To Inform:   Last week the interest rate on the 10-year Treasury bond hit 3% for the first time in over four years, prompting major headlines in the Wall Street Journal and much discussion at last week’s Portfolios at Panera.  However, in The Joseph Group’s Investment Strategy Team meetings, it’s not the rate on the 10-year […]

To Inform:   At The Joseph Group, we are not big market technicians who look for patterns in market charts, but we do want to be cognizant of investor behavior.  Despite talk of trade wars, social media privacy, and Russia, on down days for stocks, the S&P 500 is bouncing around the same levels it hit […]

To Inform:   As we are typing this note, the S&P 500 is slightly positive year-to-date 2018, but it’s time to look under the hood.  To use a car analogy, the engine may be keeping things moving forward overall, but some components are working harder than others. Out of the 500 stocks that make up the […]

To Inform:   After a week of market corrections and the most volatility in two years, it’s time for a little good news for the stock market.  The good news is corporate earnings look terrific. We are currently in the midst of earnings season where companies announce their earnings for the previous quarter and management provides […]

To Inform:   Earlier this week we sent out a note regarding the Dow’s “biggest point loss in history” (although it does not crack the top 100 declines in percentage terms) and how computerized trading strategies related to volatility seemed to be driving extremes in market movements.  After another significant decline on Thursday, most U.S. stock […]

To Inform:   1. What’s Happening?! After one of the strongest starts to a year ever in 2018, the stock market has quickly corrected over the last few days, reversing January’s gains.  The market correction, including the largest point loss for the Dow ever on Monday, has been fast and furious but in a big picture […]

To Inform:  The U.S. stock market has had an amazing run recently, but it appears volatility is coming back into the markets.  It may feel strange to see negative numbers on the market indexes, but we would say the volatility is not what is strange – it’s the fact the lack of volatility has lasted so […]

To Inform:  In 2017, foreign stocks broadly outperformed U.S. stocks.  Is foreign stock leadership a one-year fluke or can it continue?   Part of the outperformance in 2017 came from a weaker dollar, but based on earnings and valuation, we believe both emerging market stocks (think India, Brazil, and China) and developed market foreign stocks (think Japan […]

To inform:  Last week we held our final Portfolios at Panera discussion for 2017 and the main topic on everyone’s mind was the new tax reform bill recently passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump.  What are the potential market implications of the new tax laws heading into 2018?  Here are some […]

While history does not repeat itself, it often rhymes. Does market history provide any lessons about how investors should handle North Korea?