Third Quarter 2024: The Eagle Just Might Be Landing The third quarter’s mixed economic news and the Fed’s first rate cut in four years brought, paradoxically, both the return of market volatility and new stock market highs. Despite two modest drawdowns in the quarter, the S&P 500 is up 22% this year, the best first … Continue reading Third Quarter 2024 Market Snapshot →

Second Quarter 2024: Artificial Intelligence or Artificial Highs? The second quarter of 2024 capped a strong first half of the year, with the artificial intelligence (“AI”) frenzy propelling stocks to gains despite a backdrop of tempered expectations for Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts. The S&P 500 climbed over 4% in the quarter and 15% in the … Continue reading Second Quarter 2024 Market Snapshot →

First Quarter 2024: Fresh Highs Just in Time for Spring The first quarter of 2024 saw new highs in global stock markets, despite the backdrop of higher-for-longer interest rates. Initially fueled by expectations of aggressive rate cuts this year, investors saw robust gains in the US stock market, as economic data continued to surprise on … Continue reading First Quarter 2024 Market Snapshot →

Fourth Quarter 2023: What Landing? Pessimistic forecasts and a dour economic outlook set the stage for an unexpected stock bull market boom in 2023. Just over a year ago, Chairman Jerome Powell cautioned that “it is likely that restoring price stability will require holding policy at a restrictive level for some time. History cautions strongly … Continue reading Fourth Quarter 2023 Market Snapshot →

Download (PDF, 358KB) Third Quarter 2023: Markets on Summer Sabbatical Surging yields on longer-term government bonds interrupted the steady market rally that had so far characterized 2023. The Russell 1000, which had been up nearly 20% for the year just two months prior in July, saw its momentum slow, settling for a 13% increase. The … Continue reading Third Quarter 2023 Market Snapshot →

Download (PDF, 715KB) Second Quarter 2023: Don’t Stop Me Now Stocks continued to advance, shaking off the bear market of 2022, as several potential market disruptions failed to materialize. Unexpected global banking sector issues, including the second largest bank failure in U.S. history, were quickly dealt with by U.S. and European regulators, stemming off a … Continue reading Second Quarter 2023 Market Snapshot →

Download (PDF, 481KB) First Quarter 2023: Resilient Economy, Weak Banks, Swift Intervention Softening inflation, a budding banking crisis, and a strong overall economic picture caused investors to re-evaluate their expectations for future interest rates in the first quarter. As a result, many of 2022’s trends – of lower asset prices in general, investor preferences for … Continue reading First Quarter 2023 Market Snapshot →

Download (PDF, 869KB) Fourth Quarter 2022: What’s Next? A tepid fourth-quarter rally in both stocks and bonds helped cut losses to close out a frustrating year for investors. For the full year, both global stock and investment-grade bond market indices suffered double-digit losses, as stock/bond diversification failed to meaningfully protect portfolios. A traditionally diversified portfolio … Continue reading Fourth Quarter 2022 Market Snapshot →