  There was also notable strength in energy and weakness in corporate bonds.   A lot of data to process this week, so let’s start with the...

The equity markets closed on a surprisingly robust note this week despite some high-profile earnings blowups.  Google and Amazon were hit, but Meta Platforms (the old Facebook) really stands out.   The stock was lost -25% on Thursday and is now d...

No real surprises on the economic or market front this week.  But politics was entertaining.  It’s not every year a newly installed leader of a country is ousted only weeks after taking power.  More on the mess in the U.K. shortly.   Let’s touc...

“Only when the tide goes out that you discover who’s been swimming naked.” This statement has been around so long it almost makes me cringe to use it. It’s attributed to Warren Buffett, but who really knows for sure? I don’t remember what I had ...

Not a lot good to say after a week like this.   Stocks, bonds, and commodities all closed in the red for the week.   About the only safe haven were U.S. dollars as currencies around the world slipped against the greenback.  For all th...

It was all about inflation this week. Tuesday’s CPI report was basically more of the same, but the reaction to it was…maybe pronounced is the word? Out of proportion? I’m not so sure about that. Violent? Almost certainly. It was all about ...

The markets spent the week trying to find a narrative to believe.   On the one hand, every Fed speech this week focused on the need for another 75bps hike in the funds rate in a couple weeks.  I won’t go through the list of speakers, bu...

All week it felt like we were in a holding pattern waiting for Fed Chairman Powell’s comments at the Jackson Hole meeting that kicked off today. A collective holding of breath so to speak. He didn’t say much new, as we cover below, but it was e...

All the markets cared about this week was inflation. How high is it? Is the growth rate slowing? What’s it mean for policy? I’ll try and keep this quick!!   This week we had the consumer price inflation (CPI) report, the producer price nu...

If you are confused about what to worry about, join the club. One day the market freaks out about the recession that we are meant to be either in or is coming up quickly. The next day growth is too strong and inflation is the fear du jour. ...