The equity markets tumbled last week on coronavirus fears; despite a late-Friday rally, all of the major indices fell more than 10% last week into correction territory. The worst performer, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, lost a record 3,500+ points (-12.36%), followed by the Russell 2000® Index (-12.04%), the S&P 500® Index (-11.49%) and the Nasdaq (-10.54%). The S&P 500® posted its worst weekly performance since the financial crisis. The decline from the Index’s record high on F… View More
We wanted to share with you some background on why we invest in balanced portfolios. During periods like February 19 through February 28, 2020, when the stock market comes under pressure, bonds tend to perform quite well. Over this period, the S&P 500 was down 12.4%, the Nasdaq was down 13.2%, and the Dow Jones was down 13.3%. The Barclays Aggregate Bond Index however was up 1.6% during this period. Because of this inversely correlated relationship between stocks and fixed income, fixed inco… View More
We want to share a short note on our thoughts. With the coronavirus now above the fold of every national newspaper, the complacency that’s dominated markets over recent months is finally being challenged. This is also evident in the sharp ETF outflows – over the last 3 days, some $16bn has been pulled from the SPY and nearly $3bn from the HYG (both records). As we wrote yesterday, a decent chunk of the market is sufficiently oversold, but it takes more time to chip away at sentiment. With s… View More
Monday, fear over the Coronavirus finally gripped investors, as both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 index fell over 3% - the largest daily declines in two years. These drops wiped out all the gains for the year. Frankly, it’s amazing to us that the market had been so resilient! Maybe it’s because recent history with stocks and viruses is that markets overreact leading to significant buying opportunities along the way. Over a 38-day trading period during the height of t… View More
Coronavirus-related economic fears continue to dominate markets, but we believe effects will be short term and limited. Once investors begin to look past near-term risks, we think areas of the global financial market that have benefited on a relative basis (growth styles, defensive areas and bond market proxies) could take a hit. On balance, we think the equity bull market should continue, but we are concerned that valuations look stretched in some areas. Investor attention remains dominated b… View More