It felt like we packed a month worth of economic happenings into just one week. The first presidential debate, Supreme Court nomination, employment data continues to get better and many of our countries political leaders, including the President, contract the Coronavirus. Despite President Trump testing positive for coronavirus, equities ended a volatility week higher as investors became more upbeat about a potential stimulus package. While the positive test for the President creates near term u… View More
COVID-19 cases in the United Kingdom, France, and Spain have been picking up, prompting London Mayor Sadiq Khan to have talks for new restrictions aimed to slow the spread of the virus. Treasury yields dropped over the course of the week on the increased COVID concerns in Europe and comments from the Federal Reserve. On Tuesday, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell testified before Congress and said another fiscal stimulus would be important to aid the economy. These calls for additional stimulus were ech… View More
Just when we thought we knew what would happen between now and election day, the passing of Justice Ginsberg has reshuffled the deck just 40+ days ahead of the election. President Trump is likely to nominate a replacement for Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat in the coming days with Amy Coney Barrett and Barbara Lagoa being the top contenders. Coney Barrett is a devout Catholic important in the Midwest. Lagoa would be the first Cuban American woman nominated to the Supreme Court. Senate Republicans … View More
The S&P 500 Index returned -2.49% last week. The index recorded gains for five consecutive months through August and is up 4.80% year-to-date. However, the first two weeks of September have trended down with the index currently down 4.50% for the month. Crude oil closed at $37.33 per barrel on Friday, declining 6.14% for the week. This is the second straight week of losses, marking the largest two-week decline since April. Energy stocks have been under pressure posting the worst sector perf… View More
September is a notoriously difficult month for the markets. It has been consistently difficult in many years, but we were hopeful this year would be different with the Coronavirus interrupting our normal lives and habits. Since the lockdowns in March, there has been a tremendous pick up in retail investors, who now make up 25% of invested assets. Traditionally, retail investors have exacerbated market trends. Retail investors, generally speaking, tend to buy and sell at the wrong times (buy high… View More