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Category: Market Updates

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June 17, 2024
Keep Calm and Clip Bond Coupons

June 17, 2024: With a Federal Reserve (Fed) meeting, a Bank of Japan (BOJ) meeting, two very important inflation reports, and nearly $120 billion of new Treasury securities auctioned — last week was quite the week for markets. And while the Fed meeting was supposed to get ...

June 10, 2024
India at the Crossroads

June 10, 2024: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent victory in the national elections was muted at best. While he secured a rare third term in the nation’s highest office, his decisive legislative supermajority failed to materialize. Modi has made revitalizing th...

June 3, 2024
Adjusting the Sector Sails

June 3, 2024: To say May was an eventful month for the market is an understatement. Investors navigated around the latter half of first-quarter earnings, a breakout to record highs for the broader market, elevated volatility across fixed income and currency markets, and a mi...

May 28, 2024
Earnings Are Doing Their Part

May 28, 2024: The first quarter earnings season is largely in the books, and it was excellent. In fact, S&P 500 earnings per share (EPS) would have been up double digits in the quarter if not for a big loss Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY) absorbed in an acquisition. Even with tha...

May 13, 2024
Preferred Securities: Still Our Preferred Non-Core Bond Sector

May 13, 2024: It continues to be a challenging environment for a lot of fixed income markets, especially higher quality markets. With the Federal Reserve (Fed) seemingly unlikely to lower interest rates until after the summer months (at the earliest), the “higher for longe...

May 6, 2024
Sell in May? Maybe Not. Is It More Rhyme Than Reason?

May 6, 2024: “Sell in May and Go Away” is one of the most widely used maxims on Wall Street. There is no shortage of financial media coverage on this topic as the calendar turns to May. However, this phrase may be more rhyme than reason, as stocks tend to trade higher du...

April 29, 2024
That Was Quite a Week: A Pivotal One for the Markets

Last week was a pivotal one for markets, with the S&P 500 coming off a 3% weekly decline the week before. In terms of economic data, we got our first look at first quarter gross domestic product (GDP) as well as the March reading of the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) favorite inf...

April 22, 2024
Volatility Is Back: Understanding Ever-Changing Market Narrative

April 22, 2024: Volatility has come back into the market as the narrative shifted toward a higher-for-longer monetary policy backdrop. Signs of sticky inflation and a resilient economy, including a strong labor market, have underpinned the change in expectations. Yields have...

April 15, 2024
Revisiting Energy: How Rate Cuts Could Benefit the Space

April 15, 2024: As the first quarter earnings season kicked off on April 12, expectations for the energy sector were decidedly negative. That low bar has tempted analysts to forecast a series of positive surprises as recent data releases for both the U.S. and China suggest a...

April 8, 2024
What to Watch This Earnings Season

April 8, 2024: First quarter earnings season kicks off this week with several big banks reporting this Friday, including sector bellwether JPMorgan Chase (JPM). This quarter will seem quite similar to the fourth in terms of growth and drivers, with mega cap technology leadin...

April 1, 2024
IPOs as a Market Tell: What a Recent Uptick Could Mean

April 1, 2024: The initial public offering (IPO) market allows institutional investors to incorporate the macroeconomic landscape with individual corporate earnings data — and future earnings forecasts — to ascertain a share price that will hold up to analyst and media s...

March 25, 2024
Navigating the Strategic Investing Landscape: The Differences

March 25, 2024: The difference between strategic and tactical investment time horizons can be likened to the ebb and flow of tidal patterns in oceans. Strategic investing mirrors the steady rise and fall of the tides, focusing on long-term goals and expectations more stable ...