January Recap and February Outlook As goes January, so goes the year. That old stock market canard has a double-edged meaning this year, as the stock market as measured by the S&P came in strongly…
Read More
January Market Commentary: Is Rate Relief In Sight?
December Recap and January Outlook The drama around the timing of the Federal Reserve’s first cuts to the key short-term interest rate continued in last few weeks of the old year and into the first…
Read More
December Market Commentary – Rates: Lower and Sooner?
November Recap and December Outlook After a year in which Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell managed to hold everyone’s attention – again – here we are waiting for the outcome of the last FOMC meeting…
Read More
November Market Commentary – Powell on Rate Cuts: Nope.
October Recap and November Outlook The Federal Reserve’s November meeting went as the market expected: no change in rates. What wasn’t expected was the October and early November rollercoaster of bond yields. And by rollercoaster,…
Read More
September Market Commentary – A Raft of Reassuring Data – or Not?
August Recap and September Outlook For most of the summer, increasingly positive data releases fed into the market’s upbeat view of the economy. This seemed to belie the consistent messaging from the Federal Reserve that…
Read More
August Market Commentary – The Sunny Side of the Street?
July Recap and August Outlook Data releases in July told a story of a stronger-than-expected economy, with headline CPI falling and the labor market remaining robust. The doom-and-gloom scenario of an all-but-inevitable recession seemed to…
Read More
July Market Commentary – The Fed Takes a Micro-Holiday
June Recap and July Outlook The Fed finally hit “pause” on interest rate increases in June after fifteen months and ten consecutive rate hikes. The “dot-plot” indicated that Fed officials think two further increases may…
Read More
June Market Commentary – A Hot Labor Market Complicates the Fed’s Timeline
May Recap and June Outlook The debt ceiling negotiations dominated headlines throughout the month. By month end, the deal was hammered out and on its way through Congress to end up on the president’s desk…
Read More
May Market Commentary – The End of a Fed Cycle?
April Recap and May Outlook The biggest news in the Fed’s statement after their meeting on May 3 was what it didn’t say. The Fed’s statement from March contained the language “the Committee anticipates that…
Read More