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Financial Resources & News

Monthly Market Update (February 2024): 3 Things You Need to Know

Several all-time highs were achieved by the major equity indices in price during February. That included an all-time high for the Nikkei, surpassing its previous record from 1989, and the S&P 500 also broke through the 5,000 mark. Here are 3 things you need to know: The Magnificent 7 (+12.1%) powered the U.S. equity gains, posting their best performance in 9 months and now +14.1% YTD....

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Monthly Market Update (January 2024): 3 Things You Need to Know

The resilience of the U.S. economy will likely be a continuing theme in the months to come, as will be the Fed’s timing (the Fed elected to hold interest rates steady at the first Federal Open Market Committee meeting of the year on January 31st). Here are 3 things you need to know: The S&P 500 recorded new highs and was up +1.59% in January. The Magnificent 7 accounted for 45% of the...

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Monthly Market Update (November 2023): 3 Things You Need to Know

Markets closed November in a positive mood thanks to tentative signs of economic moderation in the U.S. and falling inflation across developed markets. Here are 3 things you need to know: The S&P (+9.1%) saw the best month since July 2022, and reversed three months of losses. It was the best month for the Bloomberg US Bond Aggregate Index (+4.53%) since May 1985. Real estate’s (U.S. REITs)...

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Monthly Market Update (October 2023): 3 Things You Need to Know

Heightened volatility, robust economic data, and concerns about the sustainability of government finances appear to be driving the recent movement in intermediate to long-term Treasury yields with the yield on the 10-year Treasury note topping 5% for the first time since 2007. For now, the stock market is taking its cues from the bond market. Here are 3 things you need to know: The Bloomberg...

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Monthly Market Update (September 2023): 3 Things You Need to Know

The boogie man (i.e., the Federal Reserve) showed up early rather than waiting for Halloween and major stock and bond market indices were down for the month keeping the historical pattern typically seen during September intact. Here are 3 things you need to know: The S&P 500 index closed the month down 4.87% - its worst month since December 2022 and the fourth year in a row that the index...

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Monthly Market Update (July 2023): 3 Things You Need to Know

Risk assets continued to rally, benefiting from increased confidence of a ‘soft landing’, decent corporate earnings, and bullish investor sentiment. Here are 3 things you need to know: The S&P 500 gained 19.5% through July for its best performance since 1997 and the Nasdaq surged 37.1% for its best showing since 1975. Both indexes have posted gains for five consecutive months. In July, the...

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Monthly Market Update (June 2023): 3 Things You Need to Know

Out of nowhere, equities entered a bull market on June 8th after exiting a 248-trading-day bear market (its longest since 1948). Here are 3 things you need to know: The Nasdaq Composite surged 32% through the end of June, its best first-half performance in 40 years, far outpacing the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which gained 4%, and the S&P 500, which rose 4.5%. Three-month U.S. Treasury...

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Monthly Market Update (April 2023): 3 Things You Need to Know

Wall Street closed out a winning April after more companies said their profits at the start of the year weren’t as bad as expected. Here are 3 things you need to know: US real GDP rose 1.1% annualized in the first quarter, 0.8% below consensus expectations. While below expectations on the surface, a deeper look reveals a degree of underlying resiliency. Much of the slowdown can be attributed to...

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Monthly Market Update (March 2023): 3 Things You Need to Know

Despite the banking-sector turmoil seen in March, the S&P 500 rose in March, helped by strong returns from growth stocks that were buoyed by falling bond yields. Here are 3 things you need to know: The Federal Reserve continued to hike interest rates by 25 bps in March bringing the Federal funds rate range to 4.75% to 5.00%. U.S. Fed Chair Jerome Powell admitted, the current bank stress will...

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Monthly Market Update (January): 3 Things You Need to Know

Overall, January continued the strong bounce back seen for most global assets since October even if the performance seen in the first half of the month wasn’t quite matched in the second half. It was still the best January in several years for many assets. Here are 3 things you need to know: Q4 2022 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) came in above expectations at 2.9%. The increase primarily...

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Monthly Market Update (October): 3 Things You Need to Know

Although this year has felt spooky, the U.S. stock market rallied in October after enduring several straight months of losses, leading to optimism that the end of the bear market may be in sight. Here are 3 things you need to know: The S&P 500 ended the month up 8%. Ten of the 11 sectors of the S&P 500 rose during the month, with energy stocks leading the way higher.Gilts (a UK...

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Great Expectations – Q3 2022 GDP

By:  Thomas Steffanci, PhD, Senior Portfolio Manager The Q3 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of 2.6% was in line with the consensus. But it was anything but normal. The increase was entirely driven by a large increase in the trade balance. Net exports surged 2.8% due to a 1.6% increase in exports of energy commodities and military hardware, and a 1.2% decrease in imports. Inventory...

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Monthly Market Update (September): 3 Things You Need to Know

We wrapped up September and boy was it one to remember but for all the wrong reasons. With fears of central bank over-tightening, the S&P 500 index dipped to a new 2022 low. The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield surpassed 3.8%, marking the quickest re-rating in daily yields since 2009. A 60/40 balanced portfolio of U.S. stocks and U.S. bonds is now down -20.2% year-to-date through September 30th,...

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Monthly Market Update (August): 3 Things You Need to Know

The S&P 500 index experienced its worst August in seven years as traders weighed the prospect of more aggressive action from the Federal Reserve (the Fed) on interest rates to rein in inflation — even if that means some pain for households and businesses.  Here are 3 things you need to know: The unemployment rate in August backed up to 3.7% (from 3.5%) driven by a huge increase in the...

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Monthly Market Update (June): 3 Things You Need to Know

The first half of the year was difficult for investors as the Federal Reserve (the “Fed”) began an aggressive tightening cycle to fight inflation sitting at 40-year highs and risk-off sentiment pervaded. Here are 3 things you need to know: The S&P 500 index dropped 20.6%, marking its worst first half of a year since 1970.Bonds, as measured by the U.S. Aggregate Index, had their worst first...

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