Trade dominated market sentiment as investors reacted to the breakdown in U.S./China trade negotiations and the potential economic impact. Trading volumes suggest that many investors chose to sit on the sidelines amidst the uncertainty. Last Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 617 points (-2.38%) then reversed course leading all indices at the end of the week with a decline of 0.69%, followed by the S&P 500® (-0.76%), Nasdaq (-1.27%) and Russell 2000® (2.37%). President Trum… View More
On Sunday April 5th, President Trump tweeted that trade negotiations with China were moving too slowly; he announced a tariff increase (from 10% to 25%) on $200 billion of Chinese imports effective Friday April 10th and announced his intention to initiate a 25% tariff on an additional $320 billion of imports from China. China, while offering no details, indicated its intention to reciprocate. The sudden change in outlook for a trade agreement sent the markets tumbling last week: the Nasdaq … View More
The moves made by China last week should not be a surprise... Last Friday President Trump seemed to come out of nowhere with one of his famous Tweets saying he would impose the pending tariffs on China starting at 12:01am Friday May 10. This caused markets to react negatively as it seemed President Trump was going rogue. Markets opened down on Monday almost 400 points and then rebounded by the end of the day recovering most of its loss. Yesterday we were not so lucky and the market sold off… View More
The persistently low rate of inflation is feeding a debate on the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy. The latest inflation reading (specifically, the PCE Core rate) fell to an annual rate of only 1.6% despite overall strength in the economy. White House officials and some economists argue that the Fed should support continued economic expansion by lowering interest rates; indeed, in the lead up to the Fed’s meeting on Wednesday, many investors anticipated a rate cut. However, in announc… View More
Less than two months ago, conventional wisdom thought the US economy was in real trouble. The consensus expected real GDP would barely grow, if at all, in the first quarter of 2019. Many were in a tizzy about the "second derivative," of growth, obsessing that near zero growth in Q1 would mean three straight quarters of deceleration in real GDP, which if extrapolated meant a recession could be lurking. Oops! The US economy accelerated in the first quarter, with real GDP up at a 3.2% annual rate … View More