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Category: Market Updates

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March 10, 2025
Navigating Strategic and Tactical Investment Horizons: The Differences

March 10, 2025: Heightened volatility and uncertainty in both financial markets and the broader economy present challenges and opportunities for investors. Understanding the fundamental differences between the strategic and tactical investment horizons through which an inves...

March 3, 2025
Earnings Season Recap: Strong Growth, Big Upside, Now What?

March 3, 2025: Fourth quarter earnings season is nearly complete, and it has been a good one. S&P 500 companies grew profits more than 18% year over year, according to FactSet data, with mega cap technology and financial companies doing most of the heavy lifting (about seven...

February 24, 2025
Refinancing ZIRP

February 24, 2025: The U.S. Treasury market is entering a significant transition period in 2025, facing both structural adjustments and all-too-familiar policy discussions. As the Federal Reserve's (Fed) shift from a zero interest-rate policy (ZIRP) coincides with a substant...

February 18, 2025
Tariffs Ignite a Metals Melt-Up

February 18, 2025: Stocks continued to climb the wall of worry last week and shrugged off tariff headlines, inflation volatility, and signs of a slowdown in retail spending. President Trump reinstated a full 25% tariff on all steel imports — effectively closing any loophol...

February 10, 2025
Key Pillars of the Bull and Bear Cases in 2025

February 10, 2025: Use of the terms “bull” and “bear” in financial markets can be traced back to London’s financial district in the late 19th century, used as an analogy for how each animal attacks; the bull thrusts its horns upwards, and a bear swipes its paws dow...

February 4, 2025
Tariff Turbulence

February 4, 2025: Over the weekend, President Trump unveiled a new set of tariffs targeting goods imported from Canada, Mexico, and China. The new policy included a 25% tariff on goods coming from Canada and Mexico, with the exception of Canadian fuel imports, which faced a ...

February 3, 2025
U.S. Exceptionalism: Is It Still Intact?

February 3, 2025: With China’s DeepSeek pressuring investors to take a closer look at the current environment of artificial intelligence (AI) development within the U.S., some are taking a moment to question the accuracy of a much larger idea — American Exceptionalism. E...

January 27, 2025
Is the Bond Market Worried About Inflation?

January 27, 2025: The Federal Reserve (Fed) cut interest rates last September and, to date, the central bank has lowered rates by 1%. But over the same period, long-term Treasury yields are higher by 1% (per the 10-year Treasury yield). Does that mean bond investors are worr...

January 21, 2025
Q4 Earnings Preview: Mix of Solid Growth and Policy Uncertainty

January 21, 2025: Earnings season is underway and, thanks to the banks, it’s off to a good start. Currently, consensus estimates are calling for a strong 12% year-over-year increase in S&P 500 earnings per share (EPS) for the fourth quarter of 2024. Steady economic growth ...

January 13, 2025
New Year, Same Bull Market?

January 13, 2025: As the new year officially gets underway, there’s the usual sense of renewed optimism and excitement over new opportunities. However, recent stock market activity is casting a shadow over this sentiment. Momentum in equity markets has recently stalled, an...

January 6, 2025
Evaluating Stock and Bond Market Predictions From 2024

January 6, 2025: With 2024 fully behind us, it’s a good time to celebrate our winning calls from last year while also reviewing some mistakes to learn from them and improve our process. The good news is we got more right than wrong last year, but there were some misses. So...

December 30, 2024
Keys to Stock Market Gains in 2025

December 30, 2024: As 2024 draws to a close, investors have fully embraced the stock market. The S&P 500 is up more than 25% year to date. The broader Russell 3000 Index is up 24%. The Nasdaq Composite is up over 31%. Even the laggards are up double-digits with 12% and 14% a...