Last week, equities fell for the first time in four weeks. Early last week, cyclicals continued to run from the week before. On Thursday however, risks of a second wave of COVID-19 cases sent the S&P 500 down over 6.8% as investors shed risky cyclical names for relative safety in Information Technology and Communication Services. Friday cyclicals made a slight comeback, but still ended the week negative as Energy, Financials and Industrials were the worst three sectors in the S&P 500. V… View More
We wanted to share some thoughts on the myriad of news reports floating around and on yesterday's stock market movement. Thursday's stock market movement has many asking, “What made the market drop so much?,” and perhaps more importantly, “Will this look like March all over again?” For the first question, the short answer is that investors appear to have focused on negative (and incomplete) news. For the second question, we believe the answer is NO, and we will provide a basis for that … View More
We are indeed living in strange times. After a weekend of peaceful protests and violent riots, stocks opened higher today on optimism for a quicker than expected economic recovery. The S&P 500 closed out last week higher by almost 5%, erasing the losses incurred since the beginning of March. The market recovery was also observed in small and mid-cap stocks where the S&P MidCap 400 and Russell 2000 were both up over 8% last week. Investors eagerly awaited last Friday's job report because … View More
These are indeed interesting times. Our country has been opening back up with great success over the last few weeks, and the economic numbers are starting to reflect a ray of hope for all Americans to get back to NORMAL life. Last week was a decent week for economic data. This statement might seem surprising, given that first quarter U.S. real GDP was revised lower to -5.0% quarter over quarter annualized and tracking estimates for 2Q have fallen to roughly -50% (the Atlanta Fed GDPnow 2Q estim… View More
The S&P 500 Index returned 3.27% last week, gaining back the previous week’s losses. The index is now down less than 7.8% year-to-date and is up over 32.5% since its closing low on March 23. Monday showed its best performance since early April, climbing 3.16% with strength seen in energy stocks as crude oil futures jumped 8.12%. Equity markets were boosted by reports of early positive results from Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine trial. Positive comments from both Federal Reserve Chairman Jer… View More