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.  

Last week two members of The Joseph Group’s investment team, Travis Upton and Aaron Filbeck, were in Denver, Colorado meeting with fund managers at the Westcore Funds.  Westcore manages mutual funds and institutional accounts in a wide range of strategies including small company growth stocks, dividend paying stocks, corporate bonds, and international small company stocks.  Travis and Aaron had the opportunity to discuss markets and strategy with all of the different fund management teams and gain valuable insights for The Joseph Group’s investment committee.

Can you name the local high school that has 100% of its seniors accepted to one or more colleges?  Upper Arlington?  Bexley?  Columbus Academy?  CSG?  Nope, it’s Cristo Rey Columbus the amazing downtown Catholic school that provides a college preparatory education to under-served central Ohio youth from all faiths who come from economically challenged families.  More than half of that school’s seniors will be the first in their families to attend college!  Talk about a game changer – this school is producing pioneers – young people whose futures will be radically transformed because of this life changing high school.

Looking at performance for different areas of the U.S. stock market, small cap stocks are the weakest performers so far in 2017.  While the Morningstar Large Company Blend average is up about 4.5% year-to-date (through April 19th), the Morningstar Small Blend average is essentially flat for the same period.