Market Review
What a roller coaster quarter! The benchmark S&P 500 index closed the 1st quarter down 4.6%, following a 2.1% gain the prior three months and after initially rising almost 4.5% to yet another all-time high in mid-February. After that high, the index then pulled back by over 10% before staging a solid bounce…
Investing isn’t about certainties and absolutes. Outcomes are challenging to predict with any high degree of confidence, and the more likely an outcome is to occur, the more likely that result is fully reflected in market prices.
Take economic releases. Investors can look to any number of sources to get a consensus estimate of what forecasters…
Market Review
What a year…again! The benchmark S&P 500 index closed the 4th quarter up 2.1%, following on a 5.5% gain the prior three months and leaving the benchmark with a second-consecutive year of 20+% gains for only the sixth time since 1950. The index hit 57 new all-time closing highs in 2024, a mark only…
Market Review
The benchmark S&P 500 index closed the 3rd quarter up 5.5%, following on a 3.9% gain the prior three months and leaving the benchmark tantalizingly close to a second-consecutive year of 20+% gains. The index has hit over 40 new all-time closing highs this year after passing the previous record from January, 2022,…
When you sit with good company for two hours, you think it’s only a minute, but when you sit on a hot stove for a minute, think it’s two hours. Relativity matters!
Bear markets in stocks feel excruciatingly painful, and it seems like they last forever. The market doesn’t go down in a straight line,…
Being one’s own financial advisor has historically been unapproachable for those who don’t have a strong financial knowledge base. Many do not trust themselves to take risks with their livelihoods in the stock market or merely don’t have the time to do the needed research to make sound investment decisions.
Thus, some are drawn to…
Market Review
The benchmark S&P 500 index closed the 2nd quarter up 3.9%, following on the 10.1% gain through March and leaving the broader stock market on course for a welcome second-consecutive year of outsized gains. The index has hit over 30 new all-time closing highs this year after passing the previous record from January,…
Market Review
The benchmark S&P 500 index closed the 1st quarter up 10.1% continuing its march upward after last October’s market low. While the 26%+ gain since October is noteworthy, the index is only up around 9% from the high in January, 2022. Corporate earnings beat analyst estimates by over 7% during the 4th quarter,…
Market Review
The benchmark S&P 500 index closed the 4th quarter up 11.2% after surging relentlessly upward from lows in late October. For the year, the index will close up over 24%, marking a sharp contrast to performance in 2022, though both years exhibited an emphatic bullish turnaround at roughly the same point on the…
Market Review
The benchmark S&P 500 index closed the 3rd quarter down 3.6% after a late September swoon. Commentators often use that benchmark to demonstrate the performance of “the stock market”, but as the graphic below illustrates, investors shouldn’t lose sight of the fact they can choose among “a market of stocks”. The Federal Reserve…