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?

The stock market has seen some volatility within the last couple of weeks but in reality, a little more market volatility would be a return to normalcy.

At this month’s Portfolio at Panera meeting we reviewed the performance of different asset classes in the 2nd quarter of 2017 (April – June) and whether we believed the trends in those asset classes might continue in the second half of the year.

This year, international stocks have clearly been the leaders in the global equity market, with emerging markets being the best performing area of the world. In particular, one interesting area complex has been the country of India.  India has developed a program called Aadhaar (think a bigger Social Security system in the technology age) which not only has the potential to stimulate economic growth in India, but may also provide a glimpse into the future of the global economy.  

School is out and we are almost halfway through 2017.  As we are reviewing May’s month-end performance, it’s a good time to look at the big picture themes driving markets as we enter into the summer months.