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Category: Market Updates

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December 18, 2023
Key Equity Themes Underlying U.S. Stock Market Outlook for 2024

December 18, 2023: Following the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) aggressive rate-hiking campaign in 2022 and 2023, stocks are entering a phase in which the market narrative is focused on interest-rate stability — as inflation, we believe, comes down further. Low and stable inter...

December 11, 2023
Discord in the OPEC+ Oil Patch

December 11, 2023: Despite a heavy lobbying effort to cajole OPEC+ members to agree to a unified cut in oil production, Saudi Arabia, the de facto leader of the energy cartel, was unable to orchestrate anything more than pledges on a “voluntary” basis. Accordingly, bench...

December 4, 2023
Market Opportunities Amid An Economic Rotation

December 4, 2023: Opportunities abound in the markets, even during periods when the economy appears ripe for a regime shift. Recent growth metrics surprised to the upside, but leading indicators point toward some downside risk. In this edition of the Weekly Market Commentary...

November 20, 2023
Anatomy of a Market Rally: Looking at Key Catalysts

November 20, 2023: As the market appears to be taking a rest and consolidating its $2.7 trillion rally leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday, the historical pattern over the last five years suggests the shortened holiday week typically enjoys modest gains. With concerns ove...

November 13, 2023
Is the Stock Market Correction Over?

November 13, 2023: There is nothing like an eight-day winning streak to change the market narrative. Stocks have quickly gone from a correction to a comeback this month, and the S&P 500 is now challenging key resistance at 4,400. While a confirmed breakout above this level r...

November 6, 2023
Can Muni Investors Catch a Break? We Think So

November 6, 2023: It’s been another volatile year for municipal (muni) investors this year. While generally outperforming U.S. Treasuries, the Bloomberg Muni Index is on track for its second calendar year of negative returns—something that has never happened before. But,...

October 30, 2023
Possible Halloween Scares for Markets and the Economy

October 30, 2023: It’s a tradition here to write about what scares us around Halloween each year. The past few years have offered plenty of material to use in these annual commentaries, but with wars in Israel and Ukraine ongoing, Washington, D.C. dysfunction reaching new ...

October 23, 2023
Economic Impact: Can Something Good Come from a Crisis?

October 23, 2023: Despite headwinds, the U.S. could experience structural changes in the labor market, residential real estate, and inflation as the post-pandemic economy progresses into the New Year. As markets adjust to a new regime, investors should recognize the economy ...

October 16, 2023
Earnings Hope to Keep This One-Year-Old Bull Market Going

October 16, 2023: Earnings season has kicked off with several of the big banks and a handful of other blue-chip companies having already reported results for their calendar third quarters. The key headline this reporting season will be the (likely) end of the earnings recess...

October 10, 2023
Yields Higher for Longer: Why We’re Updating Our Treasury Forecast

October 9, 2023: U.S. Treasury yields have seemingly been moving in one direction lately (higher), with the 30-year Treasury yield temporarily breaching 5% for the first time since 2007. The move higher in yields (lower in price) has been unrelenting, with intermediate and l...

October 4, 2023
Prospects for a Fourth Quarter Rally

October 2, 2023: After a difficult September for stocks, investors are surely ready to flip the calendar to October. That’s the month that kicks off the historically strong fourth quarter. Expecting this pattern to repeat this year is tricky given the overhang of a governm...

September 25, 2023
Is India the New China?

India has emerged as a compelling economic growth story and an increasingly attractive alternative to China within the emerging markets complex. A growing population with a robust and young workforce, significant infrastructure spending, and an ongoing digital transformatio...